Professor Charles Hedrick, Sr.

Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies, Missouri State University

“Secret Mark: second edition or forgery?”
Monday, April 2 at 5 p.m.

“Secret Mark: the scholarly firestorm that followed…”
Thursday, April 5 at 5 p.m.

Both lectures will be held in Humanities 1, room 210
Coffee will be served before and a reception will follow each lecture

In 1973, Columbia University History Professor Morton Smith published an ancient manuscript that contended the author of the Gospel of Mark later wrote a longer second edition of his gospel. The firestorm of criticism prompted by the book eventually led to accusations that Smith had forged the document. Forty years later, the issue remains unsettled.

Read more about the Secret Gospel of Mark here.

Charles W. Hedrick (Ph.D Claremont Graduate University) is a member of the UNESCO team of scholars who reconstructed and translated the Nag Hammadi Codices, and both a translator and editor of texts in the critical edition of the collection. He is the author of numerous articles and several books including Unlocking the Secrets of the Gospel of Thomas: A Radical Faith for a New Age (Wipf and Stock, 2010), The Gospel of the Savior: A New Ancient Gospel (Polebridge, 1999), and Many Things in Parables: Jesus and his Modern Critics (Westminster, 2004). He is a Fellow of the Jesus Seminar and a retired U. S. Army Chaplain; today he explores the thin line that separates faith from apostasy in writings published on his blog: www.charleshedrick.com.

For more information on the lecture or the AIA, please contact hedrick@ucsc.edu.