The discovery of new texts always sends shockwaves through the academic community.

In 1958, Morton Smith, a professor of ancient history at Columbia University, made such a discovery.

While cataloging a monastery library, he found a copy of a previously unknown letter written by Clement of Alexandria,

which contained within it passages from a likewise unknown Gospel of Mark.

Shockingly, Smith later concluded that one of these passages was evidence for a homosexual encounter

between Jesus and one of his followers. In this week's episode, we're discussing the discovery

of this amazing text, what it actually says, and how scholars have interpreted the intriguing

passages it contains.

Stay tuned for all of that and so much more.

Welcome to Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman.

The only show, where a six-time New York Times bestselling author and world-renowned Bible scholar

uncovers the many fascinating, little-known facts about the New Testament,

the historical Jesus, and the rise of Christianity.

I'm your host, Megan Lewis. Let's begin.

When you're a scholar of the New Testament and early Christianity,

the texts you work with don't really change that often.

The New Testament is, well, the New Testament.

So finding a new text truly is the discovery of a lifetime.

Today we're talking about fragments of the so-called secret gospel of Mark, discovered in

1958 and their controversial interpretation. Before that, however, Bart, hi, how are you doing?

Yes, I'm doing okay, thanks.

Not bad.

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