Morton Smith | |
|---|---|
 Morton Smith, teaching a graduate seminar on Paul at Columbia University in 1989. | |
| Born | May 28, 1915 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | July 11, 1991 (aged 76) |
| Occupation | Historian |
| Academic background | |
| Education | Harvard University Hebrew University (Ph.D.) Harvard Divinity School (Th.D.) |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Biblical scholar |
| Institutions | Columbia University |
| Main interests | Mar Saba letter |
| Notable works | Jesus the Magician |
Morton Smith (May 28, 1915 – July 11, 1991)[1][2] was an American professor of ancient history at Columbia University. He is best known for his reported discovery of the Mar Saba letter, a letter attributed to Clement of Alexandria containing excerpts from a Secret Gospel of Mark, during a visit to the monastery at Mar Saba in 1958. This letter fragment has had many names, from The Secret Gospel through The Mar Saba Fragment and the Theodoros.
- ^ Neusner, Jacob, Christianity, Judaism, and other Greco-Roman Cults. Part 1: New Testament, ed. J. Neusner, Studies for Morton Smith at Sixty, vol 1, New Testament (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1975), p. ix.
- ^ Calder III, William M. “Smith, Morton”, in Biographical Dictionary of North American Classicists, Ward W. Briggs, Jr., (ed.) (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994), p. 600.