Is it more noble to defend an innocent man or convict a guilty man?

[Secret Alias]

That's what it comes down to for me with Morton Smith. Let's say we don't know the answer for sure as to whether he is guilty or innocent. It just seems more dignified to defend the innocent than convict the guilty. All things being equal. You know what Nietzsche said. Never trust those in whom the instinct to punish is strong.

[StephenGoranson]

In a court of law, at least in some courts, neither prosecution nor defense is necessarily presumed more noble.

This is not a court of law, and this forum has no legal right nor ability to punish anyone (other than a ban by the list owner); in any case, a deceased person, and perhaps (?) one unlikely in life to have chosen defense by you.

Those Smith most highly respected--Scholem, Nock, Lieberman--did not defend his "Secret Mark."

A pretendedly-noble defense based on a claim that a professor who has published respected work, which Smith otherwise surely did, would never do something dishonest can be answered, for example, by two words:
Dirk Obbink.

[Secret Alias]

Surely Christianity is based on the superiority of showing mercy.

[StephenGoranson]

Mercy by accepting a falsehood?

[Secret Alias]

All things being equal it's preferable to side with mercy.

[Secret Alias]

Better to let a guilty man free than harm an innocent man.

[StephenGoranson]

Again, this is not a court of law.
But if you have decided to act mercifully, well.

[Secret Alias]

No it was necessary. It was necessary when they were telling lies about Morton Smith. And now it is necessary again when I speak to Atanas Madjoucoff's family. Apparently they wrote to the Atlantic bitterly complaining about the manner in which their dead father was used as part of this proxy war against the document. The two points that came up today in my conversation were that this line in particular "It wasn’t the sort of portrait that men she knew kept of other men" should not have been attributable to the mother. He said that it wasn't that the content was sexy or seedy. She just wondered why he didn't take the picture and the person relaying the information used the wrong wording. There was also other things but I will save that for later. The overall sense was that Ariel had an agenda and he cherry picked the evidence to suit his agenda. Some people (a general statement not specifically about Ariel) think it is fair to through human reputations under the bus to achieve their desired goals. Making an innocent man, (a statement specific to Sabar) Madjoucoff, Morton Smith's lover to "assist" the efforts to attack the document is not right. But it was done once before with Morton Smith. The acceptance by Mark Goodacre of Sabar's allegations about Madjoucoff mirrors the original approach by his protege with respect to Morton Smith. Can't kill the document, kill the reputations of Morton Smith and those related to him. It's sick. It's not criminal. It's just inhuman. The family does not think that their dad was Morton Smith's lover. Morton Smith saved their family from being faceless refugees wandering the earth without any hope any citizenship any belonging. Can't speak highly enough about Morton Smith and wonder why Sabar didn't mention the fact that they were refugees and the fact that their grandfather was a monk (probably at Mar Saba who worked as a translator). The guy I spoke to suggested that the grandfather might have been Smith's original contact at Mar Saba. Ariel apparently chose a different reassembly of the facts. Who is right isn't clear. But if you aren't sure about the facts, why present an uncertain version of history?

[Secret Alias]

I find it more likely that Morton Smith met Atanas Madjoucoff's father at Mar Saba or through his landlord requested him to be his translator in 1951 and was told to take his son instead than the inuendo of the Atlantic article. Call me naive.

[Secret Alias]

I was told by a family member that their grandfather was a monk in a monastery around Jerusalem that he married their mother and left the monastery only to go back to the monastery later. How many active Greek monasteries are there in the Jerusalem area? From my notes from the conversation today: "Another source in the family said that he did translations for the monastery even though he left the monastery to marry their mother. XXXX thought it was possible. Ariel apparently didn't like that angle of approach."