My earlier contribution to this discussion of the letter containing Secret Mark is headed “Morton Smith—Forger”. My task was to present, as fairly as I could, the argument that the letter is Morton Smith’s modern forgery. I conscientiously tried to do this. But here I must confess that as I read the arguments and researched the issues, I could not help but conclude that Morton Smith was being very badly treated. So here let me state my own candid conclusion.

It seems to me the very plethora …