La Lettera di Mar Saba fu trovata in un antico libro nella biblioteca del convento nel 1958, fu fotografata da Morton Smith e rimessa nel libro, quindi la notizia della scoperta fu data nel 1960 ma fino al 1973, per svariati motivi, non ebbe la risonanza che avrebbe meritato nel mondo accademico. Fin dall'inizio la scoperta destò scetticismo in numerosi studiosi, che si divisero fra coloro che la credevano autentica e quelli che la ritenevano un falso.[4]
Il libro fu trasferito nella Biblioteca Patriarcale Greco-Ortodossa di Gerusalemme e da quel momento non si ebbero più notizie della lettera, che non fu più ritrovata.[5]
Heroes and Gods: Spiritual Biographies in Antiquity (con Moses Hadas, 1965)
Palestinian Parties and Politics That Shaped the Old Testament (1971)
Clement of Alexandria and a Secret Gospel of Mark (1973)
The Secret Gospel (1973)
The Ancient History of Western Civilization (con Elias Bickerman, 1976)
Jesus the Magician: Charlatan or Son of God? (1978)
Hope and History (1980)
Studies in the Cult of Yahweh. Vol. 1. Historical Method, Ancient Israel, Ancient Judaism. Vol. 2. New Testament, Early Christianity, and Magic (con Shaye J. D. Cohen, 1996)
What the Bible Really Says (con Joseph Hoffmann, 1992).
^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.
«Morton Smith, a professor of history at Columbia University for nearly three decades and an authority on religions and magic in the ancient world, died on Thursday at his home in Manhattan. He was 76 years old. He died of heart failure, university officials said. Professor Smith was best known for his report in 1960 of what he said was a secret Gospel of the Apostle Mark, from which he theorized that Jesus might have been a magician rather than a Hebrew rabbi and that magic rituals played an important role in fledgling Christianity.»