Morton Smith (1915-1991) was an American professor of ancient history at Columbia University, who has written other books such as THE SECRET GOSPEL. He wrote in the Preface to this 1978 book, "Jesus the magician" was the figure seen by most ancient opponents of Jesus... "Jesus the Son of God" is pictured in the gospels; the works that pictured "Jesus the magician" were destroyed in antiquity after Christians got control of the Roman empire... This book is an attempt to correct this bias by reconstructing the lost picture from the preserved fragments and related material, mainly from the magical papyri, that New Testament scholarship has also generally ignored." (Pg. vii)He notes, "No classical Israelite prophet of Yahweh ever hesitated to declare, "Yahweh has sent me"; but Jesus is never said to have said so---not in so many words. The synoptics put the claim in his mouth, but only indirectly. John, of course, remedied the oversight---repeatedly! ... why refuse? Whoever told the story showing his cleverness in avoiding an answer [in Mk 11:27-33] must have thought he had something to conceal. What did they think his secret was? Or what did he think it was, that made him unwilling to declare it? And why did he NEVER say, "Thus saith the Lord"?" (Pg. 37)