In 1958, Morton Smith photographed a manuscript that has haunted scholars ever since. This text—allegedly a previously unknown letter of Clement of Alexandria—appeared within a 1646 edition of Vossius, housed at the Mar Saba monastery, and has since been a lightning rod for controversy. I recently revisited the original photographs Smith took of this manuscript, and though I lack the technical expertise to solve all the lingering questions, I believe these photos reveal important physical evidence that undermines the charge that Smith forged the text. Initially, my inquiry focused on whether the alignment of the right margin might indicate that the page was bound before the manuscript was written.  In most books, a pre-existing binding will subtly shape how text aligns along the edge, but something even more interesting emerged from the photographs—something about the condition of the paper itself. Upon closer inspection, it became clear that the physical state of the pages suggests th