This assumption has been contested by, among others, Scott G. Brown, who writes that apart from “a scholar discovering a previously unknown ancient Christian manuscript at Mar Saba, there are few parallels” – and in a rebuttal to Evans, he and Allan J. Pantuck find the alleged parallel between the Scotland Yard detective Lord Moreton's last name and Morton Smith's first name puzzling, since Morton Smith got his name long before the novel was written.