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Naked fugitive

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Antonio da Correggio, The Betrayal of Christ, with a soldier in pursuit of Mark the Evangelist, c. 1522

The naked fugitive (or naked runaway or naked youth) is an unidentified figure mentioned briefly in the Gospel of Mark, immediately after the arrest of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and the fleeing of all his disciples:

A certain young man was following him, wearing nothing but a linen cloth. They caught hold of him, but he left the linen cloth and ran off naked.[1]

The parallel accounts in the other canonical Gospels make no mention of this incident.

The wearing of a single cloth (Greek: σινδόνα, sindona) would not have been indecent or extraordinary, and there are many ancient accounts of how easily such garments would come loose, especially with sudden movements.[2]

Identity

Since ancient times, many have speculated on the identity of this young man, proposing:

A later verse in Mark, "And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe,"[9] is often connected to the passage by allegorical readers of (in the words of Howard M. Jackson) the "symbolism school".[10]

The naked fugitive has been speculated to originate in a possible Passion narrative that pre-dates the gospel of Mark. In such an early document, anonymity of the fugitive may have protected this individual from official persecution.[11]: Note 8[2]: 184

In literature

American writer Lew Wallace incorporated the episode of the naked fugitive into the narrative of his novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1880). In chapter VIII of the eighth book, the novel's main hero is captured amidst Gethsemane events and flees naked.[12] This is purely a literary device as Judah Ben-Hur is a fictional character.

See also

References

  1. Back to citation "Bible Gateway passage: Mark 14:51 - New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition". Bible Gateway. Retrieved 16 December 2024.
  2. Back to citation occurrence 2.0 Back to citation occurrence 2.1 Bauckham, Richard (2017). Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony. Wm. B. Eerdmans. ISBN 978-1-4674-4680-8.
  3. Back to citation Epiphanius of Salamis, Panarion 78.13.2
  4. Back to citation Ambrose, Exp. Ps. 36 60.
  5. Back to citation Chrysologus, Peter (2005). "Sermon 78". Selected Sermons. CUA Press. pp. 31–. ISBN 978-0-8132-0110-8.
  6. Back to citation Allen, Rupert (2008). "Mark 14,51-52 and Coptic Hagiography" (PDF). Biblica. 89 (2): 265–268. JSTOR 42614826. Allen studies the origins of this theory and finds it first mentioned in a 13th-century manuscript.
  7. Back to citation Haren, M. J. (1998). "The naked young man: a historian's hypothesis on Mark 14,51-52". Biblica. 79 (4): 525–531. JSTOR 42614166.
  8. Back to citation Waetjen, Herman (1965). "The Ending of Mark and the Gospel's Shift in Eschatology". Annual of the Swedish Theological Institute, Volume 4. pp. 114–131. doi:10.1163/9789004665156_008. ISBN 978-90-04-00096-4.
  9. Back to citation Mk 16:5
  10. Back to citation Jackson, Howard M. (1997). "Why the Youth Shed His Cloak and Fled Naked: The Meaning and Purpose of Mark 14:51-52". Journal of Biblical Literature. 116 (2): 273–289. doi:10.2307/3266224. JSTOR 3266224.
  11. Back to citation Cook, Michael J. (1978). Mark's Treatment of the Jewish Leaders. Brill. p. 54. ISBN 90-04-05785-4.
  12. Back to citation https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2145/2145-h/2145-h.htm#chap79
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