How does the Catholic Church explain the omission of identity of the young man referred to in Mk 14:51?
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How does the Catholic Church explain the omission of identity of the young man referred to in Mk 14:51?
Yes there are several interpretations as to who this young man may have been. The Church offers no definitive answer to this equation.
Being a Catholic all my life and having been in a Catholic seminary for four years, I can confirm that the majority of Catholic theologians consider the young man to be St. Mark himself.
When one of Jesus’ followers (“a certain young man”) is captured at the same time Jesus is being arrested (in Mark 14:51-52), but then leaves his garment behind as he escapes naked, Pakaluk is able to make sense of the strange detail.
“It seems that this young man is Mark himself,” he writes. “It is a detail too small to include otherwise, and it seems unlikely that anyone else would have noticed it in the darkness and confusion. The telling of the incident has a humorous tone of self-congratulation, which is difficult to account for if it is someone other than Mark.”
Can you imagine if you had been the follower of Jesus who was apprehended at the same time as him, but then slipped away from your captors by wriggling free of your clothes? No doubt you would be wryly retelling that unique story for the rest of your life.
Pakaluk notes how the episode is only self-congratulatory for Mark in the same way that Peter ironically notes his own shortcomings: “The detail is humorous, and if written by Mark, self-depreciating.” - St. Peter’s memoirs: a vivid take on a familiar Gospel (The BC Catholic)
The Betrayal of Christ, with a soldier in pursuit of Mark the Evangelist
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Roman Catholic Scholarship here does not specifically identify the person, but mentions how Church Fathers have identified different men, and also gives the modern identification.
51-52. This enigmatic detail is found exclusively in Mk. Its purpose is elusive; but it heightens the desertion of Jesus by his own. The young man is not identified; idle conjectures have named various candidates: John the Apostle (Ambrose, Chrysostom, Bede); James, “the brother of the Lord” (Epiphanius); John Mark (many modern commentators). -- Brown, R. E., Fitzmyer, J. A., & Murphy, R. E. (1996). The Jerome Biblical commentary (Vol. 2, p. 55). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
The modern identification as the author, John Mark, is based on how John identifies himself in his gospel.
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The young man was not St. Mark, but there has been speculation of his identity:
Cornelius à Lapide, S.J., commentating on St. Mark's Gospel 14:51, writes:
Ver. 51. And a certain young man followed him having a linen cloth cast round about his naked body; and they laid hold on him. That is, he was clothed (amictus, Vulg.) with a linen vest over his naked body. It is plain, from the word amictus, that this piece of linen was a kind of linen garment, fitting the body, but so that it might easily be put on and off the back. This is also clear from Pollux, who calls the linen cloth περιβόλαιον, i.e., a veil, a cloak, a covering.
You will ask who this young man was:
- S. Epiphanius (Hæres. 78) and S. Jerome, or whoever the author is on Ps. 38, think that he was James the Lord’s brother.
- Bede and S. Chrysostom, S. Ambrose, S. Gregory, and Baronius think it was S. John; for he was a youth, and the youngest of the Apostles. But that it was neither John nor James, nor any of the Apostles, is plain from this, that Mark has just before said, ver. 50, then all His disciples, meaning Apostles, forsook Him and fled.
- Theophylact and Euthymius think that the young man was someone from the house of John Mark, in which Christ had eaten the Passover.
- And more probably, Cajetan (in Jentaculis) and others conjecture that this young man was a member or servant of a house adjacent to the garden, who, being awoke by the noise made by those who were apprehending Christ as they passed by, rose up from his bed, and ran to see what was being done. That he was a favourer or disciple of Christ appears from what Mark says, he followed Him. Wherefore also the officers laid hold of him i.e., they wished to hold him by seizing his garment. The Hebrew active verbs often signify commencement and effort.
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