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gmark - Re: Flight of the Naked Young Man

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Subject: Kata Markon

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  • From: "S.J.Pimlott" <S.J.Pimlott AT bham.ac.uk>
  • To: gmark AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: Flight of the Naked Young Man
  • Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2001 11:51:18 -0000




I don't think that (Isaiah 47:3, Lamentations 1:8) could be the background
references to the
young man who runs away naked. They would require a female.

I would like to make the following suggestion and would be pleased to hear
people's reactions.

I think Mark has in the back of his mind Amos 2:16 'and he who is stout of
heart among
the mighty shall flee away naked in that day," says the LORD.'
This would mean that the young man represents the the bravest, the pinnacle
of
the old Israel, but even he runs away naked. The young man then reappears in
the tomb and becomes the link man between the old and new Israel as he points
the reader to Galilee and the risen Christ.

A feature that is strange about the women coming to the tomb on that first
Easter
morning is that they are coming with spices to annoint the body, but that
they
know they cannot get to the body because there is a hugh stone over the tomb
which is too big for them to move. The strangeness of this alerts the reader
to the
fact that there is something more going on than what is contained by a
surface
reading. Rolling the stone away recalls Jacob and the betrothal scene by the
well
in Genesis 29. The young man points the women and the reader to Galilee to
meet the risen Christ. In other words he points the reader back to the
beginning
of the Gospel to read it again with new eyes, this time to see the risen
Christ.
When he turns back to the beginning of the Gospel, what does the reader see,
but Jesus coming up out of the water at his baptism (out of the well, out of
the
tomb, as the bridegroom coming to meet his bride, the new Israel, the
Church).
So Mark, far from not having an account of Jesus' resurrection allows the
reader
on his second reading into the tomb to watch the resurrection take place as
he
sees Jesus come up out of the water at his baptism.

When one sees it this way, the strange ending of Mark at 16:8 falls into
place and
also the reason why Mark does not want to include the birth and infancy
narratives.

I should be interested in any reactions to this.

Fr. Stephen Pimlott
Catholic Chaplain
Birmingham University






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