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gmark - Re: Flight of the Naked Young Man

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Subject: Kata Markon

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  • From: Steve Black <sblack AT axionet.com>
  • To: Kata Markon <gmark AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Flight of the Naked Young Man
  • Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2001 06:23:44 -0800


It is improbable that the young man represents the Jewish leadership, or Jerusalem - that is an arbitrary assignment of meaning with no basis in the text itself! The young man is clearly to be associated with the disciples, a very important group within the overall plot of the narrative.

Historically this young man was seen a a cameo appearance (I can't help but think of Hitchcock...) of the evangelist himself. This view is not popular in scholarship any more, if for no other reason than it seems clear that the gospel was NOT written by an eye-witness.

So who is this man, and what's the point of his appearance?

The theory of Canonical Mark being a shortened version of Secret Mark, with this episode as a leftover is indeed suggestive. It seems more plausible, however, to see Secret Mark as itself being inspired by this odd incident.

The very strangeness and "disconnectedness" of the story may be suggestive of something in the tradition that Mark received, but who knows.

Sometimes its best to simply say we don't know. This is perhaps one of the weirdest little spots in GMark - perhaps it will just have to remain as such.

I have to say as a closing remark, that I think we can get overly wooden and rigid in attempts to find literary parallels for every poricope in the gospel. Was there no tradition from which Mark drew materials?
--
Steve Black

Dig deep for dreams, or you will be toppled by slogans...
ee cumings




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