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gmark - Re: Mark's Young Man is Homer's Elpenor

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Subject: Kata Markon

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  • From: "Ray Pickett" <rpickett AT lsps.edu>
  • To: "Kata Markon" <gmark AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Mark's Young Man is Homer's Elpenor
  • Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2001 15:05:50 -0800

 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2001 12:19 PM
Subject: [gmark] Mark's Young Man is Homer's Elpenor


MacDonald believes Mark uses the young man to foreshadow Jesus' death.   The
Greek-speaking readers of his time would know the traditional story of the
naked Elpenor's going off to Hades, so they would connect the presence of the
naked young man with death--or the foreshadowing of a death.  At Jesus'
capture, Mark has this young man appear out of nowhere, lose his clothes (his
soul sheds his body), and run away. The young man symbolizes Jesus, and the
loss of his clothes represents Jesus' death.   After the foreshadowing of
Jesus' death by the flight of the naked young man, Jesus is taken away and
killed, but MacDonald says that Mark is not yet done with that young man; he
will bring him back to his readers later, when he puts him in Jesus' empty
tomb.  (Excerpted from "Odysseus and Jesus" at
http://sol.sci.uop.edu/~jfalward/Odysseus_and_Jesus_Visit_Hades.html)
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Pickett response:
 
Well, I guess that's a possibility, but it sure seems to assume a lot on the part of the audience. My interpretation is based more on internal evidence regarding what appears to me to be a baptismal motif in Mark. I addition to Mark's account of Jesus' baptism evoking associations with their own baptism, the passion predictions in 8-10, which I take to be a catechetical section  (similar to Via, though he doesn't acknowledge the baptismal theme), expound the values and conduct befitting those who would identify with Jesus in death. The third passion prediction is followed by an explicit reference to baptism (10:35-45) and the alternative notions of honor/power which are presented as normative for the community.
 
As a number of responses have indicated, this enigmatic figure or symbol can lead to endless speculation. But Mark's narrative is so tight, that in order for an interpretation of any particulary pericope to be persuasive it needs to relate somehow to how the narrative works as a whole. In that respect I guess it is ultimately a matter of what we think about the rhetorical strategy or use of this Gospel in its original setting.
 
Regards,
 
Ray Pickett



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