Kata Markon

["L. J. Swain" <larry.swain AT wmich.edu>]

JFAlward AT aol.com wrote:

> The explanation for the flight of the naked young man is more likely to be
> the one which requires the least speculation.  Now, given that Mark has 
> based
> almost all of the betrayal and arrest story on the Old Testament
> (http://sol.sci.uop.edu/~jfalward/David_and_Jesus.htm), we should look to
> scripture for an explanation.
>
> We find it, I believe, in Isaiah and Lamentations:
>
> ”Your nakedness will be exposed and your shame uncovered."  (Isaiah 
> 47:3Â )
>
> "Jerusalem has sinned greatly and so has become unclean. All who honored 
> herÂ
> despise her, for they have seen her nakedness." (Lamentations 1:8)
>
> Thus, Mark's young man symbolizes Jerusalem's shame in degrading the son of
> God.  Why can't it be that simple?
>
> Stephen Pimlott suggested that Mark had in mind Amos 2:16
>
> "Even the bravest warriors will flee naked on that day," declares the LORD."
> (Amos 2:16 NIV)
>
> Quoting Stephen: "This would mean that the young man represents the bravest,
> the pinnacle of the old Israel, but even he runs away naked."
>
> I don't think this foundation is as solid as Isaiah and Lamentations.  Mark
> says nothing about this young man that would allow his readers to conclude
> that the young man was brave, or the "pinnacle of old Israel."  Stephen's
> explanation requires more guessing and how-it-could-have-been speculation
> than mine, I believe, and therefore is less satisfactory.
>
> Regards,
>
> Joe Alward
>
> ---

In determining what an author is doing in a text we must deal with at least 
four
areas: is here merely alluding to a previous text, is a previous text the 
source
of the current text, is the author imitating (memesis) a previous text, is the
author reporting tradition, or is the author inventing.  I guess that makes 
five.
Or some combination of the above processes.  I'm not convinced that Mark was
constructing scenes based on nebulous, distant allusions.  If we must scour 
the
Hebrew Bible to find appropriate references, then it is likely that the scene 
as
constructed at best alludes to, rather than is based on, the texts that we 
find.
The purpose of a scene which is constructed to deliberately recall a previous 
text
is that the text the author wishes the reader to recall should be a fairly 
obvious
one, not one they have to scour the source text for.

Larry Swain