Question:
After they arested Jesus there was a boy following them.
Who was he and where was he from?
I just want to understand what Mark 14:51 says.
Answer:
In Mark 14:50-52 we read:
⁵⁰And they all forsook him, and fled.
⁵¹And there followed him a certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and the young men laid hold on him:
⁵²And he left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked.
Or in other words:
⁵⁰And they all went away from him in fear.
⁵¹And a certain young man went after him, with only a linen cloth about his body; and they put their hands on him;
⁵²But he got away unclothed, without the linen cloth.
Let us look at this part by part to get a proper understanding.
⁵⁰And they all forsook him, and fled.
This tells us that all who were with Jesus fled away from Him in fear. When we think about this, this was a very human reaction, for when you are in danger, where could you ever be safer than close to your Lord.?!
When panic strikes people do crazy things.
Like these days some people storing up hundreds of rolls of toilet paper. (What are they thinking?)
But it had to happen this way, as this foretold. It was the 8th Old Testament prophesy that Mark showed us being fulfilled. They all left Him as it was prophesied in Mark 14:27 where Jesus said:
All ye shall be offended because of me this night:
for it is written, I will smite the shepherd,
and the sheep shall be scattered.
After what was written in Zechariah 13:7
Awake, O sword, against my shepherd,
and against the man that is my fellow,
saith the LORD of hosts:
smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered:
and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.
⁵¹And there followed him a certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and the young men laid hold on him:
A certain young man.
To the writer it seems to be of no importance to mention his name. And in fact it doesn’t make any difference for our salvation, if we know who it was or not.
We only see here a follower of the Christ who hardly could escape from the mob that came after the Christ.
Some think that it might have been Lazarus
- Because the Lord had returned to Bethany where Lazarus lived each preceding night of that week.
- Because Lazarus was called His friend, who may have followed Him from Bethany.
- Because of the linen robe
- And because Lazarus too was wanted by the chief priests, as we read in John 12:10 “But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death”.
- None of the apostles were arrested, but they tried to capture this man.
- Maybe Lazarus’ name was not given, because he was still wanted, and so, still in danger.
The linen cloth or robe
This is translated from the Greek word σινδών, sindon (pronounced as sin–done’). The word is of uncertain, perhaps foreign origin. It was:
- A linen cloth, especially that which was fine and costly, and could point to a certain social position.
- It was a cloth in which the bodies of the dead were wrapped.
- It was a light and loose garment worn at night over a naked body. Similar to a pyjama we wear during the night in our days. And apparently he did not take time to dress himself first after he heard of the arrest.
The young men laid hold on him.
Some translated this as “a soldier laid hold on him, or caught him”. Which could also be, as soldiers usually are young man, but it also could have been a young man from the mob.
⁵²And he left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked.
pparently he was caught by his clothes, but left the cloth in the hands of the man who caught him, and ran away naked.
But as I said in the beginning: all speculations about who this might have been is useless and without any value as it doesn’t make any difference for your salvation, if you know, or don’t know who it was doesn’t matter.
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