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Find the answers to all those questions you were too embarrassed to ask in Sunday School. Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. Hosted by Luke Taylor.
The Naked Man in the Garden when Jesus was Arrested (Mark 14)
Mark 14
Introduction
So, something really strange happened when Jesus was being arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane.
This is the night that Jesus was put on trial, and the next day He was nailed to the cross. So there’s a lot going on. it’s a very heavy section of scripture. And there’s one detail that’s only recorded in one of the four Gospels.
Mark 14:51 and 52 say
51 And a young man followed him, with nothing but a linen cloth about his body. And they seized him, 52 but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked.
Now if you’re a normal, well-adjusted person, you probably read a strange verse like that, you say: “well that’s weird”- and then you just move along with your Bible reading.
But the listeners of this podcast are not normal, well-adjusted people.
So let’s figure out today what’s up with the naked man who shows up in the garden when Jesus was arrested.
Because I find it to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.
Turn to Mark 14, and let’s get weird.
[theme music]
The Context
Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. This is Luke Taylor, and today we’re going to be talking about the naked guy who shows up in Mark 14.
This episode goes out to Bill in Woodland Park, CO, who asked me about this when I went out on vacation to Colorado last month and we had a good time theorizing about it.
So let’s start as well always do by exploring the context around this strange event. This is a very well-known moment in the Bible and in history. All four Gospels tell about it.
Mark 14:32
32 And they went to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.”
And to skip ahead just a bit in the narrative, Jesus would pray and the disciples would fall asleep. He kept waking them up, but they didn’t realize the importance of the moment they were in.
Verses 43-50
43 And immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. 44 Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man. Seize him and lead him away under guard.” 45 And when he came, he went up to him at once and said, “Rabbi!” And he kissed him. 46 And they laid hands on him and seized him. 47 But one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. 48 And Jesus said to them, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? 49 Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But let the Scriptures be fulfilled.” 50 And they all left him and fled.
And there’s a whole lot we could say about all that, but I want to focus on the subject for today. I just wanted to make sure we were all on the same page about the context, so that the randomness of the next two verses can be properly understood.
The next two verses are so random, so out-of-place with everything else going on, that my ESV Study Bible puts these two in their very own section. They’re in a section that’s simply called “A Young Man Flees.” But as brief as this section is, there’s a little more to it than just “a young man fleeing.”
Mark 14:51-52 again
51 And a young man followed him, with nothing but a linen cloth about his body. And they seized him, 52 but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked.
There is no elaboration given. There is no follow-up. It just appears out of nowhere, we all get a chance to feel awkward about it for a while, and then it disappears without any explanation.
Kind of like Monkeypox.
Verse 53 does nothing to shed any light on this.
And they led Jesus to the high priest. And all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together.
So it makes no more reference to this guy, it just continues with the main narrative, the unjust arrest and trial of Jesus.
So what’s happening right here in verses 51 and 52? Well, here are some theories.
Theory 1- Simply A historical detail
Perhaps the Bible simply means exactly what it says it means.
I know that whenever we read something in the Bible that’s weird, this is often the last resort. We throw out all the ideas of what it means, why it would say something like that, what does it symbolize, what is the Bible telling us? And yet, my fallback that I usually return to is that perhaps the Bible means exactly what it says.
It’s clear, even if it’s mysterious. There was a man who was nearly nude if not for basically a sheet wrapped around him. When the disciples scattered and abandoned Jesus, the arresting soldiers tried grabbing this guy, and he ran away leaving the sheet in their hands.
It’s such an odd detail that some try to spiritualize it away and say it’s simply symbolic language.
New Testament scholar Joel Marcus, in his work on Mark, considers the young man to be a symbolic representation of the disciples' abandonment and the consequences of following Jesus. He says that nakedness represents shame, and that the Bible describes a man running away naked to describe how pathetic it was that the disciples would abandon Jesus at such a critical moment.
In other words, that this detail is so random that it likely did not literally happen but merely symbolizes shame. Again, kind of like having Monkeypox.
Now, it might be symbolic, but I also believe it literally happened. I don’t dismiss that it actually happened on the basis of it being too random or weird. I don’t think the question of whether it literally happened or whether it’s symbolism is an either-or proposition. You can see my episode on the zombies in Matthew 27 for more information about this. It was a physical reality that symbolized an even greater spiritual reality.
So if it literally happened- if the Bible means what it says it means- then why is it in here when it seems so disconnected from everything else going on- almost like a distraction?
And the reason is that this is an eyewitness account, and anytime you have eyewitness accounts, an eyewitness account includes historical details that seem random and disconnected from the main narrative.
If you like Bible trivia, here’s some for you: The Book of Mark was written by a guy named Mark… but Peter is present in so many of the stories that many also believe that Mark put together this gospel by interviewing Peter about his experiences with Jesus. So the Book of Mark draws up on Peter’s memories of what happened, as well as probably the memories of other eyewitnesses who were there when these things happened.
J. Warner Wallace, who is the author of Cold Case Christianity, drew upon his experience as a detective to state that when you’re dealing with eyewitness testimony, sometimes you have bizarre details provided that don’t really add anything to the story. They’re just mentioned because they happened.
For example, here is a totally true story that happened to me a couple months ago. I work for a Christian media company. A couple of us were going out on an assignment, we were meeting someone to talk about the giant American flag we have in town. It was a video for Memorial Day. As we’re out there recording the interview underneath this flag, this red car comes screeching around the corner, driving at full speed in a quiet little neighborhood, and smashes right into a church about 50 or a hundred yards away. Happened right in front of our eyes. Totally random. I still don’t know what happened, except it was an old lady and I suspect that her accelerator stuck and she lost control. And so we checked on her, called 911, and when the emergency services showed up, we went back to making our video and left them to it. Couldn’t tell you what happened with the lady and the church after that.
Now, if I were to tell the story of how we went and filmed the flag video, I might include a line like, “and then an old lady crashed her car into the church next door.” And that detail is something that really has nothing to do with the flag video and why we were out there that day, but I’d include it because it actually happened, and it was kind of interesting and random.
And likewise, the Gospels are full of little details that don’t always contribute to the ongoing narrative, but they’re they’re because they’re kind of interesting or simply because that’s what stuck out in the memory of whoever was telling the story.
When it comes to the four Gospels, we have the accounts of memories of at least four people who saw these things or interviewed people who saw these things.
John 21:24 says
This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things…
That’s why John includes some random details in his gospel like how he got to the tomb first before Peter did, or how they went fishing with Jesus and caught 153 fish. Those details might mean something, they might not, but they’re the hallmarks of eyewitness testimony.
As I said before, the book of Mark is probably very reliant on Peter’s testimony. And you can start putting some of these parallel accounts side-by-side with each other to gain a fuller picture of what happened. Just like, as J Warner Wallace says, when he was a detective, he’d interview multiple witnesses. Sometimes their stories wouldn’t always line up perfectly by each other, but when you talk to everybody, you can paint a clear picture of what happened.
So perhaps Peter is telling Mark about the night of the arrest of Jesus, and he says, “and then we were all running away, and there was this naked guy!” And Mark says, “oh, what was that all about?” And Peter says, “I don’t have the slightest idea why he was naked and all wrapped up in sheet, I just remember it happened.”
And maybe Matthew is writing his gospel and he’s like, “I didn’t see no naked guy, I was running the other way.” So Matthew didn’t include that detail because he didn’t see it. And that’s how eyewitness testimony works.
In his book The Reason for God, Tim Keller said, “eyewitness accounts... bear the marks of the natural, random, and circumstantial details that you expect to find in real testimony.”
NT Wright, author of Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, said (and this is a paraphrase) such details are often present because the authors were recounting real events as they remembered them.
So my first theory today as to why there’s a naked man appearing in the middle of this story of Jesus’ arrest, is because it’s an eyewitness testimony of a crazy, random thing that actually happened.
Theory 2- Mark himself
Now, I have a couple of additional theories I’d like to present to you. They do not overrule the first theory I have already given. They’re just additional ideas or insights that perhaps make a little sense of why this detail is included in Mark’s gospel.
Many scholars throw out the idea that this is Mark himself making a personal appearance in his own book. The author of Mark is also known in the Bible as John Mark. Perhaps he thought there were already enough Johns in the New Testament so he just went by Mark. And I Peter 5:13 shows that Peter and Mark were very well acquainted with each other, but it’s a bit mysterious when Mark became a follower of Jesus. Perhaps if he had interaction with Jesus prior to the cross, this was a moment right here where his life intersected with an important moment in the story of Jesus.
Tony Evans says in his commentary: Some interpreters believe this to be a veiled reference by the author to himself.
I can’t explain much more than that, except that this is the most frequently cited theory of all of my commentaries on Mark. Pure speculation, but it’s in all of them. And it may explain why he included this detail. I mean, maybe he included it because it was something Peter actually remembered happening. But still, why include it when it doesn’t seem to connect to anything else going on? Well, if it actually was Mark, this might explain why he mentioned it.
Doesn’t explain why he’s naked wrapped up in a sheet, but it does explain why such a seemingly weird and irrelevant detail was not left on the cutting room floor. Perhaps John Mark was pulling a move from Quentin Tarantino or M Knight Smahalyn and including himself in a cameo in his own movie.
Theory 3- a miracle
But let’s turn to a third theory, and this one is going to involve the element of the sheet. A linen cloth, as it said. Well, it depends what translation you use, I guess.
The ESV for Mark 15:51 said
And a young man followed him, with nothing but a linen cloth about his body.
The NIV says
A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus.
The word for linen cloth here in the Greek is sindon (sin-done). Here is the definition of that word in a Greek dictionary: linen cloth, esp. that which was fine and costly, in which the bodies of the dead were wrapped
This is the same Greek word used, for instance, where it speaks of the burial of Jesus by Joseph of Arimethea, in
Matthew 27:59
And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud
The word sindon only appears three other times in the New Testament, and every time it shows up, it refers to burial cloths.
Now, here is where it really gets weird. Why would a man present at the arrest of Jesus be wrapped in burial cloths?
Well, keep in mind something I said before about how when you take several eyewitness accounts and start layering them on top of the other- like the four Gospels- you can start to piece together the timeline in ways that you might not catch if you just heard from one of the witnesses.
There’s a story that only appears in the Gospel of John, which is actually my favorite story in the entire Bible. At this moment that they came to arrest Jesus, he said two words, and knocked 600 men on their butts.
John 18:3-5 say
3 So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons. 4 Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, “Whom do you seek?” 5 They answered him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am he.”
Now, we know right where we are in the story. But I can’t help but mention something right here: in the Greek, Jesus didn’t technically answer this question with “I am he.” He only said two words: “I am.”
Now, that’s a powerful phrase if you know your Old Testament. It brings back memories of God’s identification of Himself to Moses: I Am That I Am. It’s quite an answer. Moses is like, “Who should I say sent me? What kind of God exactly are you?” God says, “I am.” It’s a truly amazing answer.
Jesus used it as well. He said earlier in John, “Before Abraham was, I am.” I get goosebumps just saying it.
And right here, when these men come to arrest Jesus, led by Judas, this is how Jesus answers. There are 600 men right here: 500 regular soldiers and 100 special forces who have come to arrest this one unarmed man who is standing in a garden…praying.
They show up. Jesus said to them “I am,” and here’s what happened next.
John 18:6
Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. 6 When Jesus said to them, “I am,” they drew back and fell to the ground.
600 armed soldiers vs one unarmed man. Except this man is God, and He says two words, and 600 men fall to the ground. So just imagine for a moment the power that was released from Jesus when He said those two words.
When I was talking to Bill in Colorado last month, he made the comment that when Jesus rose Lazarus from the dead, the words Jesus spoke were “Lazarus, come out.” Bill remarked that perhaps if Jesus had not specified Lazarus specifically, perhaps every dead person in that tomb might have come walking out.
The Garden of Gethsamene, where Jesus was arrested, is located at the bottom of the Mount of Olives. Now, the Mount of Olives was a major burial site for the Jews. It had tombs and graves all over it, because it was outside of the city of Jerusalem, and they didn’t want to have tombs inside city limits.
So I’m going to throw this out there, which is pure speculation, but I’m throwing it out there because it makes sense of all these details. Perhaps when Jesus was approached by these men to be arrested and He said “I am” and released that power, perhaps there was a grave nearby where a young man had just been buried in a sindon, a linen cloth. Perhaps that release of power from Jesus’ mouth, that power that can knock hundreds of soldiers off their feet, caused this dead man to open his eyes and get out of that grave.
He stumbles out still in his grave clothes, because that would have been all he had on. He would be naked other than a linen sheet. He’s confused about where he is. All he knows is that he heard someone say “I am” and he woke up. He looks over and sees Jesus picking up a guy’s ear and reattaches it to his head. He joins this crowd to understand what was happening.
Suddenly they’re arresting this miracle-worker and all of His buddies start running off. One of the soldiers grabs you by the only garment you have on so you wiggle out of them and run off into the night stark naked.
Just a theory. Just something to think about that makes sense of a few of these details.
Theory 4- All of them at once I suppose
And here’s a fourth theory. My fourth theory is that it’s possible that everything I’ve said so far is correct. That this is a historical detail that was mentioned here only because Peter actually saw it and it actually happened, even if he didn’t quite understand what was going on in the moment. That Jesus released that power and rose someone from the dead right as He was about to head to his own death. And that this man in the linen cloth who came back to life was John Mark himself who wrote the second Gospel in your New Testament.
You can do what you want with this information, but this explanation for it is my favorite.
Housekeeping/Mailbag
Next time on this podcast, I’m going to tackle a question from Chris. There’s been a theory circulating online lately about the Apostle John. We’ll tell you about it next time and explore it. Make sure you’re subscribed so you can get that episode!
What weird stuff in the Bible do you want to know more about? weirdstuffinthebible@gmail.com
I had a lot of great responses to my previous episode about why John 5:4 is not in your Bible.
All three on Youtube comments. Jendor-4 says, “Your view is the most plausible in my mind!” Thank you for that comment. On that episode, like today, I’m just throwing out some ideas and you can accept whatever makes the most sense to you.
Lartin-Beats says, “I also think that maybe people knew that the water would heal people after being stirred. But only the disciples of Jesus and him knew it was an angel. So the fact that it was an angel was revealed to the writer of John. I can imagine then asking what cause the water to stir and Jesus telling them it was an angel.” Perhaps so, Lartin.
Bryce had a long comment, I won’t read all of it for the sake of time, but he says, “Verse 4 was most likely a side note that someone wrote down so that when they shared this message with someone not in that particular culture, so those people could understand. I don’t believe verse 4 is divinely inspired but it is helpful for us years after the event.”
Perhaps so, Bryce. I just tend myself to try to be very reluctant about saying anything in my Bible was not divinely inspired, that’s why I didn’t land on that view in that episode. But I know you have 100% good intentions in suggesting that and some good reasons to suggest it, so I don’t mean that judgmentally or anything. But I just hesitate to go there with it because, if we start removing anything in the Bible, I just don’t want to open a can of worms where we start justifying removing all kinds of things from scripture.
But thank you to all three of you for your comments!
Closing Thoughts
Closing thoughts, today, on the naked man in the garden when Jesus was arrested. I’m sure many of you are familiar with the fact that Jesus is called the Second Adam. Jesus has a lot of parallels between his life and the life of Adam.
For example, both had a test in a garden. Adam faced a small temptation and failed his test. Jesus faced a huge temptation and He prayed, “not my will but yours be done.” Jesus passed His test.
Adam had an angel appear to ban him from the garden. Jesus had an angel appear to strengthen Him in the garden.
Adam’s act of disobedience in the garden brought death to the whole world. Jesus’ act of obedience in the garden brought life to the whole world.
So we see all these parallels, and there are more if you go beyond this story. Adam sinned because of a tree. Jesus paid for it by dying on a tree.
But to remain in the present context: in the Garden of Eden, there was a naked man. When God showed up, he said I realized I was naked, so I ran. And when Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, there was a naked man who ran off there, too.
And that parallel could also be a good reason to include this tiny, insignificant, weird little detail about the naked man who showed up for two verses at the arrest of Jesus.
Remember that the Bible is not weird. We’re weird, because we don’t understand how eyewitness testimony works. But now we do.
Thanks for listening, God bless you for sticking around until the end, and we’ll see you next time on WSITB.