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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Phyllis Jestice <[log in to unmask]> wrote:medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Today (25. April) is the feast day of: Mark (the evangelist) (d. c. 75) The writer of the second gospel (earliest chronologically) has been identified with the young man who had such an unimpressive performance when Jesus was arrested---he ran away and got his clothes ripped off in the process (Mark 14:51-2) Respondeo Oriens: This is possible, but there are other explanations of this rather puzzling passage. It is recorded only in Mark, which gives rise to the suggestion that the young man was Mark himself; but perhaps the other evangelists omit it simply because it is so puzzling and apparently inconsequential. Few New Testament scholars, I think, would agree that Mark was an eye-witness of the events he describes; there is a whole industry of scholarship speculating how the various pericopes (short sections of text) were transmitted to Mark, which would become otiose if we supposed that Mark was actually present when the events took place! Mark may have seen in the episode a fulfilment of the prophecy of Amos 2:16, "The bravest warriors will run away naked that day". Some scholars have poo-pooed this, but it seems to me consistent enough with Mark's usual way of including fulfilled scripture references. He does not usually "spell them out". If Matthew had included this passage, he would no doubt have said, "Thus came to pass what was written by the prophet Amos"; but this is not Mark's way. Another possible text which has been suggested as an antecedent is Genesis 39:12, Joseph running away leaving his tunic in the hand of Potiphar's wife; but this seems to me rather far-fetched. However, I speak as a mere amateur in the field of biblical exegesis; we have Dr Bob on hand, who can perhaps be encouraged to give us a more scientific account of the passage. Dr Bill. ===== ____________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Messenger - Communicate instantly..."Ping" your friends today! Download Messenger Now http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com/download/index.html ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html