Dr. Dennis MacDonald: Was The Naked Young Man Mystery Finally Explained?
The episode of the “fleeing naked young man” (neaniskos) in Mark 14:51–52 and its structural reappearance in Mark 16:5 represents a critical intersection of literary mimesis and ancient mythographic typology. Analyzing Dennis MacDonald’s interpretation through the lens of Gerald Massey’s Egyptian-Christian parallels reveals a transition from the astronomical mythos of Egypt to the Greco-Roman literary strategies of the first century.
I. MacDonald’s Thesis: Literary Mimesis and the Homeric Model
The Neaniskos as Literary Creation MacDonald contends that the young man who flees naked from the garden of Gethsemane is not a preserved historical memory or a self-reference to the author (the “Mark himself” hypothesis), but a sophisticated literary creation. MacDonald identifies this figure as a narrative bridge constructed to link the shame of the Passion with the glory of the Resurrection.
Homeric Parallels: The Elpenor Motif Central to MacDonald’s position is the claim that Mark intertextually engages with Homeric characters, specifically Elpenor from the Odyssey. Elpenor, the youngest of Odysseus’ crew, falls from a roof in a drunken stupor, breaking his neck; his soul then “flees” to Hades while his body is left behind. MacDonald notes that in ancient art, Elpenor was frequently depicted as nude. In Mark’s narrative, the youth abandons his sindon (linen cloth) and flees naked, mirroring the separation of soul and body and the flight toward the underworld.
Function in Markan Strategy MacDonald reads this youth as an “anti-hero” whose failure mirrors the broader failure of the disciples. The youth’s flight in shame (nakedness) provides a deliberate contrast to his appearance at the empty tomb, where he is “robed” in a white garment (stolē). …
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Ancient Egypt: The Light of the World (Two Volumes in One)
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