I've always been beguiled by the strangeness of this little moment --- but it wasn't until I was looking at that section of the narrative in the King James Version (because that's the version we quote at PA&M), that I was struck by the repetition of the "linen cloth" here and at the end, when Joseph of Arimethea brings just such a cloth to wrap the crucified Jesus for burial. In that translation, at any rate, the parallel seems highlighted --- and that was fascinating to me. Of course I'd heard the narrative last Sunday at Mass, too, which maybe was really what got me thinking about what this detail is doing in the story . . .
I think that young man is pretty clearly understood to be an angel, but it's an interesting idea to read back into the narrative to that moment in the garden. I don't know whether there's anything in tradition to support the idea of his being the same (tradition seems to hold that the first young man, who "ran away naked," is St. Mark himself). But these are really interesting repetitions of a motif.
I was Narrator for 4 Masses this Palm Sunday and each time I read this passage I wondered to myself ... why is this here?
I was Voice/Crowd on Palm Sunday. It was such a gift to really scrutinize the Gospel while practicing.
I've always been beguiled by the strangeness of this little moment --- but it wasn't until I was looking at that section of the narrative in the King James Version (because that's the version we quote at PA&M), that I was struck by the repetition of the "linen cloth" here and at the end, when Joseph of Arimethea brings just such a cloth to wrap the crucified Jesus for burial. In that translation, at any rate, the parallel seems highlighted --- and that was fascinating to me. Of course I'd heard the narrative last Sunday at Mass, too, which maybe was really what got me thinking about what this detail is doing in the story . . .
The translation I read had Joseph bringing a cloth he had "bought". Interesting connection.
Yes --- I think it says that across translations, and it is interesting.
At the Easter Vigil gospel reading, when the Marys visit the tomb, they find a young man in a white garment sitting inside. Same young man?
I think that young man is pretty clearly understood to be an angel, but it's an interesting idea to read back into the narrative to that moment in the garden. I don't know whether there's anything in tradition to support the idea of his being the same (tradition seems to hold that the first young man, who "ran away naked," is St. Mark himself). But these are really interesting repetitions of a motif.