|
Following MacDonald, I will summarize points
of similarities between stories by Homer and Mark which deal with a hero
having a supper with his comrades, lamenting his fate before visiting the
house of the dead, waking his comrades, and encountering a naked young man.
Along the way I'll present MacDonald's answer to two of the more perplexing
questions in gospel studies:
 Why
did Mark put a naked young man in his story about Jesus'
capture?
How
was Jesus' most famous prayer overheard?
This article develops according to the following outline:
Mark's story about Jesus last
supper, his private prayer to God, and the extraordinarily puzzling reference
to a naked young man.
The
ancient belief that a body's nakedness symbolizes deprivation of a soul,
i.e, death.
The
Homeric epic story of Odysseus having supper, publicly lamenting his coming
journey to Hades the land of the dead and his encounter with--according to
tradition--a naked and dead young man.
Parallels between the Homeric
epic and Mark.
The
questions about the naked young man, and overhearing Jesus' private
prayer.
|
| Jesus' Grief Prior to
Journeying to Hades
While they were reclining at the table eating...he
took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from
it...."I tell you the truth, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine
until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God.".....They went
to a place called Gethsemane...and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled.
"My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death," he said
to them.
"Stay here and keep watch." Going a little farther,
he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from
him [i.e., let man’s salvation be, if possible, accomplished without
the pain I must endure]. ...."Father," he said, ...."Take this cup from
me.1"
[Oh, really? Mark makes it clear here that
Jesus asked to be left alone while he prayed to God. How, then,
is it possible that Mark knows what Jesus said in his private prayer to God?
If God told Jesus' prayer to Mark, then why didn't Mark tell us that?
Did any of this really happen?]
Then he returned to his disciples [and said]
"Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the
Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes
my betrayer!"...The men seized Jesus and arrested him...
A young man...[who had been] following Jesus....fled
naked...
[What does a naked young man have to do with anything?
This comment seems totally out place.]
|
| Odysseus's Grief Prior
to Journeying to Hades
[T]hrough the livelong day to the going down of
the sun we feasted our fill on meat and wine, but when the sun went down
and it came on dark the men laid themselves down to sleep in the covered
cloisters...[I] besought [the goddess Circe] by her knees... "Circe," said
I, "please ....I want to get back"...
And the goddess answered, "Odysseus... there
is another journey which you have got to take before you can sail homewards.
You must go to the house of Hades" ....I was dismayed when I heard this.
I ...would gladly have lived no longer to see the light of the
sun...
Then I went about among the men [and said]: "You
must not lie sleeping here any longer...we must be
going"...
We had with us a certain youth named Elpenor,
not very remarkable for sense or courage ....[who] tumbled right off the
roof and broke his neck, and his soul went down to the house of Hades.
[Odysseus then goes to Hades, is visited by Elpenor's ghost, and returns
one day later.] |
Nakedness: Symbolic
of
Death and Loss of Soul
MacDonald explains that from ancient times one's garments were
equated with the body, and that the soul of the dead was often represented
by artists as a naked body.2 This fact will be crucial later
in understanding why Homer's tale of Elpenor's descent to Hades evolved in
oral tradition to one in which Elpenor is spirited off to Hades naked, and
why Mark put a naked young man in his story.
Thus, although Homer doesn't describe Elpenor as naked when he "went down
to the house of Hades," it is reasonable to suppose that the Homeric tale
evolved into an oral tradition in which Elpenor's naked ghost sails off to
Hades after his fall. At least one artist depicted a naked Elpenor
meeting with Odysseus in Hades. The vase at the bottom left, and the
accompanying detail, show the obviously naked ghost of Elpenor talking to
Odysseus in Hades.
In comparing the Homer and Mark stories, below, I will assume that the probable
oral tradition at the time of Mark had Elpenor moving off to Hades
naked. |
Ghost of Elpenor in Hades talking with
Odysseus
Painting on vase ca 440 BCE; Boston Museum
of Fine Arts. See below for full view of vase. |
Parallels Between Homer and
Mark
(Some events in Mark's story
are out of chronological order.)
| Parallels |
The
Odyssey
Book 10
The Odyssey Online |
Mark
Chapter 14 Verses 17-52
|
| Hero and men eat supper, including
wine.
|
"[W]e feasted our fill on meat and
wine" |
[T]hey were ...eating [also drinking "the
fruit of the vine"] |
| Hero prostrates himself, privately makes request
of heavenly being. |
"[I] besought [the goddess Circe] by her knees...
'Circe,' said I, 'please ....I want to get back' " |
"He went forward...fell on the ground, and
prayed...'Father,' he said, 'Take this cup [of death] from me.' " [i.e.,
Please don't let me die.] |
| Hero accepts his fate: he must go to the land
of the dead. |
"You must go to the house of
Hades" |
[Jesus knows he must go to his grave, but
expects to return:] "I tell you the truth, I will not drink again of the
fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of
God." |
| Hero grieves at having to go to the land of
the dead. |
"I was dismayed when I heard this" [that he
was going to the land of the dead, from which no mortal had ever returned
alive.] |
"and he began to be deeply distressed and
troubled" [thinking about his coming suffering] |
| Author employs irony, having the hero wish
for death because of the fear of death. |
"I ...would gladly have lived no longer" [I'd
rather have died than died.] |
"My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the
point of death" [i.e., "it almost makes me die to think about having to
die."]. |
| Hero wakes up his men. |
"I went about among the men [and said]: 'You
must not lie sleeping here any longer...we must be
going'" |
"Then he returned to his disciples and found
them sleeping. ...'Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has
come. ....Rise! Let us go' " |
| A "certain" young man, a follower of the hero,
is introduced into the story. |
"There was a 'certain' Elpenor" [one of Odysseus's
men] |
"A 'certain' young man...was following
Jesus |
| The young man flees
naked. |
[Elpenor] "..broke his neck [and his soul,
the naked body] "went down to the house of Hades." |
"When they seized [Jesus] he fled naked, leaving
his garment behind." [This foreshadows the death of Jesus, the flight of
his soul from his body; Mark's young man symbolizes
Jesus.] |
| Hero goes to Hades and
returns. |
[Odysseus goes to Hades and returns alive
one day later.] |
[Jesus dies, is put in his grave (Hades),
and returns alive three days later.] |
| Why Did Mark Put a Naked
Young Man in His Story?
The reader will have noted that the presence
of the naked young man at Jesus' arrest seems completely out of place, but
it's only after one recognizes that Mark constructed fictional Jesus stories
patterned after fictional Odysseus stories written 800 years earlier by Homer
that one understands the reason for the naked young man. In all of the stories
Mark borrowed from Homer,3 he made sure to put at least one "Odyssean
flag"--a clue, a subtle signal to the wise--that his stories were patterned
in part after Homer, and they weren't true. In this case, the Odyssean
flag is the naked man--a symbol used by Mark to represent
Jesus.
Mark uses the young man to foreshadow Jesus' death.
The Greek-speaking readers of his time would know the traditional
story of the naked Elpenor's going off to Hades, so they would connect the
presence of the naked young man with death--or the foreshadowing of a death.
At Jesus' capture, Mark has this young man appear out of nowhere, lose
his clothes (his soul sheds his body), and run away. The young man symbolizes
Jesus, and the loss of his clothes represents Jesus' death. If the
appearance of the naked young man were the only event in common with the
Homeric epic paralleled in the table above, one could easily argue that Mark
described a true prophetic event and that perhaps he really did believe the
story he was telling; however, there are just too many other borrowings from
this Odyssean tale--and too many from several other different
stories3--to believe that Mark was doing anything more than writing
fiction.
After the foreshadowing of Jesus' death by the
flight of the naked young man, Jesus is taken away and killed, but Mark is
not yet done with that young man; he will bring him back to his readers later,
when he puts him in Jesus' empty tomb; this is described
in
The
Young Man in the Tomb. |
How Did Mark Learn about
Jesus' Private Prayer?
Not all of Mark's flags were Odyssean; another clue that Mark was
writing fiction is found in his description of Jesus'
prayer.
Homer had no problem telling his readers how he knew that Odysseus
begged the goddess for help: he had Odysseus narrate the event himself.
Mark can't do this, however, because Jesus is not the
story-teller.
Mark tells us that Jesus' meeting with God was
private, just as was Odysseus's meeting with Circe, so how are we to understand
how Mark knew what Jesus said to God? Mark says that Jesus said, "Father,
take this cup from me," but Jesus had his apostles stand back so he could
talk to God in private, so they couldn't have known what Jesus said.
Are we to believe that Jesus--or God--spoke later to Mark? If
so, why doesn't Mark tell us that?
All of these questions answer themselves once
we understand that Mark has some of the events in Jesus' life occur much
as they did for Odysseus, so his readers would not fail to interpret the
Jesus events in light of the Odyssean ones--and recognize that Mark was telling
stories that were make-believe. So, if Odysseus met with the goddess in private
to make his request, then Mark had Jesus meet privately with God; only those
who don't understand that Mark's story wasn't to be taken literally
would wonder how Mark knew what Jesus said privately to
God. |
[1] The cup of death. The cup of God's
wrath is used often in the Old Testament as a picture of punishment and judgment
(Psalm 75:8; Isaiah 51:17). The sufferings of Christ are called a "cup",
as illustrated in Matthew 20:22, where Jesus asks the mother of Zebedee's
children if they are able "drink of the cup that I shall drink of",
in other words, suffer as Christ will suffer. See also John 18:11,
where Jesus tells Peter to let him be taken away: "Put up thy sword
into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not
drink it?"
[2] Empedocles, the fifth century
BCE Greek philosopher, "believed the primordial soul became clothed 'in the
unfamiliar tunic of flesh.'" Plato said, "souls [at death] leave their
bodies and ascend to judgment naked..." Similar views were held by Philo,
Tertullian, and others. (MacDonald, footnote 22, page
234.)
Other articles:
Elpenor and
Eutychus
Temple Merchants
The Wicked Tenants
Jesus and Barabbas
Gerasene Demoniac
The Baptist's
Head
Anointing
Jesus
Cannibalism in
Mark
Jesus Visits
Hades
Young Man at Tomb
|
