Original Research - Special Collection: Spirituality

The powerful transformation of the young man in Mark 14:51–52 and 16:5

Pieter G.R. de Villiers
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies | Vol 66, No 1 | a893 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v66i1.893 | © 2010 Pieter G.R. de Villiers | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 10 June 2010 | Published: 05 November 2010

About the author(s)

Pieter G.R. de Villiers, University of the Free State, South Africa

Abstract

This article investigates the references to the young man in two different, but related episodes in Mark 14:51–52 and 16:5. First of all, it clarifies some exegetical questions in the two sections. It then analyses the history of the interpretation of the young man in these two passages before it discusses the nature of the coherence between the two passages in greater detail. To this end, the article investigates shared motifs in the two narratives in the light of Mark’s literary techniques. Finally, it compares the two episodes of the young man with the healing of the demoniac in Mark 5, in order to reflect on the implications of reading these two passages together. These implications are spelled out in terms of the powerful notion of transformation – a key theme in biblical spirituality and central in Mark’s thought. This notion is developed as transformation in recreation, love and glory.

Keywords

biblical spirituality; Mark 14:51–52; Mark 16:5; the young man in Mark; transformation

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