Forum rules
Please quote the Greek text you are discussing directly in your post if it is reasonably short - do not ask people to look it up. This is not a beginner's forum, competence in Greek is assumed.
Do we know with any precision what kind of garment the σινδών in Mark 14:51-52 was, and whether it would have been worn with an undergarment or not?
Does ἐπὶ γυμνοῦ imply that it was being worn without an undergarment?
What we do know raises more questions than it suggests answers: Jesus was buried in a σινδών (Mk 15:49); Mark's resurrection narrative (16:1-8) does not mention the σινδών at all; rather it tells of a νεανίσκος (Mark's text does not indicate an angel, although many interpreters have made the assumption that this is what he implies) dressed in a white gown: Καὶ εἰσελθοῦσαι εἰς τὸ μνημεῖον εἶδον νεανίσκον καθήμενον ἐν τοῖς δεξιοῖς περιβεβλημένον στολὴν λευκήν, καὶ ἐξεθαμβήθησαν. The Greek text offers much to speculate on, but answers to the questions are not to be found by analysis of the Greek text. Interpreters have deemed it preposterous that this νεανίσκος should be the self-same νεανίσκος of 14:51-2, but I've never seen any satisfactory answer to a question why Mark should include this detail in his narrative of the arrest scene. Like the body of Jesus, this young man eluded his captors.
οὔτοι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν,
ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητέοντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον. (Xenophanes, Fragment 16)
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
I've long been puzzled by the "loosely clad stripling" (Bentham's expression) in Mark 14:51. I had spent some time with the verse because it was a fascination of Morton Smith. My inclination is to see some sort of connection to the the young man at the resurrection, but like much in Mark it is not clear to me what the connection is.