SIL Translator's Notes on Mark 14:51

14:51a

One young man who had been following Jesus was wearing a linen cloth around his body: This part of the verse introduces One young man into the story for the first time. Mark does not say who he was. In some languages, there may be a special way to introduce him here. For example:

There was a young man wearing a linen cloth who was also following Jesus.

Notice that the example above introduces the facts about the young man in a different order. Introduce the young man in a way that is natural in your language.

One young man: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as young man normally refers to a young, unmarried male person. This young man would probably have been about twenty years old.

who had been following Jesus: This young man was following along with Jesus that night, but he probably was not one of Jesus’ twelve disciples. He was not part of the crowd that arrived with Judas to arrest Jesus.

was wearing a linen cloth around his body: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as was wearing a linen cloth around his body is literally “having been clothed with linen over his naked body.” He was wearing only a linen cloth or garment.

The Greek word for “linen” specifies only the type of cloth, not the shape or style of his clothes. Most scholars think that in this context it refers to a linen sheet/cloth or outer garment.

Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

with nothing on but a linen cloth (Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
wearing only a linen cloth (Revised Standard Version, New Century Version, Contemporary English Version, NET Bible)
-or-
wearing nothing but a linen sheet over his naked body (New American Standard Bible)
-or-
wrapped in a linen cloth/sheet and that’s all

Some languages have a specific verb for wrapping a blanket or other piece of cloth around one’s body. Other languages may have a specific noun for a wrap-around garment. If that is true in your language, you may use either of these here.

linen cloth: The Greek word that the translates as linen cloth is literally “linen.” Linen is a certain type of expensive, good quality cloth. If linen is unknown in your language, you may use a descriptive term. For example:

fine/good/expensive cloth

In translating this phrase, be careful not to imply that the young man was wearing a full set of clothes. It is clear from the context that he was not fully dressed.

14:51b

They caught hold of him: The Greek clause that the Berean Standard Bible translates as They caught hold of him indicates that some people in the crowd grabbed the young man. They were trying to arrest him too, but he escaped.

Here are some other ways to translate this:

and the people also grabbed him (New Century Version)
-or-
They tried to arrest him (Good News Bible)

It is implied that the people grabbed the young man by the cloth that he had wrapped around his body. That explains why he ran away naked. In some languages it may be necessary to make this information explicit. For example:

When they grabbed onto his garment

General Comment on 14:51a–b

In some languages it may be more natural to move 14:51b to the beginning of the verse. For example:

51bThey seized a young man 51awho was following Jesus wearing only a linen cloth/garment.

© 2008 by SIL International®

Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0

All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

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