Expert: Brenda Martin - 11/25/2010

Question
Other than a possible John Mark and again it would be mere speculation..., am I the only one that speculates it being an angel of the Lord following behind Jesus as he was betrayed??  Feedback would highly be appreciated.  Thank you for your feedback.

Answer
Mark alone refers to this incident, so we can reasonably conclude that he was speaking of himself.

Taking these accounts in time sequence, we start at the garden of Gethsemane. The apostles reacted in fear when Jesus Christ was arrested. “They all abandoned him and fled.” The very next verse in Mark’s account draws a contrast: “But a certain young man wearing a fine linen garment over his naked body began to follow him nearby; and they tried to seize him, but he left his linen garment behind and got away naked.”—Mark 14:50-52.

So the initial response of the 11 apostles is contrasted with that of this unnamed disciple, so it is logical to conclude that he was not one of the apostles.

At some point that night, the apostle Peter also followed Jesus, at a safe distance. In this sense there is a similarity; the young disciple (Mark) began to follow Jesus but stopped, whereas later two of the apostles who had fled took up following their arrested Master. In the apostle John’s Gospel, we read: “Now Simon Peter as well as another disciple was following Jesus. That disciple was known to the high priest, and he went in with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest.”—John 18:15.

all the best
Brenda