Thenaked fugitive (ornaked runaway ornaked youth) is an unidentified figure mentioned briefly in theGospel of Mark, immediately after thearrest of Jesus in theGarden of Gethsemane and the fleeing of all his disciples:
A certain young man was following him, wearing nothing but a linen cloth. They caught hold of him, but he left the linen cloth and ran off naked.[1]
The parallel accounts in the othercanonical Gospels make no mention of this incident.
The wearing of a single cloth (Greek:σινδόνα,sindona) would not have been indecent or extraordinary, and there are many ancient accounts of how easily such garments would come loose, especially with sudden movements.[2]
Since ancient times, many have speculated on the identity of this young man, proposing:
A later verse in Mark, "And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe,"[9] is often connected to the passage byallegorical readers of (in the words of Howard M. Jackson) the "symbolism school".[10]
The naked fugitive has been speculated to originate in a possible Passion narrative that pre-dates the gospel of Mark. In such an early document, anonymity of the fugitive may have protected this individual from official persecution.[11]: Note 8 [2]: 184
American writerLew Wallace incorporated the episode of the naked fugitive into the narrative of his novelBen-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1880). In chapter VIII of the eighth book, the novel's main hero is captured amidst Gethsemane events and flees naked.[12] This is purely a literary device asJudah Ben-Hur is a fictional character.