Hey thanks. Yes I see “Secret Mark” illuminating Mark 14:51–52 completely. Here is my favorite of Scott Brown’s intros to that controversy. His book deals with the naked youth on pg. 255.

The understanding I’ve developed, basically, is that Lazarus, a.k.a. the Beloved Disciple, is raised from the dead, and Jesus keeps him around for advanced spiritual instruction. Lazarus, reborn is to be renamed John, becomes the repository of all Christian doctrine.

In “Secret Mark” they spend the night together and the burial garment becomes a baptismal garment. From death to rebirth. Scott Brown seems unaware of this, but early Christian baptism seems to have been done at night, as an all-night event. This is noted by Hippolytus of Rome, in his Apostolic Tradition: “They shall all keep vigil all night, reading and instructing them.”

The baptism, in this model, would involve a special effort at keeping awake, which becomes an image of Christians ‘living’ past death and being reborn. That narrative is, I’m thinking, humming along in the background of Mark 14:51–52.