Mark 14:51

a certain young man This forms an episode as characteristic of St Mark as that of the two disciples journeying to Emmaus is of St Luke. Some have conjectured he was the owner of the garden of Gethsemane; others Lazarus (see Professor Plumptre's Article on "Lazarus" in Smith's Bible Dict.); others Joses, the brother of the Lord; others, a youth of the family where Jesus had eaten the Passover. It is far more probable that it was St Mark himself, the son of Mary, the friend of St Peter. The minuteness of the details given points to him. Only one well acquainted with the scene from personal knowledge, probably as an eyewitness, would have introduced into his account of it so slight and seemingly so trivial an incident as this.

having a linen cloth He had probably been roused from sleep, or just preparing to retire to rest in a house somewhere in the valley of Kidron, and he had nothing to cover him except the sindônor upper garment, but in spite of this he ventured in his excitement to press on amongst the crowd. The word sindônin Matthew 27:59; Mark 15:46 and Luke 23:53 is applied to the fine linen, which Joseph of Arimathæa bought for the Body of Jesus. The LXX. use the word in Judges 14:12 and in Proverbs 31:24 for "fine under garments."

the young men This is omitted by Lachmann, Tischendorf, and Tregelles. The crowd was probably astonished at the strange apparition.