What Does Mark 14:51 Mean?

A certain young man was following him, wrapped in a linen cloth thrown about his bare body, and the young men seized him.

Mark 14:51 · SDV

Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.

Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And there followed him a certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and the young men laid hold on him:

THE KEY

The Greek verb for seizing shares its stem with a word for strength: here, power takes the shape of a hand closing around a body.

THE MEANING

The force reaching for Jesus also reaches the young man following him. His linen wrap does not keep others from laying hold of him; proximity offers no physical shield.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the assumption that being near Jesus makes a person untouchable.

THE ROOT

κρατοῦσιν

kratousin

GROWS FROM

κρατ-

krat-

To hold or grasp with strength; to seize.

“seized him” in this verse is kratousin. The verb ⁨κρατοῦσιν⁩ shares its stem with ⁨κράτος⁩, meaning strength or power. The grasp is power made physical, closing around the body of the one following.

ALSO GROWS

kratos: Strength, might, power.

κράτος

The shared stem links the act of seizing to the force behind it.

krataioō: To strengthen, make strong.

κραταιόω

This related word carries the same idea of strength that the grasp enacts here.

THE PATTERN

Human covering can conceal vulnerability, but it cannot make the body invulnerable.

And the eyes of them both were opened, and they perceived that they were bare, and they sewed fig leaves together, and made for themselves waistcloths.

Genesis 3:7 · SDVAwareness of nakedness leads to an improvised covering, showing how quickly exposure calls forth concealment.

And he said, Naked I came out of my mother's womb, and naked I will turn back there. The LORD gave, and the LORD took; blessed be the name of the LORD.

Job 1:21 · SDVThe verse names the body’s vulnerability beneath all that can be gained or lost.

He left the linen cloth behind and fled from them bare.

Mark 14:52 · SDVThe young man’s wrap is left behind as the grasp gives way to flight, making the vulnerability visible.

THE THREAD

They laid hands on him and seized him.

Mark 14:46 · SDV

The word rendered “took” here is the same Greek verb, ⁨κρατέω⁩ (krateō), meaning to grasp or seize, as “laid hold” in the current verse. The repeated verb carries the act of capture from Jesus to the young man following him.

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