(emphasis added)
billd89 wrote: ↑Sun Jun 04, 2023 8:16 pm
For example, in PGM IV. 88-93 the magician is instructed to ‘wrap a naked boy in linen from head to toe (σινδονιάσας κατὰ κεφαλης μέχρι ποδων γυμνὸν κρότα)’ and in an ‘oracle of Kronos’ (PGM IV. 3086-3124) the practitioner is instructed to ‘be clothed with clean linen (σινδόνα καθαρὰν) in the garb of a priest of Isis’ (IV. 3096). The symbolic use of the sindw,n to represent death and rebirth is evident in certain magical texts in which the participant is required to use a σινδών when performing a pseudo-burial.
Sounds like baptism.
Romans 6:3-6
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
Colossians 2:11-13
In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses
2 Corinthians 4:2-4
For in this tent nwe groan, longing to oput on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal pmay be swallowed up by life.
Galatians 3:26-27
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
The word for "linen cloth" appears in Mark 15:46 (as a burial shroud), and of course a "young man" appears in the tomb (Mark 16:5).
Whatever the meaning of the passage is, whatever the symbolism, the extant ancient commentary does not reveal. It's referenced by Gregory of Nazianzus (
Oration 33.14), Ambrose (
Commentary on Twelve Psalms, 36.53), Jerome (
Epistle 64, 71), and Epiphanius (
Panarion 78.13.3).
None of them, however, connect it to Amos 2:16. In fact no citation of Amos 2:16 shows up anywhere from a Christian in antiquity in a Biblindex search. More likely than not, it wasn't known as a meaningful proof text.
Here is Gregory:
XIV. And if I am doing wrong in this, that when tyrannized over I endure it, forgive me this wrong; I have borne to be tyrannized over by others too; and I am thankful that my moderation has brought upon me the charge of folly. For I reckon thus, using considerations altogether higher than any of yours; what a mere fraction are these trials of the spittings and blows which Christ, for Whom and by Whose aid we encounter these dangers, endured. I do not count them, taken altogether, worth the one crown of thorns which robbed our conqueror of his crown, for whose sake also I learn that I am crowned for the hardness of life. I do not reckon them worth the one reed by which the rotten empire was destroyed; of the gall alone, the vinegar alone, by which we were cured of the bitter taste; of the gentleness alone which He showed in His Passion. Was He betrayed with a kiss? He reproves with a kiss, but smites not. Is he suddenly arrested? He reproaches indeed, but follows; and if through zeal you cut off the ear of Malchus with the sword, He will be angry, and will restore it. And if one flee in a linen sheet, he will defend him. And if you ask for the fire of Sodom upon his captors, he will not pour it forth; and if he take a thief hanging upon the cross for his crime he will bring him into Paradise through His Goodness. Let all the acts of one that loves men be loving, as were all the sufferings of Christ, to which we could add nothing greater than, when God even died for us, to refuse on our part to forgive even the smallest wrongs of our fellowmen.
Here is Ambrose:
However, just as the children, so too the young men, that is, the spiritual ones. Scripture knows the young man Paul already close to conversion, it also knows Eutychus, a young man who, engrossed in Paul's words, fell asleep and fell from the third floor but was resurrected. It also knows the young man John, reclining on the breast of Christ, who was so strong that he did not fear persecution and overcame evil. This is the boy who left behind his earthly father and followed the eternal Father whom he knew, the young man clothed in a linen cloth who followed the Lord during the time of His passion, who had abandoned all his own things, and who recognized and proved that the Word of God had always been and would always be in the beginning itself, and that He dwelt within himself.
Here is Jerome:
A too careful management of one's income, a too near calculation of one's expenses-these are habits not easily laid aside. Yet to escape the Egyptian woman Joseph had to leave hisgarment with her. And the young man who followed Jesus having a linen cloth cast about him, when he was assailed by the servants had to throw away his earthly covering and to flee naked. Elijah also when he was carried upin a chariot of fire to heaven left his mantle of sheepskin on earth.
Here is Epiphanius:
Therefore Mary never conceives again; the holy Virgin cannot have had marital relations.
13,1 But let us look to other considerations too, to < make the truth hevident in every way* >; since it was always with him, the truth < was* > a follower of Jesus. “Jesus was called to a marriage,” and “his mother < was > there.” 39 And < nowhere > are his brothers mentioned, and nowhere Joseph. < For he says >, “Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come” 40 He didn’t say, “People, what have I to do with you?”
13,2 Mary Magdalene stood by the cross, and Mary the wife of Cleopas, and Mary the mother of Rufus, and the other Mary, and Salome, and other women. And it didn’t say, “Joseph was there”—or “James the Lord’s brother,” < who > died in virginity < at the age > of ninety-six.
13,3 No iron implement had touched his head, he had never visited a bath house, had never eaten meat. He did not own a change of clothing and wore only a threadbare linen garment, as it says in the Gospel, “The young man fled, and left the cloth wherewith he was clad.”
Epiphanius offers up something a little interesting, at least. He says that the young man was James "the Lord's brother." He also says that James was a perpetual virgin, as was Mary.