John Lightfoot on Mark 14:51

[Having a linen cloth cast about his naked body.] It is well rendered by the Vulgar clothed in sindon or fine linen: for to that the words have respect: not that he had some linen loosely and by chance cast about him, but that the garment wherewith he always went clothed, was of sindon, that is, of linen. Let us hearken a little to the Talmudists.

"The Rabbins deliver: Sindon [linen] with fringes, what of them? The school of Shammai absolves, the school of Hillel binds, and the wise men determine according to the school of Hillel. R. Eliezer Ben R. Zadok saith, Whosoever wears hyacinth [purple] in Jerusalem, is among those who make men admire." By hyacinthinum [purple] they understand those fringes that were to put them in mind of the law, Numbers 15. And by sindon, linen, is understood a cloak, or that garment, which, as it serves for clothing the body, so it is doubly serviceable to religion. For, 1. To this garment were the fringes fastened, concerning which mention is made, Numbers 15:38. 2. With this garment they commonly covered their heads when they prayed. Hence that in the Gemarists in the place quoted: "talith, or the cloak whereby the boy covereth his head, and a great part of himself; if any one of elder years goes forth clothed with it in a more immodest manner, he is bound to wear fringes." And elsewhere, "The priests who veil themselves when they go up into the pulpit, with a cloak which is not their own," &c.

But now it was customary to wear this cloak, in the summer especially, and in Jerusalem for the most part, made of sindon or of linen. And the question between the schools of Shammai and Hillel arose hence, that when the fringes were woolen, and the cloak linen, how would the suspicion of wearing things of different sorts be avoided? R. Zeira loosed his sindon. The Gloss is: "He loosed his fringes from his sindon [that is, from his talith, which was of 'sindon,' linen], because it was of linen," &c. "The angel found Rabh Ketina clothed in sindon; and said to him, O Ketina, Ketina, sindon in the summer, and a short cloak in the winter."

You see that word which is spoke by the evangelist, about his naked body, carries an emphasis: for it was most usual to be clothed with sindon for an outer garment. What therefore must we say of this young man? I suppose in the first place, that he was not a disciple of Jesus; but that he now followed, as some curious looker on, to see what this multitude would at last produce. And to such a suspicion they certainly do consent, who think him to have been roused from his bed, and hastily followed the rout with nothing but his shirt on, without any other clothes. I suppose, secondly, St. Mark in the phrase having a sindon cast about him, spake according to the known and vulgar dialect of the nation, clothed with a sindon. For none shall ever persuade me that he would use an idiom, any thing uncouth or strange to the nation; and that when he used the very same phrase in Greek with that Jewish one, he intended not to propound the very same sense. But now you clearly see, they themselves being our teachers, what is the meaning of being clothed with a sindon, with them, namely, to have a talith or cloak made of linen; that garment to which the fringes hung. I suppose, in the last place, that this young man, out of religion, or superstition rather, more than ordinary, had put on his sindon, and nothing but that upon his naked body, neglecting his inner garment (commonly called chaluk), and indeed neglecting his body. For there were some amongst the Jews that did so macerate their bodies, and afflict them with hunger and cold, even above the severe rule of other sects.

Josephus in his own Life writes thus: "I was sixteen years old, and I resolved to make trial of the institution of the three sects among us, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes; for I judged I should be able very well to choose the best of them, if I thoroughly learned them all. Afflicting, therefore, and much tormenting myself, I tried them all. But judging with myself that it was not enough to have tried these sects, and hearing of one Banus, that lived in the wilderness, that he used a garment made of leaves, or the bark of trees, and no food but what grew of its own accord, and often by day and by night washing himself in cold water, I became a follower of him, and for three years abode with him."

And in that place in the Talmudists, which we but now produced, at that very story of Rabh Ketina, wearing a sindon in the winter for his talith, we have these words; "The religious in elder times, when they had wove three wings [of the talith], they joined the purple," whereof the fringes were made: "but otherwise, they are religious who impose upon themselves things heavier than ordinary." And immediately follows the story of the angel and Ketina, who did so. There were some who heaped up upon themselves burdens and yokes of religion above the common rule, and that this is to be understood by such as laid upon themselves heavier things than ordinary, both the practice of some Jews persuade, and the word itself speaks it, being used by the Gemarists in the same sense elsewhere.

Such, we suppose, was this young man (as Josephus was, when a young man, of whom before), who, when others armed themselves against the cold with a double garment, namely, an inner garment, and a talith or cloak, clothed himself with a single garment, and that of sindon or linen, and under the show of some more austere religion, neglecting the ordinary custom and care of himself.

The thing, taken in the sense which we propound, speaks the furious madness of this most wicked rout so much the more, inasmuch as they spared not a man, and him a young man, bearing most evident marks of a more severe religion.