The 1960's in America was a period of great social unrest due to protest against the Vietnamese War. There were riots and anti-war protests, draft dodgers escaped to Canada, the drug culture flourished, and many young people withdrew from society and lived in "hippie" communes. One of the weirdest forms of protest was the streaker. Suddenly, a naked man would appear in some public place, run through the crowd and then disappear before he could be stopped or apprehended. It became quite a joke.
There have been other streakers in history such as Lady Godiva, but perhaps the most famous was Archimedes, the Greek philosopher-scientist. The story is told about how Archimedes solved a problem for the king. The king had received a gift of a golden crown. However, he questioned the purity of the gold, but how was he to authenticate the purity of the metal? He turned to the most renowned sage in the country, Archimedes, to solve the problem. While Archimedes was pondering over this assignment from the king, he decided to relax in a tub of hot water. Being a keen observer, he noticed that as he immersed himself, the water level rose. He immediately realized that this was caused by his body displacing the water. His fertile mind then reasoned that objects of the same weight and density would displace equal volumes of water. So, if he were to weigh out an amount of pure gold equal in weight to that of the crown, and if the crown were pure gold, they should displace the same amount of water, which would be indicated by the same water level. Thus was born the famous Archimedes Principle that states the relationship between weight, volume, and density (D=W/V). Archimedes was so excited and overcome with emotion at this great discovery that he jumped out of the tub and ran down the street naked shouting, "Eureka, I have found it."
Traditionally it is thought that John Mark was a young teenager whose parents were apparently quite wealthy. They lived in a large house in Jerusalem (Acts 12:12), and it is thought that this was the location of the upper room where the disciples met for the last supper. No doubt John Mark was a keen observer of that event, and probably followed the disciples out to Gethsemane. He was a witness to the betrayal of Jesus, and as the disciples fled, he observed a 'certain young man' having his robe stripped off and fleeing naked. Mark is the only gospel writer who records this event, and he doesn't divulge the identity of the young man. Most Bible scholars feel that Mark is bashfully referring to himself as a 'certain young man,' so it is almost certain that John Mark was "the bashful streaker."
