A Topographic Parallel Between Secret Mark and Genesis 31, 32

In Mark Jesus and the disciples cross from Capernaum to "the region of Judea and across the Jordan." (Mark 10:1) Secret Mark makes clear there is a Jordan crossing back from the Transjordan via the Jordan to Jericho. "And they come into Bethany ... [a]nd thence, arising, he returned to the other side of the Jordan." While Jericho is not specifically mentioned in Genesis the same path is followed by Jacob going from the Transjordan (Genesis 31) to the shores of the Jordan river (Genesis 32:22). Jacob sends his entire company across the ford of the Yabbok - Yabbok being a term left unexplained in the text - and he is left alone. There upon Jacob becomes intertwined with a 'man' who is understood to be God or an angel.  The Samaritan text identifies the place of crossing as the ford of the Yabbok, emphasizing the place's significance.  All interpretations of the place name assume some connection with אבק - viz. to wrestle.

Rashi considers אבק as signifying to grapple in close contact saying that he is:

of opinion that is means “he fastened himself on”, and that it is an Aramaic word, as (Sanhedrin 63b) “after they have joined (אביקו) it", and (Menachot 42a) “and he twined (the “Fringes”) with loops”. It denotes “intertwining”, for such is the manner of two people who make strong efforts to throw each other — one clasps the other and twines himself round him with his arms.

Rashi brings a second opinion and a few Talmudic quotes where אבק means "attached", and then says that it is the way of two who struggle, for one person to throw the other down, then he grasps him - אובקו - and entwines him - חובקו -in his arms."

Of course, as Nachmanides notes alef and chet often interchange. חבק itself has clear sexual implications:

חָבַק (b. h.; cmp. חבב a. אבק) to embrace, press, fasten. Part. pass. חָבוּק, pl. חֲבוּקִין clinging to, creeping (of vines). Y. Kil. VI, beg., 30ᵇ ח׳ לכותל creeping up the wall.     Pi. - חִיבֵּק to embrace. Pesik. R. s. 3 באין ומְחַבְּקִין וכ׳ they shall come and embrace Rachel’s grave; a. fr.     Hithpa. - הִתְחַבֵּק to embrace one another, make love. Y. Bets. II, 61ᶜ מִתְחַבֵּק עם וכ׳ making love to thy wife; Y. Sabb. II, 6ᵃ bot. מְחַבֵּק.

We should not forget that the Genesis account has - according to many interpretations - reach out and wound Jacob in the penis.  The idea that the 'naked man and naked man' narrative might have something to do with wrestling or worse, seems hardly a massive leap of logic.

While no wrestling or attachment is specifically identified in Secret Mark, a homosexual interpretation is referenced and rejected in Clement's discussion in the main letter.  Clement himself says that Jesus was the angel who wrestled with Jacob strengthening the connection.  Moreover Jacob himself has just completed a period of שבע - 'seven' (Genesis 30:27) - before wrestling and crossing the Jordan:

And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her (Genesis 29:20)

Justin describes the seven year wait involved in Jacob's marriages "certain dispensations of weighty mysteries" noting that previous generations of sages "never looked at the divine motive which prompted each act, but only at the grovelling and corrupting passions."

Justin notes that his hearer, Trypho the Jew, should:

attend therefore to what I say. The marriages of Jacob were types of that which Christ was about to accomplish ... [for he] served seven years. Now Leah is your people and synagogue; but Rachel is our Church. And for these, and for the servants in both, Christ even now serves ... Jacob served Laban for speckled and many-spotted sheep; and Christ served, even to the slavery of the cross, for the various and many-formed races of mankind, acquiring them by the blood and mystery of the cross. (Dialogue 134). 

In Secret Mark it is 'after six days' that the youth encounters divinity and crosses the Jordan.  Meyer mentions the parallel theophany at Sinai which occurs on the seventh day.  But this is closer because of geography - the 'sevenfoldness' of the experience being hidden effectively in the Hebrew two chapters earlier.

Given that Clement himself speaks of the 'secret gospel' as being literally used as part of a mystery rite established by Mark in Alexandria "the interpretation [of which] would, as a mystagogue, lead the hearers into the innermost sanctuary of that truth hidden by seven veils. Thus, in sum, he prepared matters, neither grudgingly nor incautiously, in my opinion, and, dying, he left his composition to the church in verso Alexandria, where it even yet is most carefully guarded, being read only to those who are being initiated into the great mysteries" it is hardly implausible to suggest that the scene might have been inspired by the narrative about Jacob wrestling and crossing the Jordan. 'Christ' let us not forget goes on from crossing the Jordan to being crucified in Jerusalem.