Saint Mark

In the Bible, Mark was the son of Mary of Jerusalem (whose house was used as a gathering place by early Christians) and the cousin of Saint Barnabas. Mark was his Roman surname; his first name was John (Acts 12:12). He accompanied Barnabas and Saint Paul on their first missionary journey (Acts 12 and 13) but abruptly left them at Perga. Paul therefore refused to take Mark on the second trip, a decision that precipitated a break between the apostle and Barnabas (Acts 15:36-40). Paul and Mark later reconciled their differences (Col. 4:10; Philemon 24).

Mark was also associated with Peter (Acts 12:12; 1 Peter 5:13). He is credited with writing the earliest Gospel, which reflects Peter's teaching in Jerusalem, although the Gentile orientation and seeming lack of knowledge about Palestine are evidence to the contrary. The tradition that he founded the church in Alexandria is of dubious value.

Douglas Ezell

Bibliography
Hiebert, D. Edmond, Mark: A Portrait of the Servant (1974).

Saint Mark

Mark, the evangelist; "John whose surname was Mark" (Acts 12:12, 25). Mark (Marcus, Col. 4:10, etc.) was his Roman name, which gradually came to supersede his Jewish name John. He is called John in Acts 13:5, 13, and Mark in 15:39, 2 Tim. 4:11, etc. He was the son of Mary, a woman apparently of some means and influence, and was probably born in Jerusalem, where his mother resided (Acts 12:12). Of his father we know nothing. He was cousin of Barnabas (Col. 4:10). It was in his mother's house that Peter found "many gathered together praying" when he was released from prison; and it is probable that it was here that he was converted by Peter, who calls him his "son" (1 Pet. 5: 13). It is probable that the "young man" spoken of in Mark 14:51, 52 was Mark himself. He is first mentioned in Acts 12: 25. He went with Paul and Barnabas on their first journey (about A.D. 47) as their "minister," but from some cause turned back when they reached Perga in Pamphylia (Acts 12:25; 13:13).

Three years afterwards a "sharp contention" arose between Paul and Barnabas (15:36-40), because Paul would not take Mark with him. He, however, was evidently at length reconciled to the apostle, for he was with him in his first imprisonment at Rome (Col. 4:10; Philemon 24). At a later period he was with Peter in Babylon (1 Pet. 5:13), then, and for some centuries afterwards, one of the chief seats of Jewish learning; and he was with Timothy in Ephesus when Paul wrote him during his second imprisonment (2 Tim. 4:11). He then disappears from view.