MARK
(lat. “marcus”, “great hammer”).
The evangelist who is attributed, from the first historical sources, with the authorship of the second Gospel. Mark is a nickname (Acts 12:12, 25); Furthermore, in Acts he is designated only by his first name: John (Acts 13:5, 13).
Her mother, one of the Marys, must have had a good financial situation, because she had a house in Jerusalem where Christians gathered (Acts 12: 12-17). (See MARY.)
Many Jews have Latin nicknames in the NT (Acts 1:23; 13:9) and the juxtaposition of Mark to John does not in any way imply that he was of mixed Jewish and pagan ancestry.
Mark accompanied his uncle Barnabas (Col. 4:10) and Paul from Jerusalem to Antioch in Syria (Acts 12:25), and then on their missionary journey (Acts 13:5). For an unknown reason, Mark left Perga (Acts 13:13) and returned to Jerusalem.
Whatever the reason for this separation, Paul disapproved so intensely that he refused to let Mark accompany him on a second journey (Acts 15:38). Then Barnabas, separating from Paul, embarked with Mark to continue the evangelization of Cyprus.
Since then nothing has been heard from Marcos for ten years. He meets him again in Rome, uniting his greetings with those of Paul (Col. 4:10; Phm. 24). Their differences had disappeared. Later, Paul speaks of Mark in glowing terms “Take Mark and bring him with you because he is useful to me for the ministry” (2 Tim. 4:11) implying this mention that Mark had been in Asia Minor, and perhaps even further east. .
This assumption agrees with the passage at 1 Pet. 5:13, as long as Babylon is understood literally. But he mentions Mark as his son, a qualifier that, if it is not just a term of affection, may mean that Mark was one of Peter’s converts.
The latter, when delivered by the angel, had gone to the house of Mark’s mother (Acts 12:12), which is an indication of the apostle’s early relations with this family. We do not know if Mark had been an immediate disciple of Jesus.
On this point tradition does not speak unanimously. Many believe that the young man who escaped, leaving the sheet with which he covered himself in the hands of his persecutors, during Jesus’ arrest, was Mark (Mark 14:51, 52).
None of the other evangelists mention this incident, and it seems that the reason for including it is that it is a personal reminiscence. The date and place of Marcos’ death are unknown. A very ancient tradition presents him as the “interpreter of Peter.”
Among the testimonies of the second century, Papias of Hierapolis writes around the year 140 AD, quoting the words of “an ancient”: “Mark, who became Peter’s interpreter, wrote down carefully, but not in order, all the recollections of Peter about what the Lord had said and done.
In fact, Mark had not heard or followed the Lord. Later, as I have already said, he accompanied Peter, who taught according to the needs of the moment, and not with the intention of giving a systematic account of the Lord’s words.
In writing these accounts, Mark made no mistake, for he took great care not to omit anything that he had heard or add anything that was not true” (Eusebius, “Ecclesiastical History” 3:39).
This allusion to Mark, Peter’s interpreter, may mean that he accompanied him to the end of his itinerant apostolate and that he served as his spokesman before pagan audiences. We have seen that Mark was in Rome at the same time as Paul.
An uncertain tradition attributes to him the founding of the church in Alexandria, Egypt. Mark’s training, in addition to his close relationship with the main apostles, had prepared him admirably for the writing of his Gospel.