Mark
The evangelist; “John whose surname was Mark” (Act_12:12, Act_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 Act_13:5, Act_13:13, and Mark in Act_15:39, 2Ti_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 (Act_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” (1Pe_5:13). It is probable that the “young man” spoken of in Mar_14:51, Mar_14:52 was Mark himself. He is first mentioned in Act_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 (Act_12:25; Act_13:13). Three years afterwards a “sharp contention” arose between Paul and Barnabas (Act_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; Phm_1:24). At a later period he was with Peter in Babylon (1Pe_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 (2Ti_4:11). He then disappears from view.
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