Yochanan Marcus, or John Mark, commonly known by his Roman name, 'Mark', was a Messianic Israelite of the Tribe of Levi. He is identified explicitly as as a companion of Barnabas and Paul, implicitly as a companion of Peter and is regarded almost universally as the author of the Gospel of Mark. The Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) provide us with few facts about John Mark (Heb. Yochanan, Lat. Marcus, Gk. Ióánnês and Márkos, respectively) (Ac.12:12,25; 15:37) though a rich tradition surrounds him.
John Mark was the son of Mary, at whose house in Jerusalem believers gathered for prayer, and to whose house the apostle Kefa or Peter came after his rescue from prison (Ac.12:12). After Barnabas and Paul elected to have Mark accompany them on their journey, for some unexplained reason he departed from their company in Cyprus and returned to Jerusalem (Ac.13:13). Paul refused to take John Mark on the next journey, even though Barnabas, who was Mark's uncle (Col.4:10), wanted him to come (Ac.15:37), and this resulted in a parting of the ways: Barnabas and John Mark went to Cyprus, while Paul and Silas traveled to parts of Roman Asia Minor (Ac.15:39-41).
Paul and John Mark were reconciled prior to the former's imprisonment at Rome and evidently worked together later on (Phm.24; 2 Tim.4:11).
However, one of John Mark's most important associations was undoubtedly with the apostle Peter with whom he worked in Rome ('Babylon'). According to Eusebius (HE 3.39.15), Papias maintained that John Mark served as Peter's "interpreter" and in Rome recorded the apostle's recollection of the Saviour's words and deeds. Various traditions claim that John Mark was the first to evangelise Egypt and the founder of the messianic community at Alexandria. Later stories, which may or may not be apocryphal, depict John Mark's martyrdom and his subsequent reburial in Venice, Italy. This is why St.Mark is the patron saint of that city and why his symbol appears on the city's flag (see below).
Some believe that John Mark was the "young man" of Mark 14:51, which is possible though not widely accepted. The claim that the Last Supper took place in John Mark's house is pure conjecture. That the first Messianic Shavu'ot (Weeks, 'Pentecost') took place in his house is probably a fable in view of the actual location almost certainly being the outer court of Jerusalem Temple itself.
Though the Gospel of Mark is the shortest of the canonical Gospels and is ranked second in our Bibles after the Gospel of Matthew, it is the almost general consensus of scholars that it was the first Gospel to be written down. Because it was almost certainly used by Matthew and Luke as a foundation for their own Gospels, on account of the authority of the head apostle Peter whose recollections and sermons almost certainly form the bulk of its content, it is held by Messianic Evangelicals as historically the most important of the four Gospels, the Gospel of John only being written some 2-3 decades later. Accordingly this is regarded by us as the foundational text of the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) and is the first to be studied by our students.
(4 September 2019)
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