Mark the Evangelist | Commontide · Commontide

Mark, called by the early church the interpreter of Peter, wrote down the apostle's preaching at Rome and gave the church the Gospel that bears his name. Tradition sends him on from Rome to Alexandria, where he founded the church that the Coptic Orthodox still keep as their own, and where he died a martyr under Nero. His feast is kept on April 25.

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The identification of the evangelist with John Mark of Acts (12:12, 25; 13:5, 13; 15:37–39) and with the Mark of Paul's letters (Colossians 4:10, Philemon 24, 2 Timothy 4:11) is traditional but widely accepted. John Mark's mother, Mary, owned the house in Jerusalem where the early Christians assembled (Acts 12:12)—possibly the location of the Last Supper and Pentecost.

Mark accompanied Barnabas and Paul on the first missionary journey but 'left them and returned to Jerusalem' (Acts 13:13)—a departure that Paul regarded as desertion, leading to a sharp disagreement between Paul and Barnabas recorded in Acts 15:37–39. Barnabas took Mark with him to Cyprus; Paul chose Silas instead. The breach was eventually healed—Paul later mentions Mark warmly (Colossians 4:10: 'Marcus, the cousin of Barnabas'; 2 Timothy 4:11: 'Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me').

The tradition connecting Mark to Peter is early and strong. Papias of Hierapolis (c. 130), quoted by Eusebius, calls Mark 'Peter's interpreter' (hermēneutēs) who 'wrote down accurately, though not in order, all that he remembered of what the Lord had said or done.' Irenaeus confirms that Mark wrote down Peter's preaching after Peter's death in Rome, and Clement of Alexandria elaborates that the Gospel was composed while Peter was alive but that Peter approved it. This testimony places the composition of the Gospel in the late 60s AD, probably in Rome, shortly before or after Peter's martyrdom under Nero (c. 64–67).

The Gospel itself bears the marks of this origin. It is fast-paced (the word 'immediately,' euthys, appears over forty times), vivid in sensory detail (the green grass at the feeding of the five thousand; the cushion on which Jesus slept in the boat; the Aramaic cries preserved untranslated: 'Talitha koum,' 'Abba,' 'Eloi Eloi lema sabachthani'), and unflinchingly honest about the disciples' failures. Its ending (Mark 16:8) is abrupt and troubling: the women at the tomb, having been told of the resurrection, flee in fear and 'said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.' Whether this was Mark's intended ending or the original ending was lost and replaced with later supplements (16:9–20) is one of the great puzzles of New Testament textual and literary criticism.

Traditions & stories

Traditionally, Mark was the evangelist of Egypt, specifically Alexandria, where he founded the Christian community and served as its first bishop. According to late traditions, Mark was martyred in Alexandria by being dragged through the streets with a rope around his neck. His relics were later stolen from Alexandria by Venetian merchants in 828 and brought to Venice, where the Basilica di San Marco was built to house them—making the winged lion (Mark's Evangelist symbol) the emblem of the Venetian Republic and the symbol of the Venetian state to this day.

A persistent tradition identifies the 'young man' who fled naked from Gethsemane (Mark 14:51–52)—a detail found only in Mark's Gospel—as Mark himself. This identification is unprovable but has a certain narrative and autobiographical logic.

Collect

Almighty God, by the hand of Mark the evangelist you have given to your Church the Gospel of Jesus Christ: We thank you for his witness, and pray that you will give us grace to know the truth, and not to be carried about by every wind of false doctrine, that we may know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.