St. Mark

St. Mark (flourished 1st century ce, Jerusalem?—died, traditionally Alexandria, Egypt; Western feast day April 25, Eastern feast day September 23) was the traditional author of the second Synoptic Gospel. Data on his life found in the New Testament are fragmentary, and most of their historicity has been questioned by critical investigation. The only unquestionably reliable information is in Philemon 24, where a certain Mark is mentioned as one of St. Paul’s fellow workers who sends greetings from Rome to the Christians of Colossae (near modern Denizli, Turkey), but the identity of this person is not indicated. That Mark was St. Barnabas’ cousin in Colossians 4:10 may also be authentic.

Except for being referred to as John in Acts 12:25, 13:5; 13, and 15:37, elsewhere in the New Testament he is consistently called by his Latin surname Mark. According to Acts, his mother’s house in Jerusalem was a center of Christian life (12:12), and he accompanied Barnabas and Paul to Antioch (12:25), now Antakya, Turkey, where he became their assistant on a mission journey (13:5). When they arrived at Perga (near modern İhsaniye, Turkey), Mark left them and returned to Jerusalem (13:13). Mark’s leaving caused Barnabas and Paul to separate, for Paul declined Barnabas’ insistence on giving Mark another chance (15:37–39). Subsequently, Mark sailed to Cyprus with Barnabas, never to be mentioned again in Acts. The dependability of the Acts account is questionable, for its author is particularly interested in explaining the breach between Paul and Barnabas, probably introducing Mark for this reason. In this, he contradicts Paul’s account of their breach in Galatians 2:11–14.

In 2 Timothy 4:11, Paul requests St. Timothy to bring Mark, “for he is very useful in serving me,” but this is believed to be falsely deduced from Acts and Colossians. A close relationship between Mark and St. Peter is suggested by the greetings from “my son Mark” in 1 Peter 5:13; furthermore, the Apostolic Father Papias of Hierapolis says that Mark’s treatise (presumably the Gospel) was based on Peter’s teaching about Jesus. Later tradition assumes that Mark was one of the 72 disciples appointed by Jesus (Luke 10:1) and identifies him with the young man fleeing naked at Jesus’ arrest (Mark 14:51–52).

Discover the fascinating events that shaped the world, straight from our editors.

SIGN UP

By clicking “Sign Up”, you consent to the Britannica Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

The Egyptian church claims Mark as its founder, and, from the 4th century ce, the see of Alexandria has been called cathedra Marci (“the chair of Mark”). Other places attributing their origin to Mark are the Italian cities of Aquileia and Venice, of which he is the patron saint. His symbol is the lion.