Was mark a gentile or a Jew?

Answer 1

Mark was Jewish.

One way we know this, is that Mark was Barnabas' cousin, and Barnabas was a Levite. (Colossians 4:10)(Acts 4:36)
Yes. All of the disciples/apostles, as well as Jesus, were Jews.

actually Simon peter aka cephas was greek

Answer 2

There can be many opinions on this question, because we can never really go back and ask the author ('Mark'). However, there are some clues that can help us.

The choice is not necessarily just to write for Jews or Gentiles. In the first century, it would have been possible for Mark to have been written for Jews of the Diaspora, but not for Palestinian Jews, because Diaspora Jews were often less familiar with Palestinian geography.

We can certainly say that he was not writing for Palestinian Jews, because a Palestinian Jew would immediately detect Mark's lack of knowledge of Palestinian geography. For example, believers and non-believers have long debated his descriptions of Jesus as travelling from one town to another in improbably circuitous routes. More improbably, he described a great storm with waves that threatened to sink the ship (Mark 4:37) - on the tiny, land-locked fresh-water Lake Tiberius, the Sea of Galilee. A Palestinian Jew would have known that the lake is simply too small for any storm to create waves that would worry the crew of a fishing boat.

However, Mark also seemed unfamiliar with some aspects of Jewish ritual. Since this would have been equally apparent to Diaspora Jews and Palestinian Jews, perhaps this shows that he was writing for Gentiles.

Answer 3

There are at least three different answers to whether Mark was a Jew or a Gentile, with each answer correct within its own context.

What Paul tells us about Mark

Paul mentions Mark briefly in Philemon 1:24, but tells us nothing about Mark except that he was a Christian who appears to have been known to Philemon and other Christians associated with Philemon. There are also references to Mark in Colossians 4:10 and 2 Timothy 4:11 , but most New Testament scholars regard these epistles as pseudepigraphical (not written by Paul and not written during his lifetime) and therefore do not reflect Paul's knowledge of who Mark was. As Philemon 1:24 is Paul's only genuine reference to Mark, we can not say from this brief mention whether Mark was a Jew or a Gentile. There is no indication of whether theMark that Paul knew was a Jew or a Gentile.

New Testament references that support the view that Mark was a Jew

Colossians 4:10 describes Mark as a nephew of Barnabas, which would make him a Jew. However, the facts that this epistle is pseudepigraphical and that it was written a generation after Paul's time, makes this information unreliable.

1 Peter 5:13 describes Mark as Peter's son, whether as a blood relative or simply as a fond term for a younger friend. Certainly, it is implausible that Mark was both Barnabas' nephew and Peter's son. If the reference in 1 Peter was intended to show Mark to be Peter's son, this would make him a Jew. However, most New Testament scholars also regard this epistle as pseudepigraphical, which again makes this information unreliable.

Acts of the Apostles mentions Mark in verses 15:37, 39, where he is associated with Barnabas, but not necessarily as a relative. Verses 12:12-17 describe Mark as the son of Mary of Jerusalem. The passage clearly shows that Peter is supposed to have known Mary and Mark, but implicitly suggests no family relationship between them. Nevertheless, as the son of Mary of Jerusalem, Mark would certainly have been a Jew. However, Dennis E Smith and Joseph B Tyson (Acts and Christian Beginings, page 143) say that the Acts Seminar deliberated on this passage and voted that Acts 12:1-17 is a Lukan fiction written to emulate Priam's escape from Achilles in the last book of the Iliad.

Although there are multiple sources that portray Mark as a Jew, each of these sources is at best doubtful.

The gospel writer

The gospel that now bears Mark's name was originally anonymous, which means we can never know whether its author was a Jew or a Gentile. During the second century, the Church Fathers decided to attribute this gospel to Mark, but there are good reasons to consider their decision to be no more than speculative. Although, for convenience, we continue to call the author 'Mark', there is nothing about Mark's Gospel that would clearly identify its author as either Jew or Gentile. The author's skill in Greek rhetoric and his sound acquaintance with pagan mythology may suggest that he was a Gentile, but this can not be certain.

Answer 4

Mark was either a Greek who was very close to the Jewish community, or he was a Jew very assimilated into Greek culture. The textual evidence does not decide the question. It is worth noting that the Jewish community of the era attracted a fair number of people to do things like attending services and studying Jewish literature, but not converting -- typically because keeping kosher and circumcision were a step too far. We know that Mark wrote for non-Jews because he was always stopping to explain Jewish background that others like Matthew, who wrote for a Jewish audience, never needed to explain. We know that Mark's Jewish education was limited because he occasionally made mistakes. The same kinds of mistakes an assimilated Jew or a new convert to Judaism might easily make today.