Who was Mark in the gospel?

Answer 1

No. Mark wasn't one of 'the twelve' although there is a great deal of evidence that he was well known to them. There are mentions of a 'young man' carrying a pitcher of water who directed the disciples to the upper room for the Last Supper, and another, found only in Mark's Gospel of a young man present at Jesus's arrest who 'ran off naked' when he was grabbed by a soldier who was left holding his cloak as he escaped. Bible scholars believe these to be a John Mark, the same John Mark who was a companion of Paul on his missionary journeys, as recorded in Acts and the same John Mark ('Mark') who wrote the first gospel.

Answer 2

Mark, who wrote the Gospel of Mark, was a Christian Jew. He was related to Barnabas and a friend of Peter. He was travelling companion to both Paul and Barnabas.

Another suggestion, popular among many bible scholars, is that Mark was one of the 72 followers of Jesus who were sent out to prepare for Jesus' visits. Nuances in the Greek of Mark's gospel suggest much eye-witness writing that could only have come if he was an eyewitness, or a close friend of one (eg Peter). This theory is backed up by an incident recorded in Mark's gospel, and nowhere else, of a 'young man' fleeing naked from the scene of Jesus' arrest, after escaping the grip of an arresting guard, leaving his cloak behind in the guard's hands. For a gospel that is tightly written and thrifty with words, and of which nearly all is used in Matthew and Luke (but not this episode) some scholars agree that to include such irrelevant detail must strongly suggest that this 'young man' is Mark himself, wishing to stamp his presence (albeit in a small way) on the events of that week. This detail would have been not important enough to Luke and Matthew to include in their gospels after using Mark's account as a starting basis, but for Mark it would have been the only opportunity of saying 'I know, because I was there'.

Answer 3

A:

Mathew was an apostle, but the author of Matthew's Gospel was not. This gospel was originally anonymous but was speculatively attributed to Matthew during the second century, possibly by Papias. New Testament scholars say that the author of Matthew could not have been an eyewitness to the events portrayed, in part because much of Matthew's Gospel is copied, almost word for word in the Greek language, from Mark's Gospel.

Answer 4

Mark is not mentioned in any of the gospels. A Mark or Marcus is mentioned in Paul's epistles and in Acts of the Apostles, where he seems to have been the nephew of Barnabas, and also in 1 Peter 5:13 as the son of Peter. Acts of the Apostles frequently refers to Mark as 'John Mark'.

First Peter is considered to be a pseudepigraphical second-century book, so we can discount this as a reliable source of information. Nevertheless, Papias probably assumed that Mark could have been the author of one of the gospels largely because he believed 1 Peter to be genuine. Otherwise there is no good reason to accept the attribution of Mark's Gospel to the apostle Mark.

Answer 5

Mark was not an Apostle but is referred to as an 'evangelist' and writer of the Gospel of Mark.

Answer 6

No, Mark was not one of the apostles.