Whose testimony is of greatest importance in establishing the authorship of the Gospel of Mark?

Answer 1

A:

Papias, a venerated second-century Church Father is believed to have decided that the previously anonymous Gospel of Mark was written by Mark, the young companion of Paul. Mark is mentioned as a 'fellowprisoner in Christ' (Philemon 24), as a cousin of Barnabas (Colossians 4:10) and even as son of Peter (1 Peter 5:13). If all of these testimonies were correct, as Papias probably believed, then it could well be true that Mark might have written the gospel that now bears his name.

Paul's brief mention of Mark as a 'fellowprisoner in Christ' is certainly not sufficient to make Mark a likely candidate as the author. The reference in Colossians to Mark as being related to Barnabas would suggest that Mark was part of the inner circle and could have been entrusted with writing the gospel, if only Paul had really been the author of this epistle. The reference in First Peter to Mark as Peter's son, whether as an actual member of Peter's family or in the spiritual sense, would have been of greatest importance in choosing Mark as the likely author of the gospel since Peter might well have chosen Mark as his secretary.

The importance of testimony now has to be weighed up in terms of whether that testimony is correct. The consensus of New Testament scholars is that Colossians was written in Paul's name during the eighties of the first century, long after Paul had died, and can therefore not be regarded as providing a true record of a relationship between Mark and Barnabas. 1 Peter is not believed to have been written by Peter but is considered a second-century pseudepigraphical work. Since there is no first-century record of Mark as related to, or even close to Peter, this testimony should be dismissed.

To the Church Fathers of the second century, the testimony in 1 Peter was no doubt of greatest importance in accepting Mark as the likely author of the gospel that now bears his name, but modern scholars say that we do not know who the author was.