So very little said about him, and yet an important part of the New Testament came from his hand. So obscure, the details of his life and ministry, yet he exercised a momentous influence on the early days of the Church. Younger than any of the twelve apostles, yet in his devotion to Jesus and maturity of character not one whit behind them. John Mark, author of the second Gospel, is one of the oustanding figures of the Apostolic Church.

The style of Mark’s Gospel is vivid and life-like. There is a crispness and an enthusiasm about the composition that speaks of an alert and intelligent — and quite youthful — observer. John Mark must have been young at the time. The expression used in Acts 13:5 "they had John to their minister" means that he acted as general assistant and handyman to the two evangelists, and this in turn implies that he would not at that time — about AD 46 — be more than in his mid-twenties. It follows that during the lifetime of Jesus he would have been about fourteen years of age.

One might ask, what was this young man doing out there in Gethsemane, in the freezing April night time -- always bitterly cold in Judea at night even though the day be hot -- clad only thus? The disciples had fled, but he followed -- discreetly at a distance, probably, but to see what was going to happen to the Master. A little thought suggests a solution to the enigma. The lad was Mark, the only one who knew of the incident. The Last Supper had been held in the Upper Room at his mother's house; that much is known. Mark knew all about it; he knew, perhaps by words overheard, perhaps by the demeanor of the twelve as they set out for Gethsemane with Jesus, that there was going to be a crisis that night. He must have known of the enmity of the priests and he knew their methods. He intended to be there to see what happened but he did not intend to be caught; he, at any rate, would escape to take the news back to the women and others. So he adopted a well-known ruse. He smothered his naked body with grease or oil, enshrouded himself in a single sheet of cloth which would readily slip off, and set off for Gethsemane. When apprehended by the captors of Jesus, he wriggled out of the sheet and his captors were unable to hold his well-greased body; he slithered out of their grasp and was gone. Thus, was the news brought to the women while the disciples
were in hiding.

Served Paul and Barnabas

So Mark would have grown up in the faith during those early years following the Resurrection and eventually be received into full fellowship in the community, so that when some ten years or so later Paul came to Jerusalem, he found him ready for Christian service and took him back with him to Antioch. There he labored, probably in a minor capacity, for two or three years and then set out with Paul and Barnabas on what is known as Paul's first missionary journey. He did not get far; after a short progress through Cyprus, evangelizing and perhaps establishing one or two little Christian communities, they crossed the sea to the Asiatic mainland and here Mark left the other two and returned to Jerusalem, Acts 13:13. The cause of his defection is not stated and is not known. The most likely surmise is that the increasing troubles in Judea and rising persecution of the Christians there led him to return to protect his mother.

Returned to Cyprus with Barnabas

He must have left her again and gone back to Antioch within a year or so for when Paul and Barnabas planned their second missionary journey in AD 50, a dispute arose as to whether Mark should or should not accompany them. The upshot of that was that the two evangelists separated and Mark went to Cyprus again with his uncle Barnabas.

Of this evangelistic effort nothing is known. After their arrival in Cyprus in or about the year 50, when Mark was about thirty years of age, the curtain drops and does not rise for another ten years, by which time, according to Colossians 4:10, he was with Paul at Rome during the latter's two years' detention awaiting his first trial. That would be between the years 60 and 62. Of Barnabas nothing more is known and tradition has it that he was martyred in Cyprus soon after his arrival; if this was in fact the case, Mark would obviously have returned to his headquarters at Antioch.

Founded Church of Alexandria

The early historians are emphatic and unanimous in saying that Mark was the founder, and first elder, or bishop, of the Christian Church at Alexandria in Egypt, and Eusebius (fourth century) says that the second bishop, Annianus, succeeded Mark in AD 61.

It might therefore be concluded that from Antioch Mark went to Egypt and stayed there perhaps eight or nine years by which time the church he founded had become numerous and influential. (In later years Alexandria ranked with Antioch and Rome as one of the three most powerful churches of the Christian society and was a serious contender with Rome for the primacy of Christendom.)

With Paul in Rome

If Annianus did succeed him in AD 61, that is fairly obviously because Mark, learning that Paul had been taken to Rome to await trial, wanted to be with him in his hour of adversity. At forty-two years of age he was too young to think of retiring, whether from a bishopric or any other kind of service. So he went to Rome, which is where we find him in Colossians 4:10 and again in Philemon 24. The epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon were both written during AD 60-62 and Mark was with Paul when they were dispatched.

Two or three years later he is in Rome again, this time with Peter. Paul was gone, on those travels which occupied the time between his first and second trials and which are not recorded in the Book of Acts. Whether he stayed in Rome after Paul left until Peter arrived, or went back to Antioch in the meantime, is not known but almost certainly it was the latter. After Paul and Aristarchus sailed for Spain there were none of the Asiatic evangelists left in Rome; the Church in Rome had its own leaders in Clement and Linus (both mentioned in the New Testament), and Anencletus; Mark was not really needed. The obvious conclusion is that he returned to Antioch where his friend Peter was now the leading elder, and waited for his next commission of service.

Peter's Heroic End in Rome

That commission came about AD 65 when Peter decided to go to Rome. The Great Fire of Rome and the consequent persecution of the Christians there, blamed for the catastrophe by the mad Emperor Nero, was over, and the decimated church in Rome stood in dire need of help. Peter, Silks and Mark set sail for Rome and labored with the Church in Rome for some two or three years before Peter's martyrdom. It was quite likely during this sojourn that Mark wrote his Gospel, unless, which is possible, he did so during the five years or so immediately preceding, while at Antioch.

The accounts of several second and third century Church historians regarding Mark were held to infer that he wrote his Gospel at the dictation of Peter so that it was properly the Gospel of Peter. Another view of these old histories is that Mark acted as a kind of secretary to Peter, writing down his oral teachings for the benefit of the believers, not that his own Gospel was dictated by Peter. Yet another view is that Mark drew some of his material from Peter. The style and content of the Gospel of Mark seem to point to a writer who witnessed the events and heard the actual words spoken by Jesus. The Gospel of Mark possesses a freshness of enthusiasm and outlook, and a naivete, that seems to point to a much younger man than Peter. The life of Jesus as related in the Gospel of Mark seems at times as one that is seen through the eyes of a teenage lad rather than that of a grown man. A supporting argument in this connection is offered by the first epistle of Peter, written in Rome by Peter at about the same time as the Gospel of Mark. The difference in style and in the usage of words between the Gospel of Mark and the epistle of Peter highlights the youthful influence that Mark infused into his Gospel.

Within about another two years Peter had gone to his reward, martyred for his faith. Silas must have left Rome only a few months before, carrying Peter's first epistle to the brethren of Roman Asia. Mark would have left Rome also, directly after Peter's death, having no further object in remaining. He could not have known that Paul had just been arrested at Troas and was now en route for Rome again, to his second trial and this time to execution. The two ships carrying them probably passed each other somewhere in the  Mediterranean, for Mark is next found at Ephesus. It is likely that he took with him Peter's second epistle-the one that is sometimes said to be of doubtful authenticity because of its style, ignoring the fact that an epistle written in the shadow of an imminent martyr's death is almost certain to reflect the writer's state of mind. And so Mark came to Ephesus, where Timothy had been serving for the past six years, since he left Rome after Paul's first trial, and probably worked harmoniously with Timothy and the apostle John whom he had known so well in his boyhood days.

Paul's Closing Experiences

Six months later, Paul, back in Rome, in prison, facing trial for being the ringleader of what was now an illegal and proscribed religion, wrote to his beloved co-laborer Timothy asking him to come to Rome, and to bring Mark with him (2 Timothy 4:11). Only Luke had remained with him, he said, and he wanted to see the others again for what would perhaps be the last time. "Do thy diligence to come before winter," he said (verse 21). It was not to be. He wrote to Timothy early in AD 68. His final trial and execution could not have been later than April or May, for he was condemned during the reign of Nero, and Nero himself died during June of that year. Before Timothy even received the letter, the great apostle to the Gentiles had finished his course and passed into his Master's safe keeping.