John Mark

An illuminated manuscript page of Saint Mark writing at a golden desk, his lion beside him, from the Grandes Heures of Anne of Brittany. — Saint Mark the Evangelist, Jean Bourdichon, Grandes Heures of Anne of Brittany, c. 1503-08. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

He grew up at the church’s first address: the Jerusalem house of his mother Mary, where the believers prayed Peter out of prison (Acts 12:12) – quite possibly the house of the upper room itself. Barnabas was his cousin (Colossians 4:10), and the young man got an early call-up: assistant on the first missionary journey. At Perga, with the hard Anatolian interior ahead, “John left them and returned to Jerusalem” (Acts 13:13). Luke offers no excuse, and Paul accepted none: when Barnabas proposed taking Mark on the second journey, the disagreement split the team (Acts 15:36-40).

The rest of Mark’s story is the New Testament’s quiet case study in restoration. Barnabas took him back to Cyprus and rebuilt him; a decade later he appears at Paul’s side in Rome, a “fellow worker” and comfort (Colossians 4:10-11; Philemon 24); and Paul’s last letter contains the deserter’s full pardon: “Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry” (2 Timothy 4:11). Peter, meanwhile, calls him “Mark, my son” (1 Peter 5:13).

That last bond bore the great fruit: the church’s earliest testimony says Mark wrote down Peter’s preaching – the vivid, hurrying Gospel that bears his name, and by most reckonings the first Gospel written. The young man who fled the mission field gave the world the book where everyone fails Jesus and grace gets the last word. He would have known.

In the New Testament

The praying house of his mother (Acts 12:12)
Desertion at Perga; the dispute (Acts 13:13; 15:36-40)
Restored: Rome, Peter, Paul’s last request (Colossians 4:10; 1 Peter 5:13; 2 Timothy 4:11)
The Gospel according to Mark

Key Locations

Jerusalem The holy city -- David's capital, the temple's home, the stage of the crucifixion, resurrection, and Pentecost.
Cyprus Barnabas' home island and the first stop of the first missionary journey.
Antioch The great city on the Orontes where believers were first called Christians and Paul's missions were launched.
Rome The capital of the empire -- Paul's destination, his prison, and the "Babylon" from which Peter wrote.