Lives of Scripture

John Mark's mother, Mary, hosted a gathering of believers in her Jerusalem home, the very house Peter went to after his miraculous release from prison (Acts 12:12). Mark accompanied his cousin Barnabas and Paul as a helper on their first missionary journey but left them partway through, at Perga, and returned to Jerusalem, for reasons the text does not explain (13:5, 13). When Paul and Barnabas prepared for a second journey, Barnabas wanted to bring Mark along again, but Paul "kept insisting that they should not take him along, since he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work"; the disagreement became sharp enough that Paul and Barnabas separated, with Barnabas taking Mark to Cyprus and Paul choosing Silas instead (15:36-41). This could have been the last word on Mark's usefulness, but Scripture records a clear restoration: years later, Paul lists Mark among his fellow workers in Colossians and instructs the church to welcome him if he comes (Colossians 4:10), and in his final letter, written shortly before his death, Paul specifically asks for Mark, saying "he is useful to me for service" (2 Timothy 4:11). Peter also calls him warmly "my son Mark" (1 Peter 5:13). Early church tradition identifies this same John Mark as the author of the Gospel of Mark -- a man once judged too unreliable for the mission field going on to write one of the four accounts of Jesus's life.