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 Most of
what we know about Mark comes directly from the New Testament. He is usually
identified with the Mark of Acts 12:12. (When Peter escaped from prison, he
went to the home of Mark's mother.)
Paul and Barnabas took him along on the first missionary journey, but for
some reason Mark returned alone to Jerusalem. It is evident, from Paul's
refusal to let Mark accompany him on the second journey despite Barnabas's
insistence, that Mark had displeased Paul. Later, Paul asks Mark to visit
him in prison so we may assume the trouble did not last long.
The oldest and the shortest of the four Gospels, the Gospel of Mark
emphasizes Jesus' rejection by humanity while being God's triumphant envoy.
Probably written for Gentile converts in Romeafter the death of Peter and
Paul sometime between A.D. 60 and 70Mark's Gospel is the gradual
manifestation of a "scandal": a crucified Messiah.
Evidently a friend of Mark (Peter called him "my son"), Peter is only one of
the Gospel sources, others being the Church in Jerusalem (Jewish roots) and
the Church at Antioch (largely Gentile).
Like one other Gospel writer, Luke, Mark was not one of the 12 apostles. We
cannot be certain whether he knew Jesus personally. Some scholars feel that
the evangelist is speaking of himself when describing the arrest of Jesus in
Gethsemane: "Now a young man followed him wearing nothing but a linen cloth
about his body. They seized him, but he left the cloth behind and ran off
naked" (Mark 14:51-52).
Others hold Mark to be the first bishop of Alexandria, Egypt. Venice, famous
for the Piazza San Marco, claims Mark as its patron saint; the large
basilica there is believed to contain his remains.
A winged lion is Mark's symbol. The lion derives from Mark's description of
John the Baptist as a "voice of one crying out in the desert" (Mark 1:3),
which artists compared to a roaring lion. The wings come from the
application of Ezekiel's vision of four winged creatures (Ezekiel, chapter
one) to the evangelists.
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