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MARK, ST
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See also:MARK, ST , the traditional author of the second ,See also:Gospel. His name occurs in several books of the New Testament, and doubtless refers in all cases to the same See also:person, though this has been questioned. In the Acts of the Apostles (xii. 12) we read of " See also: 2 Tim. iv. II). When, not See also:long after, they started on a See also:joint See also:mission beyond See also:Syria, Mark went as their assistant, undertaking the See also:minor See also:personal duties connected with travel, as well as with their work proper (xiii. 5). As soon, however, as their plans See also:developed, after leaving Cyprus and on arrival at See also:Perga in See also:Pamphylia (see PAUL,), Mark withdrew, probably on some See also:matter of principle, and returned to Jerusalem (xiii. 13). When, then, Paul proposed, after the Jerusalem See also:council of Acts xv., to revisit with Barnabas the scenes of their joint labours, he naturally demurred to taking Mark with them again, feeling that he could not be relied on should fresh openings demand a new policy. But Barnabas stood by his younger kinsman and " took Mark and sailed away to Cyprus" (xv. 38 seq.). Barnabas does not reappear, unless we See also:trust the tradition which makes him an evangelist in See also:Alexandria (Clem. Hom. 9 seq., cf. the attribution to him of the Alexandrine See also:Epistle of Barnabas). When Mark appears once more, it is in Paul's See also:company at See also:Rome, as a See also:fellow-worker joining in See also:salutations to Christians at See also:Colossae (Col. iv. 1o; Philem. 24). We gather, too, that his restoration to Paul's confidence took See also:place some See also:time earlier, as the See also:Colossians had already been bidden by oral See also:message or See also:letter to welcome him if he should visit them. This points to a reconciliation during Paul's last sojourn in Jerusalem or Caesarea. Not long after Col. iv. lo Mark seems to have been sent by Paul to some place in the See also:province of See also:Asia, lying on the route between See also:Ephesus and Rome. For in 2 Tim. iv. 11 Paul bids See also:Timothy, " Pick up Mark and bring him with thee, for he is useful to me for ministering." Once more Mark's name occurs in the New Testament, this time with yet another See also:leader, Peter, the friend of his earliest Christian years in Jerusalem, to whom he attached himself after the deaths of Barnabas and Paul. Peter's words, " Mark, my son," show how See also:close was the spiritual tie between the older and the younger See also:man (I Pet. v. 13); and as he is See also:writing from Rome (" See also:Babylon," since Paul's See also:death and the See also:change of policy it implied), this forms a See also:link between the New Testament and See also:early tradition, which speaks of Mark as an Evangelist writing his Gospel under the See also:influence of Peter's See also:preaching (in Rome). This is the essence of the tradition preserved from " the elders of former days " by See also:Clement of Alexandria (in Eus. ii. 15, vi. 14), a tradition probably based on See also:Papias's See also:record (cf. Eus. iii. 39) of the explanation given by " the See also:Elder " (John) as to the contrast in See also:form between Mark's See also:memoirs of Peter's discourses and the Gospel of See also:Matthew (see GOSPELS; PAPIAS), but defining the place where these memoirs were written as Rome. That he acted to some degree as Peter's interpreter or dragoman (Epµf7veur), owing to the apostle's imperfect mastery of See also:Greek, is held by some but denied by others (e.g. by Zahn). His role throughout his career was servus servorum dei; and the fact that he was this successively to Barnabas, Paul and Peter, See also:helps to show the essential See also:harmony of their message.
The See also:identification of the author of the second Gospel with Mark, which we owe to tradition, enables us to fill in our. picture of him a little further. Thus it is possible that Mark was himself the youth (veaviorKor) to whom his Gospel refers as See also:present at Jesus's See also:arrest (xiv. 51 seq.; cf. his detailed knowledge as to the place of the last supper, 13 seq.). It is probably as evangelist, and not in his own person, that he became known as " he of the stunted extremities " (rcoXo(3o&6urv\os, " curt-fingered "), a See also:title first found in See also:Hippolytus (Haer. vii. 30), in a context which makes its metaphorical reference to his Gospel See also:pretty evident.' It was too as evangelist that he became personally a subject of later See also:interest, and of speculative legends due to this, e.g. he was one of the Seventy (first found in Adamantius, See also:Dial. de recta fide, 4th See also:century), he was the founder of the Alexandrine See also: As to his last days and death nothing is really known. It is possible—even probable, if we accept the theory that he had already 2 been there with Barnabas—that Alexandria was his final See also:sphere of work, as the earliest tradition on the point implies (the Latin See also:Prologue, and Eusebius as above, probably after See also:Julius See also:Africanus in the early 3rd century), and as was widely assumed in the 4th century. That he died and was buried there is first stated by See also:Jerome (De vir. See also:ill. 8), to which his Acts adds the See also:glory of martyrdom (cf. Ps.-Hippolytus, De LXX Apostolic). See also:Medieval Legends. The See also:majority of medieval writers on the subject See also:state that Mark was a Levite; but this is probably no more than an inference from his supposed relationship to Barnabas. The Alexandrian tradition seems to have been that he was of Cyrenaean origin ; and See also:Severus, a writer of the loth century, adds to this the statement that his See also:father's name was See also:Aristobulus, who, with his wife Mary, was driven from the Pentapolis to Jerusalem by an invasion of barbarians ' The divergent lines of the later attempts at a literal See also:interpretation—e.g. he amputated his thumb in See also:order to.See also:escape the Levitical priesthood (Latin Prologue), or it was a natural defect (See also:Cod. Tolet.)—suggest that all they had to start from was the epithet itself. 2 Nicephorus Callistus, Hist. Eccl. ii. 43, assumes this in his picturesque See also:account of Mark's preaching in a See also:quarter of the See also:city which seems to have contained the See also:tomb of the early bishops of Alexandria (cf. his Acts). (Severus Aschimon in See also:Renaudot, Hist. See also:patriarch. alex., p. 2). In the apocryphal Acts of Barnabas, which profess to be written by him, he speaks of himself as having been formerly a servant of See also:Cyrillus, the high See also:priest of See also:Zeus, and as having been baptized at See also:Iconium. The See also:presbyter John, whom Papias quotes, says distinctly that " he neither heard the See also:Lord nor accompanied Him ' (Eusebius, loc. cit.) ; and this See also:positive statement is fatal to the tradition, which does not appear until about two See also:hundred and fifty years afterwards, that he was one of the seventy disciples (See also:Epiphanius, pseudo-See also:Origen De recta in Deum fide, and the author of the See also:Paschal See also:Chronicle). Various other results of the tendency to fill up See also:blank names in the gospel See also:history must be set aside on the same ground; it was, for example, believed that Mark was one of the disciples who " went back " because of the " hard saying " (pseudo-Hippolyt., De LXX Apostolis in Cod. Barocc. See also:Migne, See also:Patrol. graec. x.955); there was an Alexandrian tradition that he was one of the servants at the See also:miracle of See also:Cana of See also:Galilee, that he was the " man bearing a See also:pitcher of See also:water " in whose house the last supper was prepared, and that he was also the owner of the house in which the disciples met on the evening of the resurrection (Renaudot, loc. cit.); and even in See also:modern times there has been the conjecture that he was the " certain See also:young man " who " fled naked " from See also:Gethsemane, Mark xiv. 51, 52 (See also:Olshausen). A tradition which was widely diffused, and which is not in itself improbable, was that he afterwards preached the gospel and presided over the church at Alexandria (the earliest extant testimony is that of Eusebius, H. E. ii. 16, 1; ii. 24; for the fully-developed See also:legend of later times see Symeon Metaphrastes, Vita S. Marci, and Eutychius Origines ecclesiae Alexandrinae). There was another, though perhaps not incompatible, tradition that he preached the gospel and presided over the church at See also:Aquileia in See also:North See also:Italy. The earliest testimony in favour of this tradition is the vague statement of See also:Gregory of Nazianzus that Mark preached in Italy, but its existence in the 7th century is shown by the fact that in A.D. 629 See also:Heraclius sent the patriarchal See also:chair from Alexandria to See also:Grado, to which city the patriarchate of Aquileia had been then transferred (Chron. patriarch. Gradens., in Ughelli, Italia sacra, tom. v. p. 1086; for other references to the See also:general tradition see De Rubeis, Monum. See also:eccles. aquileien., c. 1; Acta sanctorum, ad See also:April, See also:xxv.). It was through this tradition that Mark became connected with See also:Venice, whither the patriarchate was further transferred from Grado; an early Venetian legend, which is represented in the Cappella Zen in the See also:basilica of St Mark, antedates thi connexion by picturing the evangelist as having been stranded on the Rialto, while it was still an uninhabited See also:island, and as having had the future greatness of the city revealed to him (Danduli, Chron. iv. 1, ap. See also:Muratori, Rer. ital. script. xii. 14). The earliest traditions appear to imply that he died a natural death (Eusebius, Jerome, and even Isidore of See also:Seville) ; but the Martyrologies claim him as a See also:martyr, though they do not agree as to the manner of his martyrdom. According to the pseudo-Hippolytus he was burned; but Symeon Metaphrastes and the Paschal Chronicle represent him to have been dragged over rough stones until he died. But, however that may be, his tomb appears to have been venerated at Alexandria, and there was a See also:firm belief at Venice in the See also:middle ages that his remains had been translated thither in the 9th century (the fact of the See also:translation is denied even by See also:Tillemont ; the weakness of the See also:evidence in support of the tradition is apparent even in Molini's vigorous See also:defence of it, See also:lib. ii. c. 2; the See also:minute account which the same writer gives, lib., ii. c. n 1, of the See also:discovery of the supposed actual bones of the evangelist in A.D. 1811, is interesting). There was another though less widely accepted tradition, that the remains soon after their translation to Venice were retranslated to the See also:abbey of See also:Reichenau on See also:Lake See also:Constance; a circumstantial account of this retranslation is given in the See also:treatise Ex miraculis S. Marci, in See also:Pertz, Mon. hilt. See also:german. script., torn. iv. p. 449. It may be added that the Venetians prided themselves on possessing, not only the See also:body of St Mark, but also the autograph of his Gospel; this autograph, however, proved on examination to be only See also:part of a 6th-century See also:book of the Gospels, the See also:remainder of which was published by See also:Bianchini as the Evangeliarium forojuliense; the Venetian part of this MS. was found some years ago to have been wholly destroyed by See also:damp. It has been at various times supposed that Mark wrote other See also:works besides the Gospel. Several books of the New Testament have been attributed to him: viz. the Epistle to the See also:Hebrews (Spanheim, Op. miscell. ii. 240), the Epistle of See also:Jude (cf. See also:Holtzmann, See also:Die synoptischen Evangelien, p. 373), the See also:Apocalypse (See also:Hitzig, Ueber Johannes See also:Marcus, See also:Zurich, 1843). The apocryphal Acta Barnabae purport to have been written by him. There is a liturgy which bears his name, and which exists in two forms; the one form was found in a MS. of the 12th century in See also:Calabria, and is, according to Renaudot, the See also:foundation of the three liturgies of St See also:Basil, St Gregory Nazianzen and St See also:Cyril; the other is that which is used by the Maronite and Jacobite Syrians. Both forms have been published by Renaudot, Liturg. See also:oriental. collect, i. 127, and ii. 176, and in See also:Neale's History of the See also:Holy Eastern Church; but neither has any substantial claim to belong to the ante-Nicene See also:period of Christian literature. The See also:symbol by which Mark is designated in Christian See also:art is usually that of a See also:lion. Each of the " four living creatures " of See also:Ezekiel and the Apocalypse has been attributed to each of the four evangelistsin turn; See also:Augustine and See also:Bede think that Mark is designated by the " man "; See also:Theophylact and others think that he is designated by the See also:eagle; See also:Anastasius Sinaita makes his symbol the ox; but medieval art acquiesced in the See also:opinion of Jerome that he was indicated by the lion. Most of the martyrologies and calendars assign April 25 as the See also:day on which he should be commemorated ; but the Martyr. Hieron. gives the 23rd of See also:September, and some Greek martyrologies give the i nth of See also:January. This unusual variation probably arises from early See also:differences of opinion as to whether there was one Mark or more than one. See See also:Canon Molini of Venice, De vita et lipsanis S. Marci Evangelistae, edited, after the author's death, by S. Pieralisi, the librarian of the See also:Barberini library (1864) ; R. A. See also:Lipsius, Die apokryphen Apostelgesch. and Apostellegenden (1883 See also:foil). vol. ii. part 2, pp. 321-353. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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