St Peter’s Anglican Church

St Mark the Evangelist - April 26

The church commemorates Mark both as the author of the earliest Gospel and also as one of the leaders of the early church.

The earliest reference to Mark is in the Acts of the Apostles, where he is referred to as “John, whose other name was Mark” (Acts 12:12). The two names, one Jewish and the other Roman, suggest that he was a Hellenistic Jew. His mother lived in Jerusalem, and the home was a meeting place of the early church. Mark was a cousin of Barnabas (Colossians 4:10), who came from Cyprus. The fact that John Mark’s home was in Jerusalem has led to various suggestions that he knew of or even was involved in some of the events of the last days of Jesus’ life, but nothing can be said for certain. A later report asserts that he had not heard Jesus or been one of his followers.

Mark was with Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey as their assistant (Acts 13:5). When they got to Perga in Pamphylia (in modern Turkey), for reasons that we cannot discern, Mark left the group. Two years later, Paul and Barnabas planned another missionary journey, and Barnabas wished to take Mark, but Paul would not agree. So Barnabas took Mark with him and went to Cyprus, while Paul took Silas with him to Syria and Cilicia (Acts 15:36-41).
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