Dict: smith - MARK

smith:

MARK - M>@ - one of the evangelists, and probable author of the Gospel bearing his name. (Marcus was his Latin surname. His Jewish name was John, which is the same as Johanan (the grace of God). We can almost trace the steps whereby the former became his prevalent name in the Church. "John, whose surname was Mark" in kjv@Acts:12:12 kjv@Acts:12:25 kjv@Acts:15:37) becomes "John" alone in kjv@Acts:13:5 kjv@Acts:13:13) "Mark" in kjv@Acts:15:39) and thenceforward there is no change. kjv@Colossians:4:10); Phlm kjv@1:24; 2Timothy:4:11 The evangelist was the son of a certain Mary, a Jewish matron of some position who dwelt in Jerusalem, kjv@Acts:12:12) and was probably born of a Hellenistic family in that city. Of his father we know nothing; but we do know that the future evangelist was cousin of Barnabas of Cyprus, the great friend of St. Paul. His mother would seem to have been intimately acquainted with St. Peter, and it was to her house, as to a familiar home, that the apostle repaired, A.D. 44, after his deliverance from prison kjv@Acts:12:12) This fact accounts for St. Mark’s intimate acquaintance with that apostle, to whom also he probably owed his conversion, for St. Peter calls him his son. ( kjv@1Peter:5:13) We hear Of him for the first time in kjv@Acts:15:25 where we find him accompanying and Barnabas on their return from Jerusalem to Antioch, A.D. 45. He next comes before us on the occasion of the earliest missionary journey of the same apostles, A.D. 48, when he joined them as their "minister." kjv@Acts:13:8) With them he visited Cyprus; but at Perga in Pamphylia, kjv@Acts:13:13) when they were about to enter upon the more arduous part of their mission, he left them, and, for some unexplained reason, returned to Jerusalem to his mother and his home. Notwithstanding this, we find him at Paul’s side during that apostle’s first imprisonment at Rome, A.D. 61-63, and he Is acknowledged by him as one of his few fellow laborers who had been a "comfort" to him during the weary hours of his imprisonment. kjv@Colossians:4:10-11); Phle 1:24 We next have traces of him in ( kjv@1Peter:5:13) "The church that is in Babylon ... saluteth you, and so doth Marcus my son." From this we infer that he joined his spiritual father, the great friend of his mother, at Babylon, then and for same hundred years afterward one of the chief seats of Jewish culture. From Babylon he would seem to have returned to Asia Minor; for during his second imprisonment A.D. 68 St. Paul, writing to Timothy charges him to bring Mark with him to me, on the ground that he was "profitable to him For the ministry." ( kjv@2Timothy:4:11) From this point we gain no further information from the New Testament respecting the evangelist. It is most probable, however that he did join the apostle at Rome whither also St. Peter would seem to have proceeded, and suffered martyrdom with St. Paul. After the death of these two great pillars of the Church; ecclesiastical tradition affirms that St. Mark visited Egypt, founded the church of Alexandria, and died by martyrdom.
Condensed from Cambridge Bible for Schools.
ED.)

MARK, GOSPEL OF - M>@ - By whom written.
The author of this Gospel has been universally believed to be Mark or Marcus, designated in kjv@Acts:12:12 kjv@Acts:12:25 kjv@Acts:15:37) as John Mark, and in ch. 5,13 as John. When is was written.
Upon this point nothing absolutely certain can be affirmed, and the Gospel itself affords us no information. The most direct testimony is that of Irenaeus, who says it was after the death of the apostles Peter and Paul. We may conclude, therefore, that this Gospel was not written before A.D. 63. Again we may as certainly conclude that it was not written after the destruction of Jerusalem, for it is not likely that he would have omitted to record so remarkable a fulfillment of our Lord’s predictions. Hence A.D. 63-70 becomes our limit, but nearer than this we cannot go.
Farrar. Where it was written .
As to the place, the weight of testimony is uniformly in favor of the belief that the Gospel was written and published at Rome. In this Clement, Eusebius, Jerome, Epiphanius, all agree. Chrysostom, indeed, asserts that it was published at Alexandria; but his statement receives no confirmation, as otherwise it could not fail to have done, from any Alexandrine writer.
Farrar. In what language.
As to the language in which it was written, there never has been any reasonable doubt that it was written in Greek. Sources of information .
Mark was not one of the twelve; and there is no reason to believe that he was an eye and ear witness of the events which he has recorded but an almost unanimous testimony of the early fathers indicates Peter as the source of his information. The most important of these testimonies is that of Papias, who says, "He, the Presbyter (John), said, Mark, being the Interpreter of Peter, wrote exactly whatever he remembered but he did not write in order the things which were spoken or done by Christ. For he was neither a hearer nor a follower of the Lord, but, as I said, afterward followed Peter, who made his discourses to suit what was required, without the view of giving a connected digest of the discourses of our Lord. Mark, therefore, made no mistakes when he wrote down circumstances as he recollected them; for he was very careful of one thing, to omit nothing of what he heard, and to say nothing false in what he related." Thus Papias writes of Mark. This testimony is confirmed by other witnesses.
Abbott. For whom it was written.
The traditional statement is that it was intended primarily for Gentiles, and especially for those at Rome. A review of the Gospel itself confirms this view. Characteristics .

(1) Mark’s Gospel is occupied almost entirely with the ministry in Galilee and the events of the passion week. It is the shortest of the four Gospels, and contains almost no incident or teaching which is not contained in one of the other two synoptists; but

(2) it is by far the most vivid and dramatic in its narratives, and their pictorial character indicates not only that they were derived from an eye and ear witness, but also from one who possessed the observation and the graphic artistic power of a natural orator such as Peter emphatically was.

(3) One peculiarity strikes us the moment we open it,
the absence of any genealogy of our Lord. This is the key to much that follows. It is not the design of the evangelist to present our Lord to us, like St. Matthew as the Messiah, "the son of David and Abraham," ch. kjv@1:1, or, like St. Luke, as the universal Redeemer, "the son of Adam, which was the son of God." ch. kjv@3:38.

(4) His design is to present him to us as the incarnate and wonder-working Son of God, living and acting among men; to portray him in the fullness of his living energy.
Cambridge Bible for Schools.

MARKETPLACES - M>@ - kjv@Matthew:20:3; kjv@Mark:12:38; kjv@Luke:7:35; kjv@Acts:16:19) (any open place of public resort in cities or towns where public trials and assemblies were held and goods were exposed for sale. "The market-places or bazaars of the East were, and are at this day, the constant resort of unoccupied people, the idle, the news-mongers."
Hackett s Ill. S.S.
ED.)

MARKET OF APPIUS - M>@ - kjv@Acts:28:15) In the Revised Version for Appii Forum of the Authorized Version, which see.