Dictionary Summary:The evangelist; “John whose surname was Mark” ([Acts 12:12](/acts#Acts.12.12), [25](/acts#Acts.12.25)). Mark (Marcus, [Col. 4:10](/col#Col.4.10), etc.) was his Roman name, which gradually came to supersede his Jewish name John. He is called John in [Acts 13:5](/acts#Acts.13.5), [13](/acts#Acts.13.13), and Mark in 15:39, [2 Tim. 4:11](/2tim#2Tim.4.11), etc. He was the son of Mary, a woman apparently of some means and influence, and was probably born in Jerusalem, where his mother resided ([Acts 12:12](/acts#Acts.12.12)). Of his father we know nothing. He was cousin of Barnabas ([Col. 4:10](/col#Col.4.10)). It was in his mother’s house that Peter found “many gathered together praying” when he was released from prison; and it is probable that it was here that he was converted by Peter, who calls him his “son” ([1 Pet. 5:13](/1pet#1Pet.5.13)). It is probable that the “young man” spoken of in [Mark 14:51](/mark#Mark.14.51), [52](/mark#Mark.14.52) was Mark himself. He is first mentioned in [Acts 12:25](/acts#Acts.12.25). He went with Paul and Barnabas on their first journey (about A.D. 47) as their “minister,” but from some cause turned back when they reached Perga in Pamphylia ([Acts 12:25](/acts#Acts.12.25); [13:13](/acts#Acts.13.13)). Three years afterwards a “sharp contention” arose between Paul and Barnabas (15:36-40), because Paul would not take Mark with him. He, however, was evidently at length reconciled to the apostle, for he was with him in his first imprisonment at Rome ([Col. 4:10](/col#Col.4.10); [Philemon 1](/phlm#Phlm.1.1):24). At a later period he was with Peter in Babylon ([1 Pet. 5:13](/1pet#1Pet.5.13)), then, and for some centuries afterwards, one of the chief seats of Jewish learning; and he was with Timothy in Ephesus when Paul wrote him during his second imprisonment ([2 Tim. 4:11](/2tim#2Tim.4.11)). He then disappears from view. ²