Who wrote the Gospel of Mark?

Youth Sunday School | At-home Resources
February 27 | Overview of Mark by the Bible Project

Youth Sunday School meets the second and fourth Sunday of the month following the Sunday worship service, from around 11:10am to 12 noon.  

Lent begins on March 2 with Ash Wednesday. This is a time when we think about Christ's death and resurrection; and that we, also, have died to sin and evil and begun new life in Christ. During Lent, we will be reading through the Gospel of Mark, focusing on the life of Jesus, and how we understand our own story as part of the larger work of God in the world.  
This week we explored our church library to see that various resources we have there that we can use, including commentaries, Bible dictionaries and handbooks. We looked at what handbooks had to say about who wrote the Gospel of Mark. It is traditionally believed that Mark was an interpreter for Peter, and that this gospel is his recordings of the many stories Peter told him about Jesus.

We also looked at the various times when John Mark, the believed author of the gospel, is mentioned in Scripture. We found interesting snippets of his life as he worked with Peter and Paul at various times as he grew-up in the foundling church.  Mark was from Jerusalem, and his mother hosted prayer meetings for the young church in the city. He worked with both Peter and Paul, and was related to Barnabas.  

Mark traveled with Paul and Barnabas on a missionary journey, but headed back to Jerusalem early. Later when Barnabas want to take Mark on another mission trip, Paul was strongly opposed to it because Mark had left them last time. So Paul took Silas and Barnabas took Mark -- and they went their separate ways.

But later in his letter to Timothy, Paul asks Timothy to bring Mark with him because Mark was a great help to Paul in his ministry. We also read in Paul's letter to Colossae that Mark was with Paul and sent his greetings to the church. So at some point, God brought about a reconciliation and a healing between Paul and Mark, and I would believe with Barnabas as well.

Here are the references we looked at together.
Acts 12:12;  Acts 12:25; Acts 13:13; Acts 15:36-39; 2 Timothy 4:11; Colossians 4:10; 1 Peter 5:13

Next time we will look at the introduction to  Mark and start our reading of "the beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God." (Mark 1:1)

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