Mark: The Attendant Who Turned Back

Who he is, and when

Mark is a Levite of the New Testament era, a man of the tribe of Levi whose name runs through Acts and then surfaces again in three letters and in 1 Peter. The chronology available for him places him in the era of around 4 BC to AD 33 (era placed on Ussher's chronology (1650)). He is named ten times in ten verses, spread across Acts, Colossians, 2 Timothy, Philemon and 1 Peter, first at Acts 12:12 and last in 1 Peter. His mother is Mary (Acts 12:12); his father is not named, only implied as her husband. Scripture calls him twice "John who was called Mark" (Acts 12:12; Acts 12:25), and at one point simply John (Acts 13:5, 13:13).

A house, a name, and a mother

The first mention is not really his own scene. It belongs to someone else, and Mark appears in it as an identifier: "Thinking about that, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was called Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying" (Acts 12:12). Mark is introduced by way of his mother's house and the praying company inside it. That is how the record begins for him, and it is worth noticing: he is known first as somebody's son, in a house where prayer was going on.

The next mention moves him. "Barnabas and Saul returned to Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their service, also taking with them John who was called Mark" (Acts 12:25). Again the sentence is not about him. He is the one taken along. Then in Acts 13:5 he is given a role: "When they were at Salamis, they proclaimed God's word in the Jewish synagogues. They also had John as their attendant." Others proclaim; John attends. It is a real place in a real work, described in a single clause.

Perga: he departed from them

Then comes the verse that hangs over the rest of his story. "Now Paul and his company set sail from Paphos, and came to Perga in Pamphylia. John departed from them and returned to Jerusalem" (Acts 13:13). Scripture states the fact and gives no reason. He was the attendant; at Perga he stopped being one. The direction of his going is named: back to Jerusalem, which is to say back toward the house and the city from which he had been taken along in the first place (Acts 12:12; Acts 12:25).

His name is heard twice more in Acts, at Acts 15:37 and Acts 15:39, and then three times in the letters, at Colossians 4:10, Philemon 1:24 and 1 Peter 5:13. Two of the letter mentions are the briefest kind of notice, a name in a greeting.

Useful for service

The fullest word about him comes late, in a sentence written by a man who says he is nearly alone: "Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service" (2 Timothy 4:11). Mark is wanted, sent for, and judged useful. The man who once departed from the company at Perga (Acts 13:13) is now the man to be fetched and brought.

And in 1 Peter 5:13 he is greeted with warmth and with a family word: "She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, greets you. So does Mark, my son." He is called son by a writer who is not his parent; his actual mother is named elsewhere (Acts 12:12).

The failure, named plainly

The text does not hide the turning back. "John departed from them and returned to Jerusalem" (Acts 13:13) is a plain report of leaving a work that others continued. Honesty requires saying two things about it. First, that it happened, and that Scripture chose to record it rather than pass over it. Second, that Scripture assigns no motive: no fear, no illness, no quarrel is stated in that verse. What is stated is the departure.

What we do not know

We do not know why he left at Perga. We do not know his father's name; the record gives us only his mother, Mary (Acts 12:12). No children are named for him. And there is, strictly speaking, no scene of his own anywhere: every one of his ten mentions is a passing note, an identifying phrase or a name in a list. He never speaks in Scripture. Nothing is recorded of his birth, his death, or his years apart from these notices.

The line to Christ

The line runs through the work he served and the letters that name him. He was attendant to men who "proclaimed God's word in the Jewish synagogues" (Acts 13:5), and that word was the errand of their whole journey. He is placed among those who send greetings to churches (Colossians 4:10; Philemon 1:24; 1 Peter 5:13), and he is asked for by name as one "useful to me for service" (2 Timothy 4:11). A man who turned back at Perga (Acts 13:13) is later summoned as useful. That is not a small thing to have written about you in Scripture, and it is written.