MARK, a German geographical term, signified primarily the mark of a country's limits (the march); and hence was applied as a designation of the border countries or districts of tbe German empire, .conquered from neighboring.nations. Thus, we read of the marks of Austria, of Northern SaxOny or Brandenburg, Lausatia, Moravia; Steiermark, etc. Tho governors intrusted with the charge of these border districts, or marks, were called mark,-grafs, corresponding to the English and Scottish wardens of tAa marches. See Mutquts.
IdARK the Evangelist is probably the same who, in the Acts of the Apostles, is called John Mark. He came originally from Jerusalem, was a nephew of Barnabas, and accompanied the apostle Paul and him to Antioch, Cyprus, .and Perga in Pam phylia, returned to Jerusalem, and -went afterwards to Cyprus, and thence to Rome (see Acts xiii.; Col. iv. 10: 2 Tim. iv. 11). Ecclesiastical tradition speaks of a mis sionary expedition of Mark to Egypt and the west of Africa, of his suffering mar tyrdom about the year 62 or 66 (the Coptic church still consider- him their founder and first bishop), and of the transmission of his corpse to Venice, which city has chosen him for its patron saint. The festival (April 2'5) which the Roman Catholic church holds in his
honor is no older than the close of the ith century. The canonical gospel which passes under his name is believed by some scholars to have sprung from a primitive collection of notices of the life and acts of Christ, drawn up by Mark, and to have been worked up into its present form by a later writer,who had before hini the gospels of Matthew and Luke. Others, on the contrary, are of opinion that in Mark's work we have the primi tive gospel from which the rest have orignated. Compare Wilke, Der Urevangelist (Dresd. and Leip. 1838), and Baur, Das Mareusevangelium (Tub. 1851). See GOSPEL&