MARK. The original Jewish name of Mark was John (Acts xii, 12, 25; xv, 37), and it is not known when he was given or assumed the second, Latin, name by which he has always been known. Of his early life nothing is posi tively known. It cannot be said to be more than an attractive possibility that it was at the house of his mother, Mary, that Jesus met his disciples for their last supper, and that in con sequence this upper room became the permanent meeting place of the Jerusalem disciples, and also that Mark was the youth who followed the crowd to the arrest of Jesus in Gethsemane. Peter later called him his °son* (1 Peter, v, 13), from which title it is commonly inferred that he began his Christian life under the influence of that apostle. The first distinct appearance of Mark in history is as an attendant of Paul and Barnabas, the latter being his cousin (Col. iv, 10, not as the Greek word has been erroneously translated). The party went from Antioch to Cyprus and thence to Perga, on the mainland of Asia, where Mark deserted, returning to Jerusalem. Because he did this Paul refused to take him on his second mis sionary tour and a break with I3arnabas re sulted, after which Mark accompanied the lat ter to Cyprus again. A reconciliation with Paul must have later come about, since Mark is favorably spoken of in Paul's letters to the Colossians and to Philemon, as again still later in the second letter to Timothy. More uncer tainty attaches to the mention of Mark in First Peter. Perhaps the most satisfactory conclu sion is to take °Babylon° as designating Rome and for this and other reasons (see article PETER, EPISTLES OF) to give to this mention a still later date. On this view, after the death
of Paul, Mark would have remained in Rome and have attached himself to Peter. This would be in harmony with the language of Papias who asserted a relation between the two. Any further details rest on more or less uncertain tradition. The reported connection of Mark with Alexandria is in no way improbable, but whether he was a martyr there or died a nat ural death is unknown. The tradition that he was connected with the church at Aquileia, which is the basis of the honor paid in Venice to his memory, is no more to be depended on. It may have been the result of personal reminiscence that the epithet KcaoflodetcrvAor was attached to him. This word means stunted or mutilated in the fingers ("stub-fingered° ?), but its applica tion in Mark's case is nowhere defined, and many explanations have been proposed, such as, that his fingers were unnaturally short; or, as the Greek word would equally apply to toes, that they were shortened, perhaps causing lame ness, or that he had mutilated himself to evade priestly service; or, finally, that the word is used figuratively to suggest the comparative brevity of his gospel and its failure to contain much that is found. in Matthew and Luke. For the connection of Mark with the second Gospel and bibliography, see article MARK, GOSPEL ACCORD ING TO.