Bible Commentaries
Mark

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

INTRODUCTION

ST. MARK was the son of Mary, a disciple resident at Jerusalem, at whose house the apostles and first Christians often assembled. He is mentioned in 1 Peter 5:13, where the apostle calls him “Marcus my son.” There seems little reason for doubting that he was the John Mark of Jerusalem, who travelled for awhile as the companion of Paul and Barnabas, and who incurred the displeasure of the former for having left them before the whole tour they proposed was completed. Upon the separation of Paul and Barnabas, on his account, Mark travelled with the latter. That it was nothing which affected the personal or ministerial character of Mark which occasioned this dispute, and St. Paul’s refusal to have him as a companion on a second tour, may be gathered from the honourable mention made of him by that apostle in 2 Timothy 4:11: “Take Mark, and bring him with thee; for he is profitable to me for the ministry.” He finally attached himself to St. Peter, with whom he continued until the death of that apostle. After he had written his gospel, which was done while he was the companion of St. Peter, he is said by Eusebius and Jerome to have laboured in Egypt, and planted the celebrated Church of Alexandria. It was so certainly admitted in the earliest times that Mark wrote his gospel under the eye of St. Peter, that among the primitive Christians it was known as familiarly by the name of the gospel of St. Peter as the gospel of St. Mark. Although this gospel was composed at Rome, the notion of some, that it was written in Latin, is not sustained by sufficient evidence. No ancient author ever affirmed this; and the testimony is uniform that it was written in Greek, the only language which then had any pretence to be universal. That it was designed for the Gentile, not Jewish converts only, is clear from the explanation he subjoins to words and customs which to Jews were sufficiently familiar. Critics have discovered in it many Latinisms; which may be accounted for from Mark having long lived at Rome, and no doubt speaking the Latin tongue.

That the gospel which bears the name of St. Mark was in reality written by him, the testimony of antiquity is uniform and decisive; and equally so that, if he was not the amanuensis of St. Peter, he acted at his suggestion and embodied his relations of the facts of the history of our Lord, as he had heard them stated by him, and under the inspiration of the same Spirit. Whether he published his gospel before the death of St. Peter, or only collected the materials, and completed the work after the martyrdom of that apostle, is uncertain. This renders the exact time of its publication a matter of conjecture; but it is evident, from his concluding words, that it was not till after the apostles had left Judea, and had dispersed “everywhere preaching the word.” The date may be fixed at from A.D. 60, to A.D. 63.

Notwithstanding the strong similarity of the gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark, in many parts, there is no reason to doubt that the latter is not strictly an original work. St. Mark is often more copious and circumstantial than St. Matthew, and sometimes much less so, while he introduces several entirely new circumstances and narrations.

The longer discourses of Christ are generally omitted; and the whole may be considered in the light, not of a perfect gospel, — for that is the character of none of them taken separately, and the perfection lies in the COLLECTION of the four, — but as a compendium of the stupendous works of the Divine Founder of our religion, and as a most convincing manual of its evidences, as founded upon the character, actions, and miracles of its Author. See the Introduction to St. Matthew’s Gospel.