Who is John called Mark in Acts 12

Question

Who is John called Mark in Acts 12? Did he write the book of Mark?

Answer 1

Who is John called Mark in Acts 12?

He’s traditionally believed to be Mark the Evangelist

John Mark is a minor biblical figure who lived during the first century. He’s traditionally believed to also be Mark the Evangelist, the author of the Gospel of Mark. (overviewbible.com)

MARK, JOHN (Μάρκος, ̓Ιωάννης). Son of Mary, cousin of Barnabas, assistant to Paul and Barnabas and traditionally the author of the second gospel. (Encyclopedia of The Bible – John Mark)

In Acts 12:12, John Mark is introduced as the son of Mary, whose house likely served as a meeting place for early Christians. This is the house where Peter went after being miraculously freed from prison. John Mark later accompanied Paul and Barnabas on their missionary journeys.

His name first appears in Acts 12:12, when Peter escapes from prison and retreats to a house of Christians—which happens to be the house of John Mark’s mother, Mary. Many scholars speculate that this was the start of a long-standing relationship between them, and that John Mark eventually recorded Peter’s account of Jesus’ life and ministry in the Gospel of Mark. (overviewbible.com)

Authorship:

Regarding your question on the authorship of the Gospel of Mark. Early church tradition holds that John Mark wrote it. He is believed to have been a close associate of the Apostle Peter.

...there is strong and early tradition identifying the author of the Third Gospel as John Mark, part-time associate of both Paul and Peter. The earliest tradition is reported by the church historian Eusebius (c. AD 263 – 339), who quotes Papias, bishop of Hierapolis, in the latter’s five-volume work known as Interpretation of the Sayings of the Lord (Λογίων κυριακῶν ἑξήγησις). Papias, likely writing around AD 95 – 110,37 quotes John “the Elder” concerning the authorship of the Second Gospel:

The Presbyter used to say this also: “Mark became Peter’s interpreter and wrote down accurately, but not in order, all that he remembered of the things said and done by the Lord. For he had not heard the Lord or been one of his followers, but later, as I said, a follower of Peter. Peter used to teach as the occasion demanded, without giving systematic arrangement to the Lord’s sayings, so that Mark did not err in writing down some things just as he recalled them. For he had one overriding purpose: to omit nothing that he had heard and to make no false statements in his account.”²

Eusebius points out that though Papias did not himself know the apostles, he was in direct contact with those who had heard them, including John the Elder, Aristion, Polycarp, and the daughters of Philip the Evangelist (Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 3.39.1 – 9; cf. Acts 21:8 – 9).³ We thus have a first-century tradition claiming that Mark accurately interpreted (or translated) Peter’s eyewitness accounts, turning Peter’s anecdotal stories into a connected narrative, though not necessarily in chronological order.⁴ (zondervanacademic.com)

Even though the Bible does not explicitly confirm this, there is strong early tradition, and the unanimous testimony of the early church supports this view. This has been tackled in further detail elsewhere on the site. (See: Who was the author of Mark?)

Answer 2

Acts 12 has three references to someone named "John" -

• V2: He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword.
• V12: And when he had realized this, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered together and were praying.
• V25: When Barnabas and Saul had fulfilled their mission to Jerusalem, they returned, bringing with them John, also called Mark.

It is immediately apparent that the John in V2 is different from that in V12 & V25 because Luke goes to some trouble to make the distinction.

John-Mark is commonly identified as the author of the gospel of Mark as Ellicott notes in commenting on V12 above:

Mary the mother of John, whose surname was Mark.—On the probable identity of this Mark with the evangelist of that name, see Introduction to St. Mark’s Gospel. Here we may note (1) that as being mentioned by St. Peter as his “son” (1Peter 5:13) he was probably converted by him; (2) that he was cousin to Barnabas, probably through his mother, and was therefore at least connected with the tribe of Levi (Acts 4:36), and possibly belonging to it; (3) that the fact that Mary’s house was the meeting-place of the Church indicates comparative wealth, as did Barnabas’s sale of his estate; (4) that the absence of any mention of Mark’s father makes it probable that she was a widow; (5) that the Latin name of Marcus indicates some point of contact with Romans or Roman Jews.

Answer 3

Acts 12:25 The early church unanimously indicated that John/Mark is the author of Mark (Attested to in the "Author" section of Mark in many study Bibles).