Naked Man Flees From Temple Police

“Last night when the temple police arrested the radical teacher Jesus of Nazareth in the Gethsemane Gardens outside the city one of his followers escaped from the police. In the struggle to arrest this young man his linen cloak was pulled off and he ran away naked through the olive trees.”

Such a news item might have appeared in the Jerusalem Post newspaper about 2000 years ago if there had been newspapers at that time. The story does appear in the Gospel according to Saint Mark which is the second of four accounts of Jesus’ life and work in the New Testament. It is believed that this anonymous young man was John Mark, the author of Mark’s gospel, who is mentioned several times in the New Testament.

A hospitable family

John Mark and his family were members of the first Christian church in Jerusalem. That church met in the temple courts and in the homes of its members. One of the hostesses for these home groups was Mark’s mother Mary who had a house large enough for many people to gather in and pray together. Indeed some people think that the Last Supper actually took place in John Mark’s family home.

Support from Barnabus

Mark’s cousin Barnabus, a landowner from the island of Cyprus, was also a member of the church in Jerusalem. He was a man who helped and encouraged others to use their gifts in God’s service. He had introduced the newly converted Saul (later known as Paul), a Jewish teacher and Roman citizen from Tarsus in Cilicia, to the church in Jerusalem. Later both he and Paul had ministered together in the Syrian city of Antioch and had made a visit to Jerusalem to bring assistance to the church there. When they returned from Jerusalem to Antioch, they took Mark with them.

Mark accompanied Barnabus and Paul as a helper on their first missionary journey to Cyprus but, when they reached Perga on the mainland of Asia Minor, Mark left them and returned to Jerusalem. Paul regarded this as desertion and, when Barnabus proposed that Mark accompany them on their second missionary journey sometime later, Paul refused to take him. The disagreement was so intense that Paul and Barnabus parted company. Barnabus and Mark sailed to Cyprus and Paul and his new helper Silas travelled overland through Syria and Cilicia.

Helping Paul

After this Mark drops out of the Acts narative but he reappears from time to time in various New Testament letters. When Paul was a prisoner in Rome and writing to the church in Colossae in Asia Minor, he had apparently forgiven Mark. He includes a greeting from Barnabus’ cousin and indeed had already given his readers instructions what to do if Mark came to them. Mark also gets a mention in the accompanying personal letter to Philemon. Mark must have gone subsequently to Asia Minor for later, when writing to Timothy in Ephesus, Paul tells him to get Mark and bring him with him “because he is helpful to me in my ministry”. Clearly Paul’s opinion about Mark was very different then compared to what it had been earlier when he and Barnabus had split up.

Recording Peter’s teaching about Jesus

Peter also mentions Mark, calling him his son, although this is most likely a spiritual rather than a family relationship. Indeed many believe that, when Mark wrote his account of Jesus’ life, he was drawing largely on Peter’s experiences and recording the latter’s teaching. If this belief is correct, then Mark probably wrote his gospel after Peter’s death in AD65 but before the destruction of Jerusalem in AD70.

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The sources for this account of John Mark’s life can be found in the New Testament in the following places:

Mark 14:51-52; Acts 4:36-37; 12:12; 12:25; 13:5; 13:13; 15:36-41; Colossians 4:10; 2 Timothy 4:11; Philemon 24; 1 Peter 5:13.

Mark’s Gospel is a good introduction to the life and work of Jesus and also his teaching. Acts tells the history of the early Christian Church, including the parts played by Peter and Paul.

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Michael Gourlay
24 August 2003