John Mark
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John Mark was an early Christian evangelist mentioned in the New Testament, including Acts 12:12 and 2 Timothy, but probably not the author of the Gospel of Mark as some historians have suggested.
Reasons why John Mark was not the author of the Gospel of Mark include:
- Mark was his surname, but the Gospel authors went by their first name, and his was John;
- Luke refers to John Mark disparagingly, yet Luke copied extensively in the Gospel of Luke from the Gospel of Mark;
- most scholars today reject the suggestion that John Mark was the same person as the author of the Gospel of Mark;
- ancient sources doubt that John Mark was the Mark the author;[1]
- multiple references to John Mark in the New Testament make no mention of his writing anything; and
- John was a common Semitic name, while Mark was a common Roman name; it is unjustified to link two persons just because they shared one of those names.