Acts 15 · Story · Failure and Restoration
Useful to Me for Ministry
The New Testament names John Mark in Acts, in three letters of Paul and in 1 Peter.
Paul called Mark useful with the same Greek word he used of Onesimus, the slave he sent back to Philemon (Philemon 1:11 to 12).
Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is useful to me in the ministry.
- Where
- Jerusalem, Cyprus, Antioch
- Who
- John Mark, Barnabas, Paul, Silas, Peter
Summary
John Mark's failure was the desertion of a calling. He set out with Barnabas and Saul on their first mission and turned back at Perga, and when Barnabas wanted him for the second, the disagreement parted the two leaders. Years afterward Paul named Mark among his fellow workers and sent for him, so the man Paul had refused became the man he wanted beside him.
- The church in Jerusalem gathered to pray at the house of Mark's mother Mary (Acts 12:12).
- Mark was the cousin of Barnabas (Colossians 4:10).
- Paul's reason for refusing him was that he had not gone on with them to the work (Acts 15:38).
A Calling Left and Taken Up Again
Mark's leaving and his return stand years apart in the record.
Failure and restoration takes more than one form in Scripture. In the New Testament the clearest case of a worker who left the work and was later wanted back is John Mark.
This study answers what Scripture records of Mark's failure and of his return to usefulness. It sets the texts that name him in canon order and follows the scenes. It gives the readings of why he left at Perga and of whether he is the Mark of the Gospel tradition, with the teachers who hold them.
Where Scripture Names Mark
The record opens in a house of prayer and closes with a greeting from Peter.
Six texts of Acts follow Mark to his leaving and its cost, and three letters find him at work again.
- The house of Mary, Mark's mother"the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark"Acts 12:12
- Barnabas and Saul bring Mark from Jerusalem"bringing with them John, also called Mark"Acts 12:25
- Mark goes out as a helper on the first mission"And John was with them as their helper."Acts 13:5
- Mark leaves them at Perga"John left them to return to Jerusalem"Acts 13:13
- Paul will not take him on the second mission"he had deserted them in Pamphylia"Acts 15:38
- Barnabas sails for Cyprus with him"Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus"Acts 15:39
- Paul commends Mark to the church at Colossae"If he comes to you, welcome him."Colossians 4:10
- Mark sends greetings as Paul's fellow worker"Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers"Philemon 1:24
- Peter sends greetings from his son Mark"as does my son Mark"1 Peter 5:13
A timeline of nine texts of Acts and the letters in canon order.
Paul commends Mark to the church at Colossae, Mark sends greetings as Paul's fellow worker, Peter sends greetings from his son Mark
The Story Told in Order
Seven scenes from Acts 12 to 1 Peter 5 are told one by one.
The house in JerusalemActs 12:12
When an angel led Peter out of the prison where King Herod held him, he made his way to Mary's house (Acts 12:1 to 12).
Albert Barnes explained that Mark was called by either name, "the Greeks probably using the name Mark, and the Jews the name John."
Sent out by the church at AntiochActs 12:25 to 13:5
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”The Holy Spirit set Barnabas and Saul apart for the work, so the work Mark later left was a calling the church had received from God.
The two verbs for the leavingActs 13:13 and Acts 15:38
Luke's verb at Acts 13:13 is apochōreō, to go away. When Paul looks back on it in Acts 15:38, the verb is aphistēmi, which the Berean renders deserted.
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown held that Paul's word is stronger than a departure and means "who stood aloof" or "turned away" from them.
The sharp disagreementActs 15:36 to 40
Barnabas wanted Mark on the second mission, and Paul would not have him (Acts 15:37 to 38).
Albert Barnes gave Paul's reason as a lack of trust, since he "could not confide in his perseverance with them in the toils and perils" of the mission.
A comfort to PaulColossians 4:10 to 11
Paul counts Mark among "the only Jews among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God" and says that they "have been a comfort to me" (Colossians 4:11).
Service in the ministry2 Timothy 4:11
The ministry Paul names in 2 Timothy 4:11 is diakonia, service.
John Wesley wrote that Mark, though he had once departed from the work, "is now again profitable to me."
A son in the faith1 Peter 5:13
Adam Clarke took the word son in the sense of the faith, "Peter having been probably the means of his conversion".
Clarke joined that reading to Peter's ties with the house of Mark's mother in Acts 12.
Mark and Peter in the Early Church
Eusebius quotes Papias of Hierapolis on Mark.
Eusebius records in his Church History (3.39.15) what Papias heard from an elder.
The elder said that Mark, "having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately, though not in order," what he remembered of the words and deeds of Christ.
This is a tradition of the early church, and the Gospel of Mark itself names no writer.
What the Text Leaves Unsaid
Two things a reader may want to know are left untold.
Readings of the Leaving and of the Name
Teachers differ on why Mark turned back and on whether he is the Mark of the Gospel tradition.
The longer road aheadJohn Chrysostom, Homilies on Acts 28
John Chrysostom, in his Homilies on Acts, gave the reason that the apostles were setting out on a longer road, though Mark was only their attendant and the danger fell on them.
A visit homeAdam Clarke
A reason unknownAlbert Barnes
Albert Barnes wrote, "Why he did this is not known. It was evidently, however, for some cause which Paul did not consider satisfactory".
One man throughoutAdam Clarke
Clarke held that the Mark of 1 Peter 5:13 "is supposed to be the same person" as the John Mark of Acts 12:12, the cousin of Barnabas and the writer of the Gospel.
Probable, with room for doubtAlbert Barnes
Barnes wrote of the John Mark of Acts 12:12, "Probably this was the John Mark who wrote the gospel. But this is not certain."
Useful to the Master
Earlier in the same letter Paul describes the vessel the Master can use.
Paul asked for Mark in the same passage in which he wrote that Demas had deserted him (2 Timothy 4:10).
So if anyone cleanses himself of what is unfit, he will be a vessel for honor: sanctified, useful to the Master, and prepared for every good work.Paul uses euchrēstos here of anyone made fit for the Master's use, the word he later uses of Mark.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- STEP Bible, the Translators Amalgamated Greek New Testament (TAGNT), Tyndale House, Cambridge, CC BY 4.0, with Strong's numbers, morphology, glosses and transliterations.
- STEP Bible, the Brief lexicon of Extended Strongs for Greek (TBESG), Tyndale House, Cambridge, CC BY 4.0.
- Eusebius of Caesarea, Church History, Book 3, chapter 39, section 15, translated by Arthur Cushman McGiffert, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, volume 1 (1890)
- Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the New Testament, on Acts 12:12 and 15:38.
- Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible (1832), on Acts 13:13 and 1 Peter 5:13.
- Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), on Acts 15:38.
- John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles, 28.
- John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), on 2 Timothy 4:11.
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