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Mark the cousin of Barnabas is a figure mentioned in theNew Testament, usually identified withJohn Mark (and thus withMark the Evangelist).[1]
Mark accompaniedBarnabas andPaul on their missionary travels.[2] Mark started with them on their first trip,[3] but left them partway through.[4] Later, when planning their second trip, Barnabas and Paul could not agree about whether Mark should accompany them again, so Barnabas and Mark separated from Paul.[5]
Later, Paul appears to have been reconciled to Mark, for he mentions him positively inColossians 4:10: "Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, sends you his greetings; and also Barnabas's cousin Mark (about whom you received instructions; if he comes to you, welcome him)."[6] A person named Mark is also mentioned in Paul's letter to Philemon, "Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you, as do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow workers. (Philemon 1:23-24 NAU) This indicates that Mark the Cousin of Barnabas was with Paul during his First Imprisonment in Rome, during which he wrote the four Prison Epistles (Ephesians,Colossians,Philemon, andPhilippians).
According toHippolytus of Rome, in his workOn the Seventy Apostles, Mark the cousin ofBarnabas (Colossians 4:10;Philemon 24) is distinct fromJohn Mark (Acts 12:12,25;13:5, 13; 15: 37) andMark the Evangelist (perhaps the Mark in2 Timothy 4:11?). They all belonged to theSeventy Apostles of Christ (ranked #56, #65, and #14, respectively), who were sent out by Jesus to saturate Judea with the gospel not long before his crucifixion (Luke 10:1ff.).[7] Hippolytus says that Mark the cousin of Barnabas was a leader of the apostolic church and thebishop of Apollonia. (There are three possible sites for this place: one inAlbania, one inThrace, and one inCyrenaica.)
Biblical scholarsSamuel Rolles Driver andCharles Augustus Briggs identified Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, withJohn Mark of Jerusalem,[8] as do John R. Donahue andDaniel J. Harrington.[9]
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