The Gospel of Mark, the A.D.D. Disciple

The Gospel of Mark is a short, fast-paced account of Jesus' life, death, and ministry, originally written for the Christians in Rome. While the author didn't "sign his name" on the book, writings from other early Christians state that Mark (John Mark, according to most commentaries) wrote it, based on Peter's account of his years with Jesus. John Mark was the perpetual tag-a-long, traveling with Paul, Barnabas, and Peter at different times, and really cheesing Paul off when he ditched Paul and Barnabas in the middle of their first mission trip. (Paul got over it eventually, and who knows; if Mark had stuck with Paul, he might not have wound up working as Peter's interpreter in Rome, and the Gospel of Mark would not have been written.)

John Mark is kind of viewed as the A.D.D. disciple, and his punchy, action-packed writing reinforces this image. He is first officially mentioned in Acts 12, when an angel releases Peter from prison and he runs straight to John Mark's mom's house (her name was Mary, naturally--evidently, Mary was to 10 B.C. what Jennifer was to 1975), but there is good reason to believe that Mark was the young man who ran off naked when the officials came to arrest Jesus on the Mount of Olives. (Mark 14--and you thought the Bible was boring!) This is interesting not just because it gives you a glimpse into his life and personality, but because if this is the case, Mark was an eyewitness to many of the events he wrote about himself. He wasn't one of the twelve disciples, but he was one of the people who followed Jesus, even onto the Mount of Olives.

So here you have Mark, a squirrly Jewish kid from Jerusalem, all grown up and writing down Peter's (and his) account of Jesus' life, probably shortly after Peter was killed. Mark didn't want Peter's words to die with him, and must have been acutely aware of the fact that fewer and fewer eyewitnesses were left to pass on the words of an even more important friend and mentor: Jesus.

So let's see what Mark has to say, shall we? If he sat still long enough to write it down, it MUST have been important!