Historical & Archaeological Evidence for the New Testament: Gospel of Mark, Authorship & Date (2)

Class session 2 in a brief course on archaeological and historical evidence for the New Testament examines the authorship and date of the Gospel of Mark.

Mark ministered with the Apostle Peter. Mark also had extensive interactions with the other Apostles and other eyewitnesses to Christ while residing in Jerusalem (Acts 12:12, 25). He recorded Peter’s teaching about Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Mark under Peter’s guidance and with the Apostle’s approval. Writing in Rome, where there were many Roman soldiers, civil servants, and citizens who understood the concept of service to the State (Matthew 8:5-9; Acts 10-11), Mark’s Gospel emphasizes the Christian life of service by the example of the life of the Lord (Mark 10:45, cf. Isaiah 42:1-4). As no dispute about Matthew’s authorship of his gospel existed, so with Mark’s Gospel the voice of antiquity is unanimous in ascribing to Mark. The evidence points to Mark’s Gospel being a normative part of the early Christian corpus, received into the canon of the New Testament . . . [at] an early date and without any recorded dissent; every extant source gives unanimous agreement to its canonicity and inspiration.

Papias wrote that the Apostle John had declared: “Mark having become the expounder of Peter, wrote down accurately ... the things said or done by Christ. ... [H]e followed Peter ... [and] he was careful of one thing, not to omit any of the things which he had heard, and not to state any of them falsely ... Mark committed no error while he thus wrote[.]”

Irenaeus: "Mark, the disciple and expounder of Peter, did also hand down to us in writing what had been preached by Peter."

Clement of Alexandria: "The Gospel according to Mark had this occasion. As Peter had preached the Word publicly ... and declared the Gospel by the Spirit, many who were present requested that Mark, who had followed him for a long time and remembered his sayings, should write them out. And having composed the Gospel he gave it to those who had requested it. ... And so greatly did the splendor of piety illumine the minds of Peter’s hearers that ... with all sorts of entreaties they besought Mark, a follower of Peter, and the one whose Gospel is extant, that he would leave them a written monument of the doctrine which had been orally communicated to them. Nor did they cease until they had prevailed with the man, and had thus become the occasion of the written Gospel which bears the name of Mark. ... Peter when he had learned, through a revelation of the Spirit, of that which had been done, was pleased with the zeal of the men, and ... the work obtained the sanction of his authority for the purpose of being used in the churches. ... [This is the] tradition of the primitive elders.

Origen: Among the four Gospels ... the second is by Mark, who composed it according to the instructions of Peter, who in his ... epistle acknowledges him as a son, saying, “The church that is at Babylon elected together with you, salutes you, and so does Marcus, my son [1 Peter 5:13].”

Other external evidence likewise testifies to Mark’s authorship of his Gospel. The headings on manuscripts of the second Gospel provide early support for Mark’s authorship. The ancient sources provide strong evidence for Mark’s composition of the Gospel bearing his name.

Powerfully Internal evidence in Mark clearly evidences the stamp of Peter on the Gospel. Thus, the unanimous testimony of ancient history, and all other extant internal and external evidence, favors Mark’s authorship of the gospel bearing his name. All extant writers who lived close enough to the time of the events in question to actually obtain useful information likewise affirm that Mark preserves the apostolic and eyewitness testimony of the Apostle Peter. (Archaeology has uncovered the site of Peter's house in Capernaum.)

Mark composed his gospel very early. The Gospel of Mark is alluded to and referenced in the earliest extra-biblical writings of Christendom. Mark is referenced in the Epistle of Barnabas, 1 Clement, the Shepherd of Hermas, and other very early writings, evidencing that, as with the other books of the New Testament, early quotations virtually eliminate any time gap between the completion of the Gospels and the earliest citations, well before the end of the first century while some eyewitnesses (like [the Apostle] John) were still alive.

Indeed, ancient testimony indicates that Mark composed his gospel under Peter’s direction c. AD 42-46, before Mark’s departure to evangelize Alexandria in the 50s AD. The ancient historian Eusebius dates Mark’s Gospel to the second year of the emperor Claudius, that is, AD 42. Furthermore, many Greek manuscripts, including the best line of transmission, have a colophon stating that Mark was ‘published’ ten years after the ascension of Christ,” that is, c. AD 43.

The external and internal evidence support Mark’s composition of his gospel in the early 40s AD, shortly after the composition of Matthew.