Mark
The tradition of the Coptic Church tells us, that Mark is her founder. It started with a journey
of Mark to Alexandria. Alexandria was the most important city of Egypt at that time, and a lot of Jews
lived there. Mark passed a shop of a shoemaker, who at that moment hurt himself and
used powerful language to express his feelings.
Mark fell into talk with this man, called
Anianus
and cured his wound by applying a mixture of clay and saliva.
Anianus became the eerste Christian in Egypt.
After some time Mark went to Rome, to Peter to record his memories of Jesus.
With this gospel Mark went back to Egypt, where the number of Christians had increased considerably,
under the inspiring leadership of Anianus.
In 68 Mark was killed by a group of hooligans. Anianus succeeded him as the bishop
of Alexandria.
What does the New Testament say about this? If we take it for granted that the evangelist Mark is the same as
the John Mark of Acts, than the New Testament has the following information:
In Acts 12:25 we read how
Paul an
Barnabas
took John Mark from Jerusalem to Antioch.
Acts 13:2 describes how Paul and Barnabas are sent forth on their first missionary journey.
John Mark is not mentioned here, but must have travelled with them at first,
because in Acts. 13:13 he leaves them.
On the second missionary journey Paul does not want him to join them (Acts 15:35-41).
Barnabas and John Mark then go to Cyprus.
We meet John Mark much later again: in Col. 4:10 he is mentioned as a collaborator of
Paul, and also in the letter to
Filemon
(vs 24), and in II Tim. 4:11.
They obviously have been reconciliated.
Peter
calls him his son (1 Peter 5:13) at Babylon. It is generally understood he means Rome with this.
However, there was a Babylon in Egypt at that time too!
Egypt is not mentioned (unless Babylon is the Egyptian Babylon). On the other hand it is assumed that
that there is a gap of about ten year between Cyprus and the letter of Paul to the community of
Colosse. So there is plenty of time for a stay in Egypt.
In the next hundred years the Church of Egypt flourishes. Prosecutions are here not as severe as
in Rome. Then it is decided in Alexandria that a kind of theological faculty should be added to
their "university".
More about that in the next document on
Origen
and other theologians.
