Early Church History 

36 still allows sufficient time for Paul's travels prior to Corinth, if Paul arrived in Corinth sometime after 

Gallio's reign had begun. (Gallio ruled Achaia from mid 

A.D.

 36 to mid 

A.D.

 37.) 

    Acts describes a period of time after the Council of 

A.D.

 35, when Paul and Barnabas were in Antioch (Acts 

15:22 35). Then,  after some days,  Paul suggested to Barnabas that they resume their missionary journeys 

(Acts 15:36). This phrasing implies that they spent some significant amount of time in Antioch, long enough to 

constitute a break in their missionary journeys, so that they would have to reach a decision to resume those 

journeys. The most likely time for such resumption in traveling would be the spring of 

A.D.

 36. The winter was 

a difficult and dangerous time for travel on the Mediterranean. So, Paul often wintered in one location. As 

spring approached, it would be natural for any Apostle who traveled frequently spreading the Gospel to 

consider a missionary journey. This time frame also allows sufficient time after the Council of 

A.D.

 35 for the 

events in the latter part of Acts 15. Therefore, Mark took his journey with Barnabas to Cyprus (Acts 15:39), 

and Paul began his journeys (Acts 15:40 to 18:1), in the spring of 

A.D.

 36. 

    In addition to his missionary journeys with Paul and Barnabas, Mark spent much time in Rome and taught 

there under Peter's guidance for many years. The fact that Mark was based in Rome and was more a disciple 

of Peter than of Paul or Barnabas is well attested to by Jerome and Eusebius (see below). Also, Peter mentions 

Mark in his first Epistle (1 Peter 13). And, when Peter escaped from prison,  he went to the house of Mary, 

the mother of John whose other name is Mark .  (Acts 12:12). So Peter and Mark were well acquainted even 

before Peter went to Rome. This is not to say that Mark remained at Rome and never traveled. Many of the 

Apostles and disciples of Christ during this time period travel far and wide to spread the Gospel and to visit 

established churches. Mark most likely spent time traveling with Paul, and later with Barnabas, while he was 

based in Rome. The same it true for Mark's later missionary journey to Egypt. After Mark moved to Egypt to 

preach the Gospel, he very likely traveled back and forth from Egypt to various other established churches in 

the greater Mediterranean area. 

Saint Jerome tells us how Mark came to write his Gospel:  

 Mark the disciple and interpreter of Peter wrote a short gospel at the request of the brethren at Rome 

embodying what he had heard Peter tell. When Peter had heard this, he approved it and published it to 

the churches to be read by his authority as Clemens in the sixth book of his Hypotyposes and Papias, 

bishop of Hierapolis, record. 

635

Eusebius adds that the faithful in Rome had to pester Mark quite a bit to convince him to write the Gospel: 

 So brightly shone the light of true religion on the minds of Peter's hearers that, not satisfied with a 

single hearing or with the oral teaching of the divine message, they resorted to appeals of every kind to 

induce Mark (whose gospel we have), as he was a follower of Peter, to leave them in writing a summary 

of the instruction they had received by word of mouth, nor did they let him go till they had persuaded 

him, and thus became responsible for the writing of what is known as the Gospel according to Mark. It 

is said that, on learning by divine revelation of the spirit what had happened, the apostle was delighted 

at their enthusiasm and authorized the reading of the book in the churches. 

636

    Notice, in both Jerome and Eusebius, Peter was initially unaware that Mark was writing his Gospel. 

Eusebius even says that Peter had to be informed by divine revelation. Therefore Peter was not in Rome at the 

time that Mark wrote his Gospel. If Peter had been in Rome, he would surely have known of the repeated 

appeals by the faithful to Mark and would have known how his follower, Mark, had responded. Instead, Peter 

had to be informed as to what had occurred. Also, Peter must have been away from Rome for some length of 

time, long enough for the faithful to spend some time trying to convince Mark to write, then also long enough 

for Mark to write the whole of his Gospel before Peter even knew anything about it. Peter was most likely on a 

missionary journey to spread the Gospel, while Mark stayed behind and wrote the Gospel. And why would 

Peter's missionary journey take so long? Peter was probably spending the winter somewhere, because traveling 

the Mediterranean in winter was dangerous (Acts 27:10 12). It was quite common for the Apostles to spend 

the winter in one place, preferring to travel in the other seasons (see Acts 28:11; 2 Tim 4:21; 1 Cor 16:5 6; 

Titus 3:12). 

151