Early Church History 

    In summary, Mark wrote his Gospel before going on a long journey, from which he might never return, at a 

time when Peter was away for a longtime (perhaps wintering elsewhere). Mark intended to go on this journey, 

but delayed his trip in order to write the Gospel for the faithful of Rome.  Peter did not know that Mark was 

writing the Gospel, and so the journey was not one that Peter and Mark had intended to take together. Neither 

is it likely that the delayed journey was one of Mark's journeys with Paul or Barnabas. Mark journeyed with 

Paul and Barnabas on a number of occasions, but did so while he was based in Rome. Mark often went on 

missionary journeys with Peter or with Paul and Barnabas, but he also returned from those journeys to Rome. 

The faithful of Rome would not have been so anxious to compel Mark to write the Gospel, if he was leaving 

on one of his usual trips from which he would soon return. Thus, the only missionary journey undertaken by 

Mark that fits the above criteria is Mark's missionary journey to Egypt. 

Mark's Journey to Egypt 

    Mark's journey to Egypt was fundamentally different from his other trips. When he went to Egypt, Mark 

either traveled alone or was the leader of those who traveled with him. He was no longer tagging along with 

Peter or Paul or Barnabas. Mark founded the Christian community at Alexandria  (in Egypt on the Delta of 

the Nile River), whereas, in his previous missionary journeys, he mainly visited existing Christian 

communities. Eusebius tells us that Mark was the first to make a missionary journey to Egypt and the first to 

establish churches in Alexandria.

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 Traveling from Rome to Egypt to establish a new community of Christians 

was a major undertaking, perhaps the first under Mark's leadership, and clearly one from which he might 

never return to Rome. That is not to say that Mark never left Egypt once he arrived there. On the contrary, he 

likely journeyed to other Christian communities to communicate with, and to obtain support from, the other 

parts of the Church. However, he never did return to Rome to stay. 

    When did Mark make his first missionary journey to Egypt? One ancient source tells us that, in the 15th 

year after Christ's Ascension, Mark received a revelation that he should journey to Egypt.

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 Other sources 

place Mark in Egypt at various later dates.

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    In any case, Mark could not have journeyed to Egypt too soon after arriving in Rome, for a number of 

reasons. Peter and Mark left for Rome from Jerusalem about the time of the Passover of 

A.D.

 27 (early April 

that year), and they arrived on or about May 20 (see above). They did not have time to visit all of the places to 

which Peter addressed his first Epistle (1 Peter 1:1) before arriving in Rome. Yet Peter clearly had visited those 

places (in modern day Turkey) before writing his first Epistle. Throughout  his first Epistle, Peter speaks to 

them as one who knows them well. In 1 Peter 5:1, he states that he is a fellow elder along with the other elders 

of their churches. And in the close of the letter, Peter mentions that  his son Mark  sends them greetings, 

implying that they also knew Mark. Thus Peter and Mark had visited those places sometime after they had 

arrived at Rome. 

    Numerous places are mentioned (Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia) in the first Epistle of 

Peter. But Peter first traveled to Rome from Jerusalem, and spent time preaching the Gospel and building up 

the church at Rome. Then Peter made at least one, and more likely several, long missionary journey to the 

areas mentioned in 1 Peter 1:1. Only after these events could he have written his first Epistle. Yet Mark was 

still with Peter when the first Epistle was written (1 Peter 5:13). Therefore, Mark journeyed to Egypt, and 

wrote his Gospel shortly before departing for Egypt, sometime after the first Epistle of Peter was written and 

many years after arriving in Rome. Mark could not have written his Gospel and departed for Egypt soon after 

arriving at Rome. He first had to spend much time learning from Peter, before he could write a Gospel that 

summarized Peter's teaching.

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    Also, Mark was quite young when he journey to Rome with Peter. In 1 Peter 5:13, Peter refers to Mark as 

his  son,  indicating that Mark was a young disciple of his. And in Acts of the Apostles, the house to which 

Peter fled after escaping from prison in Jerusalem is called,  the house of Mary, the mother of John whose 

other name was Mark.  (Acts 12:12). In the culture and society of Israel at that time in history, a house would 

not be referred to as belonging to the woman living in that house, unless she had no husband and her son was 

still of a young age. Otherwise, the man of the house would be recognized by that society as the leader of that 

household. Therefore, the mother of John Mark was a widow and her son was still quite young, perhaps in his 

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