p. 13 | JOHN MARK'S CHILDREN by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 5, 1877

JOHN MARK'S CHILDREN.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

John Mark was quite a prominent personage in the New Testament record. After studying his character carefully, I am satisfied that I am acquainted with several of his descendants. I will call their attention to the character of the family, and perhaps they will be interested in looking up their genealogy.

Turning to Acts 12:12, we learn that this John Mark lived in Jerusalem with his mother. It will be seen that they were quite a prominent family in the church. The prayer-meetings were held at their house. Rhoda, the young damsel, lived there also. The Mark family seem to have been quite well off. It is evident from the record that they had a large, well furnished house; for many of the brethren congregated there. And this is where Peter went as soon as he was let out of prison. John appears to have been a young man at this time. As he evidently intended to give himself to the ministry, he sought a chance to go out and get a little experience in the work with older hands. His uncle Barnabas, Col. 4:10, and the apostle Paul were about starting out on an important campaign. So John went along with them. Acts 12:25. But these brethren had rather a rough time of it, traveling from city to city among strangers and enemies. Sometimes they were abused, and they did not always fare the best. So after a few weeks’ trial, Bro. John’s heart failed him. He became very homesick. He thought of his dear old mother, the comfortable home at Jerusalem, and the good brethren there, and contrasted these things with the hard time he was having out in a new field, and he concluded that he had a very important duty to attend to at home. The record does not say just what the duty was, though it is evident that it was nothing very serious.

Probably the family could have got along well enough without him; but he made himself believe that home duties were very pressing; so when he came to Perga he departed from Paul and Barnabas and returned to Jerusalem. Acts 13:13. He left them at the very time he ought to have stayed, the very time they needed his labor the most. It appears that he did this also directly against the advice of the apostle Paul. Acts 15:37, 38. The apostle put this down as a black mark against him. Paul did not like that sort of conduct. After a long season of hard work, Paul and Barnabas returned to Jerusalem. Acts 15:2, 3. They found Bro. Mark at his good home, enjoying himself among the brethren. Having had a good rest, when Paul and Barnabas started out for another season of work, John proposed to try it again. But Paul had not forgotten his cowardly conduct and his lack of a spirit of sacrifice, and so he refused to take him.

The record is a very interesting one. Thus Luke says, “And some days after, Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do. And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark. But Paul thought not good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work. And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus; and Paul chose Silas, and departed, being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God.” Acts 15:36–40.

Paul was an energetic, driving, self-sacrificing minister. He could leave home, deny himself all privileges, and suffer everything for the work of God. He refused even to marry a wife, lest it should hinder his work. This hard-working Paul had no patience with the take-it-easy, home-loving men like John Mark. He had tried him once and found that when the work went a little hard, he would leave it and run home. That was enough for Paul. He would have nothing more to do with him. So decidedly was he opposed to that spirit that he could not be persuaded to have anything more to do with John, the young minister. But Barnabas, being John’s uncle, was more favorable to him, and took his part; and they had some pretty sharp words over it, so much so that Paul said, “If you are going to take him along, then we will part,” and so they did. Said he, “A young man who cannot stay away from home any longer than John Mark does, is not fit for the work of God; and I will not countenance any such work.”

How John Mark and his uncle Barnabas came out, I never learned; but I am well satisfied that he raised quite a family, for we have quite a number of them among us, still following the same calling. The peculiarity of their ancestor is still very prominent in them—they are always running home. They love the work of the ministry, and are generally quite clever fellows; but they don’t like hardship and self-denial any better than Bro. Mark did, and as to being away from home long at a time, that is out of the question with them. It is fortunate for them that everybody is not as stirring and driving as Paul was, or they would have to reform or leave the ministry.

D. M. CANRIGHT.

South Lancaster, Mass.