mary, mother of mark Summary and Overview

#Col 4:10| was sister to Barnabas. #Ac 4:36; 12:15| She was among the earliest disciples, and lived at Jerusalem. She gave up her house to be used as one of the chief places of meeting. The fact that Peter went to that house on his release from prison indicates that there was some special intimacy, #Ac 12:12| between them. (There is a tradition that the place of meeting of the disciples, and hence Mary's house, was on the upper slope of Zion, and that it was here that the Holy Ghost came upon the disciples with tongues of flame on the day of Pentecost. --ED.)

Sister to Barnabas (KJV, Colossians 4:10), or rather aunt, since anepsios means "cousin," not commonly "sister's son. frontMARK.) As Barnabas gave up his lands, so she her house at Jerusalem for the use of the church. Peter's resorting there immediately upon his release (Acts 12:12) shows her tried steadfastness and implies a bond of intimacy with her; so that he calls Mark his "son" (1 Peter 5:13). The house was one of the church's worship rooms (Acts 2:46; Acts 20:8, compare Acts 4:24; Acts 4:31); "there many were gathered together praying" for Peter's deliverance, and God "heard, while they were yet speaking" (Isaiah 65:24). Mark doubtless derived some of the straightforward, decided character which appears in his Gospel from her influence. His attachment to her was probably one cause of his return to Jerusalem from Perga (