Is John Mark the author of the Gospel of Mark?

Christian tradition says yes in two steps: Papias, quoted by Eusebius, names Mark as the man who wrote down Peter's teaching, and that Mark is identified with the John Mark of Acts. Behind the Name calls the author's identity not certain.

Christian Boy Names Starting With M: Matthias Chosen by Lot and the John Mark of Acts

Matthias joined the Twelve by lot after Judas was gone (Acts 1:26), and Matthew was called by Jesus from a tax-collection station (Matthew 9:9). Behind the Name treats both as forms of the Greek Matthaios, yet each belongs to a different apostle.

Acts calls Mark "John whose other name was Mark" (Acts 12:12), and Christian tradition identifies him with the evangelist Mark, whom Papias describes as Peter's interpreter.

Moses, Micah and Malachi bring Old Testament passages of their own, and Martin is a saint's name built on the Roman god Mars.

Quick Facts

Two apostles, two calls: Matthew (Matthew 9:9; 10:3) and Matthias (Acts 1:21-26)
One man, two names: John Mark of Acts 12:12, 12:25 and 15:37-39, traditionally the evangelist Mark
Old Testament names: Moses (Exodus 2:10), Micah (Micah 1:1) and Malachi (Malachi 1:1)
Saint's name: Martin, through Martin of Tours, a 4th-century bishop
Mark's feast days: 25 April in the Latin and Greek Churches; the Greek Church also keeps John Mark on 27 September

Matthew and Matthias: called at a tax station, chosen by lot

Matthias is a variant of Matthaios, the Greek name behind Matthew, according to Behind the Name. The New Testament gives the two forms to two different apostles, and the way each man joined the Twelve is what tells them apart.

Matthew is working when Jesus sees him "sitting at the tax-collection station" and says, "Follow me" (Matthew 9:9). The apostle list in Matthew 10:3 keeps his trade in his title, "Matthew the tax collector".

Behind the Name adds that Matthew was "probably also called Levi", the name Mark 2:14 gives the tax collector in the same scene. It also derives Matthaios from the Hebrew name Mattithiah and calls Matthew only "supposedly" the author of the first gospel, so the apostle is the firm association and the authorship is a tradition.

Matthias enters the story after Judas is gone. Acts 1:21-22 sets the condition for the replacement: a man who had accompanied the apostles "beginning from the baptism of John" until Jesus was taken up, who could become "a witness with us to his resurrection".

Two men were proposed, "Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias" (Acts 1:23). After a prayer asking the Lord to show "which one of these two you have chosen", they cast lots, "and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was added to the eleven apostles" (Acts 1:26).

A boy named Matthias therefore carries the name of a disciple who had followed Jesus from John's baptism onward and joined the Twelve by lot. A boy named Matthew carries the name of the tax collector Jesus called directly from his work.

Is John Mark the same person as Mark?

Acts introduces him as "John whose other name was Mark", the son of a Mary at whose house in Jerusalem "many had gathered and were praying" (Acts 12:12). The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1910 explains the double name: to "the Jewish name John was added the Roman pronomen Marcus", and Mark became the name readers of Acts and the letters knew him by.

Read in order, the passages show what the tradition joins: the John Mark whom Paul refused to take along in Acts 15 and the Mark whom Paul later calls "useful to me in ministry" (2 Timothy 4:11), if the two are one man.

Where John Mark and Mark appear
Passage	How he is named	What the text says
Acts 12:12	"John whose other name was Mark"	Believers gather to pray in the house of his mother, Mary
Acts 12:25	"John, whose other name was Mark"	Barnabas and Saul bring him with them after completing their mission
Acts 15:37-39	"John called Mark", then "Mark"	Paul refuses to take him because he "had deserted them in Pamphylia"; Barnabas sails with him to Cyprus
Colossians 4:10	"Mark the cousin of Barnabas"	He sends greetings, and the church is told to welcome him if he comes
2 Timothy 4:11	"Mark"	Paul asks for him: "he is useful to me in ministry"
1 Peter 5:13	"my son Mark"	He sends greetings with the church "in Babylon"

Barnabas is the link between Acts and the letters. Colossians 4:10 calls Mark "the cousin of Barnabas", and Barnabas is the one who wanted to take John called Mark along and sailed with him when Paul refused (Acts 15:37-39).

The Catholic Encyclopedia treats that family tie as strong support for reading the passages as one man, and it states that the identity "is not questioned by any ancient writer of note". It also reports Papias, quoted by Eusebius in Church History III.39, who calls Mark the "interpreter" of Peter and says he wrote down Peter's teaching accurately, though not in order.

Papias adds that Mark "neither heard the Lord nor followed Him", so in this tradition the evangelist learned the story from Peter, whose letter calls him "my son Mark" (1 Peter 5:13).

The Latin and Greek Churches keep Mark's feast on 25 April, and the Greek Church also keeps a feast of John Mark on 27 September, so its calendar commemorates the two names on different days.

Behind the Name, a modern reference, says the Gospel author's "identity is not certain" and that "some traditions" make him the John Mark of Acts. For a boy named Mark, the accurate claim is that the name honors the evangelist and, by a tradition the Catholic Encyclopedia says no ancient writer of note questioned, the companion of Barnabas and Paul in Acts.

How did Moses get his name?

Pharaoh's daughter names him in Exodus 2:10, after the grown child is brought to her and becomes her son: "She named him Moses, 'because,' she said, 'I drew him out of the water.'"

The NRSVUE footnote to that verse explains the link: "In Heb Moses resembles the word for drew." The familiar meaning "drawn out" comes from this wordplay inside the story, and the verse offers no other derivation of the name.

A family choosing Moses for that meaning is quoting the naming scene itself, spoken by the woman who adopted him.

Micah and Malachi: a prophet's name and a book title

Micah is a named man with a hometown and a date. His book opens with "the word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah" (Micah 1:1).

Malachi is less certain as a personal name. The book takes its title from mal'akhi, "my messenger", which the NRSVUE gives as an alternative translation at Malachi 1:1, so the opening verse can be read as naming a prophet or as describing one.

The same word returns in Malachi 3:1, "my messenger to prepare the way", and Mark 1:2 applies that verse to John the Baptist. Whichever way the title is read, a boy named Malachi carries a word the New Testament attaches to the forerunner of Jesus.

Michael, the name of an archangel and of several Old Testament men, has its own name page, which also covers its link to Micah, and the angel has a separate archangel profile.

Martin: a saint's name built on the name of Mars

Martin comes from the Roman name Martinus, which Behind the Name derives from Martis, the genitive of the name of the Roman god Mars. The name became Christian through Saint Martin of Tours, a 4th-century bishop who is the patron saint of France.

Behind the Name labels his best-known story as legend: in the middle of winter he cut his cloak in two and gave half to a cold beggar. It adds that he was a favourite saint during the Middle Ages and that his name "has become common throughout the Christian world".

For Martin, the Christian association comes entirely from the saint, since the root itself names a Roman god.