Tuesday, April 25, 2023

It is the 25th of April 2023. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org, I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Maybe you are tired this morning- maybe you spent last night- St. Mark’s Eve at church waiting for the bell to toll at 1 am when the ghosts of all those who will die this year pass into a church. Which church? I don’t know, yours? It’s an old-timey tradition from England.  

But that makes today St. Mark’s Day- the day on which tradition holds that the Gospel writer and companion of both Peter and Paul were martyred in Alexandria by being tied to the back of a horse and dragged through the city.

Let’s start with what we know about Mark historically. That he is the author of the Gospel that now bears his name is almost universally accepted- Eusebius, Clement of Alexandria, and Irenaeus all claim that Mark was the man who wrote the Gospel based on the eyewitness account of Peter. He is the “John Mark” who appears in Acts, and was the cousin of Barnabas that went on a mission with Paul but left the mission severing the relationship. According to Colossians and Philemon, it appears Paul and Mark reconciled. Ok, but Christian tradition- while just that- can give us hints about who he was.

Tradition holds that he was born in Africa- either modern Tunisia or Libya to Jewish parents in exile. They moved to Cana in Galilee to escape Berber persecution. His mother was an early follower of Jesus, and one tradition has that Mark was an attendant at the wedding where Jesus turned water into wine. When Mark’s father died, it was Peter who took care of him (thus Peter referring to him as a “son”). It was Mark’s mother's house, which we read in Acts 12 was an early meeting place for Peter and other Christians.

In iconography, he is represented by a winged lion, this could be on account of his Gospel emphasizing Christ’s royalty and power. It is also a very fast Gospel- the shortest of the four- it begins later in Jesus' life and has a curious ending. Check out your own bible for how the book ends- it’s curious. The now duct-taped Bible I have used as my hardcopy since the 1990s ends with the women going to the tomb, seeing a man in a white robe who tells them that Jesus has been raised and will meet his disciples in Galilee- “And they went out and fled from the tomb; for trembling and astonishment had come upon them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”

Was something lost? The last page or something? What about the ending you might have where Jesus appears to the disciples and tells them they will be able to handle serpents and drink poison and not be hurt? You might remember stories on this show of certain snake-handling Pentecostals who have died by a snake or from drinking poison. Here at 1517, we have 30 Minutes in the New Testament podcast for theological questions like this one and a very readable brief commentary on Mark by Dr. Wade Johnston- a long-suffering Lions fan who wrote “A Path Strewn with Sinners- A Devotional Study of Mark’s Gospel and his Race to the Cross.” Check those out.

As for the most ancient and reliable source on the matter of the Gospel- hear Papias the Presbyter, who, all the way back in 95 AD, quoted John as relaying:

“Mark became Peter’s interpreter and wrote down accurately, but not in order, all that he remembered of the things said and done by the Lord. For he had not heard the Lord or been one of his followers, but later, as I said, a follower of Peter. Peter used to teach as the occasion demanded, without giving systematic arrangement to the Lord’s sayings, so that Mark did not err in writing down some things just as he recalled them. For he had one overriding purpose: to omit nothing that he had heard and to make no false statements in his account.” 

While Mark is said to have died in Alexandria in Egypt, some of his relics were taken by those dodgy Venetians in the 9th century such that we have a basilica to Mark in Venice, where he is the patron saint of that city and a Cathedral in Alexandria where he is the patron saint of that city and all “Coptic” that is, Egyptian Christians as well.

A Happy St. Mark’s Day to you, this the 25th of April.

The last word for today comes- not from the daily lectionary- but from Mark chapter 9, because it’s underlined here in my old Bible in what looks like a 20-year-old underline:

38 John said to him, “Teacher, we saw a man casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him, because he was not following us.” 39 But Jesus said, “Do not forbid him; for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon after to speak evil of me. 40 For he that is not against us is for us. 41 For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ, will by no means lose his reward.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 25th of April 2023, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man, who in a call back to yesterday, was a vicar in Frankentrost and had drinks with the Frankentrost Band! He is always surprising me- he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who is going to make it through this year if it kills me. There will be feasting and dancing in Jerusalem next year- I am Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.