Expert: Brenda Martin - 7/6/2009

Question
Why do we not consider John Mark as the Beloved Disciple if he is the only
man named John to be placed in Ephesus and at Golgotha, and if he was a
scholar, a scribe and an apostle according to Coptic historians, and if he lived
in the home in Jerusalem where the last supper was held, and if Jesus
predicted that John the son of Zebedee would be martyred, and if John the
son of Zebedee fled from Gethsemane, thereby eliminating him as “the other
disciple” who followed Jesus and who knew the high priest?  

Answer
"he is the only John to be placed in Ephesus and at Golgotha"

The apostle John wrote his 3 letters in Ephesus; the governing body sent the apostles Peter and John there. Why? We read: “Then [these two] went laying their hands upon [the recently baptized people], and they began to receive holy spirit.” (Acts 8:5-20)

As for Golgatha--During his last moments of life,Jesus entrusted his mother to the care of his disciple John, not John Mark.—John 19:26, 27.

John Mark-- was not one of the twelve apostles, nor does he even appear to have been one of the seventy evangelists. Then who was he? It is quite likely that he is the “certain young man” who the account says began to follow Jesus nearby, and whom those arresting Jesus tried to seize, but who “left his linen garment behind and got away naked.” (Mark 14:51, 52) Without doubt he is the John Mark repeatedly mentioned in the book of Acts. At Acts 12:12 we learn that his mother lived in Jerusalem and that the early Christian congregation used her home as a congregational meeting place. Later, at verse 25 of the same chapter, we read that Barnabas and Saul (the apostle Paul), after fully carrying out the relief ministration in Jerusalem, “returned and took along with them John, the one surnamed Mark.”

The composition of the shortest of the Gospels is credited to this Mark. He was a coworker with Jesus’ apostles and one who placed his own life in the service of the good news. But Mark was not one of the 12 apostles, and he was not an immediate companion of Jesus. Where did he get the intimate details that make his account of Jesus’ ministry really live from beginning to end? According to the earliest tradition of Papias, Origen, and Tertullian, this source was Peter, with whom Mark was closely associated.(1 Pet. 5:13)

Mark is first mentioned by name in the Bible after King Herod Agrippa threw the apostle Peter in prison. One night an angel freed Peter, and he immediately went to the home of Mark’s mother, Mary, who lived in Jerusalem. Peter’s release from prison occurred about ten years AFTER Jesus was killed at Passover 33 C.E.—Acts 12:1-5, 11-17.

Mark indeed had a rich spiritual background. He was likely present when holy spirit was poured out at Pentecost 33 C.E., and he had close association with faithful servants of God, such as Peter, helped Saul by introducing him to Peter some three years after Jesus had appeared to Saul in a vision.—Acts 9:1-15, 27; 11:22-26; 12:25; Galatians 1:18, 19.

It can be confusing with all these "John's" in the bible :¬)

all the best
Brenda