The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. Mark
The Gospel of S. Mark
“MARK,” says S. Jerome in his Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Writers, “was a disciple and interpreter of S. Peter. At the request of the brethren at Rome, he wrote a short Gospel, based upon what he had heard S. Peter relate. This, when Peter had heard, he approved of, and sanctioned its being read in the Church.” Shortly afterwards, S. Jerome proceeds to say, “Mark took his Gospel, which he had compiled, and went to Egypt. He first preached Christ at Alexandria, and founded a Church there, which possessed such great purity of doctrine and life that it influenced all followers of Christ by its example. In short, Philo, the most eloquent of the Jews, beholding the primitive Church of Alexandria, as yet Judaizing, wrote a book upon its peculiarities, as it were in praise of his own people. And similarly as S. Luke records that at Jerusalem those who believed had all things common, so has Philo preserved the memory of what he saw at Alexandria under S. Mark as the teacher of the Christians. He died in the eighth year of Nero, and was buried at Alexandria. Anianus succeeded him.”
Clement of Alexandria (Strom. l. vi.) and Papias of Hierapolis attest the same things; so does Eusebius (H. E. ii. 15), who adds that S. Peter confirmed S. Mark’s Gospel, and delivered it to be read for all time in the Churches. S. Athanasius (Synops., sub fin.) and S. Epiphanius (Hæres. 51) say the same. Wherefore Tertullian (l. iv. cont. Marcion) attributes the Gospel of S. Mark to S. Peter, because, as S. Jerome says, “ it was compiled from what S. Peter related, Mark being the writer.” The same S. Jerome, or whoever is the author of the preface to his Commentary on S. Mark, says, “After Matthew soweth Mark, He, I say, who roareth as a lion, who flieth as an eagle, who learneth as a man, who sacrificeth as a priest, who watereth as a river, who flourisheth as a field, who fermenteth as wine. For Christ who is spoken of is man by being born, is a calf by dying, a lion by rising again, an eagle by ascending into heaven.”
For this cause the cherubim of Ezek. i. and the Apocalypse, which have four faces, signify the four Evangelists. For the face of a man denotes Matthew, who relates the works of Christ’s humanity ; the face of an eagle, John, who speaks of the divinity of Christ; the face of an ox denotes Luke, who begins with the priesthood of Zacharias; and the face of a lion designates Mark, because he begins his Gospel from the loud roaring of John the Baptist, as it were of a lion. For these four have drawn the chariot of the glory of God, the chariot of the Gospel, through the whole world, and have subdued all nations to Him, that He may triumph.
The name Mark happily agrees with this symbolism, whether we derive it from the Hebrew or from Latin. For Mark in Hebrew, says Pagninus (in interpret Heb. now in.), means the same as smoothed , polished, cleansed from rust. It is derived from plO, marak, to clean, to polish. As Jeremiah (xlvi. 4) says, “Stand in the helmets, polish the lances;” where for polish the Heb. has p"10, mircu, polish ye. Thus S. Mark polished the lance of his Gospel and preaching, that it, like a lion, might subdue the Egyptians and other nations to Christ. But S. Isidore (l. vii. Origin., c. 9) says, “ Mark means high in commandment ” (but I know not from what root), that is to say, on account of the Gospel of the Most High , which he preached. Again, the Heb. of Mark may be, as it were, DID "ID, mar cos, or the Lord of the Chalice , that is to say, of suffering and martyrdom.
But in Latin, Carolus Signonius (de Hom. Roman.) says, “ He is called Marcus who is born in the month of March.” But Isidore says Mark means a strong hammer , Marcellus is a moderate-sized hammer, and Marculus a little one. Thus S. Mark was a mighty and strong hammer , breaking in pieces the rock, i.e., bruising with compunction the strong hearts of the Gentiles, and moving them to repentance and a Christian life. Mark , then, and Marcellus are the same as Martellus , a hammer. So Charles, the grandfather of Charlemagne, was called Charles Martel, because of his warlike prowess, by which he crushed a host of 300,000 Saracens. Or Marcus may be taken to be the same as Martius, a sort of heavenly Mars. The Marcian gens at Rome, an ancient patrician family, was so called from Ancus Marcius, the fourth king of Rome. King Ancus was called the sacrificial, because he restored worship which had fallen into decay, or had been improperly performed .
How religious and brave S. Mark was appears from the institution of the Essaei,* who were the first religious, and the prototypes of all religious, of whose wondrous sanctity more anon.
Lastly, the Romans used to give the prænomen Marcus to first-born sons. Marcus Tullius Cicero was so called because he was a first-born son. Thus Mark was a first-born son, and singularly beloved of S. Peter. Thus he speaks of him as Marcus , my son (1 Pet v.). For he as a son had drunk of S. Peter's spirit, and was an express image of the wisdom and holiness of S. Peter.
You will ask, Of what country, who, and what was S. Mark? I answer: 1. That he was of the Hebrew nation, and of the tribe of Levi. Bede adds that he was a priest, of the family of Aaron.
2. Theophilus, Victor of Antioch, and Euthymius think that this Mark was the same as John Mark, who was nephew of
* The Christian Essenes of Alexandria (Trans.).
Barnabas, and who journeyed with him and S. Paul to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles, the same S. Mark as he to whom S. Paul refers in his Epistle to Philemon, and Col. iv., and 2 Tim. iv. But I say that this Mark was a different person from John Mark, for at the same time that John Mark was with Paul and Barnabas in Greece, this Mark was with S. Peter at Rome, and was sent by him to preach first at Aquileia, and afterwards at Alexandria.
3. Origen (lib. de Recta Fide), S. Epiphanius (Hæres. 51), and Dorotheus (in Synops.) think that Mark was one of Christ's seventy-two disciples. But the contrary, namely, that he was converted and baptized by S. Peter after Christ's death, is more probable; for he calls him his (spiritual) son (1 Pet v. 13), “The Church which is at Babylon saluteth you ; and so doth Marcus my son.” So S. Jerome, Eusebius (H. E. vii. 14), &c., who say that S. Mark was a disciple and companion of S. Peter.