Finally, consideration should be given to Mark. Yes, he is the one who turned back on the first missionary journey, Acts 13:13. However, several years later, he is with Paul in Rome, 2 Timothy 4:11. The breach had been healed, Acts 15:36-39. He is now one of the faithful few among the Jewish Christians who stand by Paul.
Also, remember Mark wrote one of the gospels. The author of the book is John, whose surname was Mark, Acts 12:12 / Acts 12:25. Mark or Marcus was his Roman name, which gradually came to supersede his Jewish name, John. He is called John in Acts 13:5 / Acts 13:13, but he is called Mark in Acts 15:39 / 2 Timothy 4:11.
He was the son of Mary, a woman apparently of some means and influence, and was probably born in Jerusalem, where his mother resided, Acts 12:12. Of his father, we know nothing, but we know he was a cousin of Barnabas, Colossians 4:10.
It was in his mother’s house that Peter found ‘many gathered together praying’ when he was released from prison, Acts 12:12, and it is probable that it was here that he was converted by Peter, who calls him his ‘son’, 1 Peter 5:13.
In his gospel, Mark 14:51-52, he mentions “a certain young man followed Him, having a linen cloth thrown around his naked body. And the young men laid hold of him, and he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked.”
Many think this was Mark himself. No doubt Mark had changed from what he had been when with Paul and Barnabas on that first journey. He became very valuable to Paul in the end.
Some think 2 Corinthians 8:18 refers to Mark. “And we have sent with him the brother whose praise is in the gospel throughout all the church.” Mark deserves to be called one of the great characters of the Bible.
His greatest contribution to the cause of Christ was his Gospel, to which he was probably an eyewitness of many events in the life of Jesus. At a later period, he was with Peter in Babylon, 1 Peter 5:13. Then, and for some centuries afterwards, he occupied one of the chief seats of Jewish learning. He then disappears from view.