SPSA Church Giving (opens in a new tab)

Questions & Answers

St. Mark

Faith Q&A › Metropolitan Youssef › St. Mary and the Saints › St. Mark

The question

Why is St. Mark the Apostle called the Beholder of God?

The answer

St. Mark was the man carrying the jar when the two disciples went to prepare a place for the celebration of the Passover (Mark 14:13-14, Luke 22:11). St. Mark was also the young man who fled naked before the Crucifixion (Mark 14:51-52). Unfortunately, in the first century, Papias the Bishop of Hierapolis claimed that St. Mark never heared nor accompanied the Lord. He wrote "Mark the interpreter of Peter, wrote down exactly, but not in order, what he remembered of the acts and sayings of the Lord, for he neither heard the Lord himself nor accompanied him, but, as I said, Peter later on." Unfortunately few historians quoted Papias. For these reasons, the Coptic Church insists on calling St. Mark, the "Theorimos" meaning the "Beholder of the Lord."
http://www.geocities.com/paulntobin/synoptics.html#papias.

Answered by His Eminence Metropolitan Youssef (opens in a new tab)

Questions answered by His Eminence Metropolitan Youssef (opens in a new tab) of the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. Question 880 on the Diocese’s Q&A site. Questions and answers © Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. All rights reserved.