The Gospel According To Mark

There is no internal documented evidence that the Gospel of Mark was written by Mark, or John Mark, the idea that the Gospel According to Mark came from the early church. The most important evidence comes from Papias (c. a.d. 140), who quotes an even earlier source as saying: 

Mark was a close associate of Peter, from whom he received the tradition of the things said and done by the Lord;

this tradition did not come to Mark as a finished, sequential account of the life of our Lord, but as the preaching of Peter—preaching directed to the needs of the early Christian communities;

Mark accurately preserved this material.

So if you don't want to outright reject the entire Gospel According to Mark  as many scholars wish us to do, then you can rightly call it the Gospel According to Peter as it appears that John Mark was acting as Peter's secretary. 

The atheist argument that the Gospels were not written by people who knew Christ falls short with Mark too. The first mention of him is in connection with his mother, Mary, who had a house in Jerusalem that served as a meeting place for believers (Acts 12:12). Mary was a devout follower of Jesus and her son, Mark, was also a young follower in his teens. It is believed that Mark wrote himself in his Gospel here:

51 A young man was following Him, wearing nothing but a linen sheet over his naked body; and they seized him. 52 But he pulled free of the linen sheet and escaped naked. (Mark 14:51-52)

This is such an odd little scene in the narrative, and the Gospel of Mark is very tightly constructed, not a single word wasted so it would seem out of place unless the author wanted the reader to know that there was a "fly on the wall" observing the goings on and was a real person.

After Christ's resurrection and his appearance at Mark's mother's house (John 19:20) John Mark joined the apostles in their travels.. When Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch from Jerusalem after the famine visit, Mark accompanied them (Acts 12:25) Mark next appears as a “helper” to Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey (Acts 13:5), but he parted company with them at Perga in Pamphylia and returned to Jerusalem (Acts 13:13). Paul was deeply disappointed with Mark’s actions, because when Barnabas proposed taking Mark on the second journey, Paul flatly refused, and the working relationship between Paul and Barnabas was shattered (Acts15:36-39). Barnabas took Mark, who was his cousin, (Col 4:10), and departed for Cyprus. Paul didn't hold a grudge forever, and in the end he grievously missed Mark. As Paul wrote in captivity:

Only Luke is with me. Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service. (2 Timothy 4:11)

For Paul that's pretty high praise.

It is believed that The Gospel of Mark was written in Rome in the early 60's, and is often considered to be the first Gospel. Is it important to know what Gospel (Mark or Matthew) was written first? Of course not, at least not to anyone outside of dusty archives. My personal opinion is that it was written at the behest of Peter who was facing martyrdom. The fact that Mark was in Rome (often called by Peter as Babylon) with Peter is found in the bible:

She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you greetings, and so does my son, Mark. (1 Peter 5:13)

The Gospel of Mark was written in a rapid fire fashion, the word Eutheos which means "immediately" or "right away" was used forty times signifying Jesus' brief ministry. In the first chapter alone we can sense the urgency and immediacy of Jesus' work and mission. Mark uses the word "immediately" no less than eight times. For example, he says the "Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness" (Mark 1:12). "And immediately he called them" (Mark 1:20); "and immediately on the sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught" (Mark 1:21); "and immediately the leprosy left him" (Mark 1:42)

Mark also concentrates on something that the rest of the bible barely hints at: demonic posession. Ten times Mark describes an exorcism performed by Jesus Christ, compared to the rest of the bible, the Gospel of Mark is literally crawling with demons.

The Gospel of Mark was written for Gentiles, most likely the church in Rome. We believe this b Mark explains Jewish customs (Mark 7:2–4, Mark 15:42), translates Aramaic words (Mark 3:17, Mark 5:41, Mark 7:11,34, Mark 15:22,34) and seems to have a special interest in persecution and martyrdom (Mark 8:34–38, Mark 13:9–13) subjects of special concern to Roman believers. His gospel is written with little embellishment, even when something miraculous happened the tone of the narrative never changed, it's as if Mark was saying "This happened, now back to the important stuff" and he returns to the teaching of Jesus.

So when the detractors, the doubt spreaders, and the enemies of the word start their folderol about the gospels being written by people who did not know Christ, remember Mark - young disciple, son of a disciple, companion of Paul, secretary for Peter. Didn't know Christ? Mark been there, done that, and if they had them back then he'd have a T-shirt.