In I Peter 5:13 Peter said, “The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you; and so doth Marcus, my son.” Since Peter was married, could Marcus be his son?<\/p>\n\t
It wasn’t unusual for preachers who worked closely with younger men, who would eventually succeed them, to refer to them as their sons. Paul converted a runaway slave, whom he refers to as his son. “I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains<\/em>” (Philemon 10). Paul also calls Timothy his son. “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus<\/em>” (II Timothy 2:1).<\/p>\n It wasn’t restricted to men either, Paul referred to Christians in congregations where he worked as his children. “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you<\/em>” (Galatians 4:19). John did the same. “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth<\/em>” (III John 4).<\/p>\n Thus we conclude that if Peter was referring to John Mark, which seems to be the case, then it was a term of endearment. We do know that Barnabas was John Mark’s cousin (Colossians 4:10). We also know that John Mark’s mother was one of the Marys mentioned in the New Testament (Acts 12:12). Peter and Mary were not married because, in the incident recorded in Acts 12, when Peter was released from prison, it says he went to Mary’s house and not his own home. Since it is referred to as Mary’s house, then it is likely that Mary was a widow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: In I Peter 5:13 Peter said, “The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you; and so doth Marcus, my son.” Since Peter was married, could Marcus be his son? Answer: It wasn’t unusual for preachers who worked closely with younger men, who would eventually succeed them, to refer to them…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[211,121,559,76],"class_list":["post-17801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-figurative-language","tag-mark","tag-peter","tag-terminology"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12761,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-dont-think-you-proved-paul-to-be-an-apostle\/","url_meta":{"origin":17801,"position":0},"title":"I don’t think you proved Paul to be an apostle","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: There are so much strife and debate among the world and believers in Christ that it seems to be a waste of time that we debate among ourselves. So please understand that I do not come in the spirit of debate, but truly searching the Scriptures to see if\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4066,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-new-testament-canon\/","url_meta":{"origin":17801,"position":1},"title":"The New Testament Canon","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0On the night of Jesus\u2019 betrayal, Jesus promised his troubled disciples that he would send a helper - John 14:16 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The helper would be the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth - John 14:17 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0His purpose in coming would be to teach and to remind the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12673,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-peter-always-believe-that-jesus-was-the-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":17801,"position":2},"title":"Did Peter always believe that Jesus was the Christ?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Did Peter always believe that Jesus was the Christ? Answer: Peter first met Jesus because his brother told him that they had found the Messiah (John 1:41-42). We are not told if Peter was immediately convinced or not, but we do know that Peter became a staunch follower of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30310,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-did-demas-love\/","url_meta":{"origin":17801,"position":3},"title":"What did Demas love?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 12, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was doing some digging about Demas.\u00a0Demas left Paul because he loved the world. We aren't supposed to love the world. It's never said if Demas ever got back in a right relationship with the Lord, but if he died in the state of loving the world, then he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2099,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-faithful-children-mean-faithful-to-god-or-faithful-to-the-parent\/","url_meta":{"origin":17801,"position":4},"title":"Does “faithful children” mean faithful to God or faithful to the parent?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 22, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: When Paul speaks of \"faithful children\" in\u00a0Titus 1:6, did he mean faithful to God or faithful to the parent? Answer: Terms in the Bible are sometimes difficult to translate because common words are borrowed and used in ways where the common word takes on a deeper meaning than it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5210,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/objections-to-spanking\/","url_meta":{"origin":17801,"position":5},"title":"How dare you use Solomon’s writings to justify spanking!","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 10, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: The fact that your website tells parents to strike or hit (you call it spanking) children of any age is bizarre and totally sick. I never have read anything where Jesus strikes a child out of anger or discipline. If you refer to \"spare the rod\" that was Solomon,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17801\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}