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,"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_featured_media_url":"","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":2099,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-faithful-children-mean-faithful-to-god-or-faithful-to-the-parent\/","url_meta":{"origin":17801,"position":1},"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":7708,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/objections-to-pauls-apostleship\/","url_meta":{"origin":17801,"position":2},"title":"Objections to Paul’s apostleship","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 5, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: It seems Paul compromised what he taught and preached. It's like me saying I'm going to a bar to get drunk and preach Christ Paul was a self-appointed apostle. When Christ chose the other twelve apostles, they were a witness to each other. Paul appears to be a bully\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":522,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-i-lose-my-way-to-heaven\/","url_meta":{"origin":17801,"position":3},"title":"Can I lose my way to heaven?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 14, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can I lose my way to heaven? Answer: Obviously, Paul thought that it was possible. \u201cNot that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do\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":19352,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/neither-jesus-nor-peter-ate-unclean-animals-so-if-you-teach-otherwise-you-are-departing-from-christianity\/","url_meta":{"origin":17801,"position":4},"title":"Neither Jesus nor Peter ate unclean animals, so if you teach otherwise you are departing from Christianity","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 5, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I agree\u00a0with you\u00a0that there is no record of Jesus being a vegetarian, but you must also concede that there is no record either, in the \"words in red\", of Jesus departing from tradition in such a sharp way as described in Acts10:9-16 and I Corinthians 10:25-26. The often-quoted Mark\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":92246,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/becoming-your-enemy\/","url_meta":{"origin":17801,"position":5},"title":"Becoming Your Enemy","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 19, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Micky Galloway Paul wrote the Galatian letter to those who had been influenced by Judaizing teachers who had bound, as necessary to salvation, certain aspects of the Law of Moses. Paul indicted some of them, \"Ye are severed from Christ, ye would be justified by the Law; ye are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_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}]}}