the questions here. It should be of no small comfort to the general reader and the scholar alike that the author did not apparently think that such specific information was essential for an understanding of his book, otherwise he surely would have included it. Since at least the second century of the Christian era, it has been suggested that the author of Mark was John Mark, the relative of Barnabas (Acts 12:12, 25), and that he wrote his Gospel in Rome, basing it in some way on the preaching of