Jerome. Lives of Illustrious Men 8
8 Mark, the evangelist PL 23, 621
Mark the disciple and interpreter of Peter wrote a short gospel at the request of the brethren at Rome embodying what he had heard Peter tell. When Peter had heard this, he approved it and published it to the churches to be read by his authority as Clemens in the sixth book of his Hypotyposes and Papias, bishop of Hierapolis, record. Peter also mentions this Mark in his first epistle, figuratively indicating Rome under the name of Babylon “She who is in Babylon elect together with you saluteth you and so doth Mark my son.” So, taking the gospel which he himself composed, he went to Egypt and first preaching Christ at Alexandria he formed a church so admirable in doctrine and continence of living that he constrained all followers of Christ to his example. Philo most learned of the Jews seeing the first church at Alexandria still Jewish in a degree, wrote a book on their manner of life as something creditable to his nation telling how, as Luke says, the believers had all things in common at Jerusalem, so he recorded that he saw was done at Alexandria, under the learned Mark. He died in the eighth year of Nero and was buried at Alexandria, Annianus succeeding him.
Marcus discipulus et interpres Petri, juxta quod Petrum referentem audierat, rogatus Romae a fratribus, breve scripsit Evangelium. Quod cum Petrus audisset, probavit, et Ecclesiis legendum sua auctoritate edidit, 843 sicut Clemens in sexto ὑποτυπώσεων libro scribit et Papias Hierapolitanus episcopus. Meminit hujus Marci, et Petrus in Epistola prima, sub nomine Babylonis figuraliter Romam significans: Salutat vos quae in Babylone est coelecta, et Marcus filius meus . Assumpto itaque Evangelio quod ipse confecerat, perrexit Aegyptum, et primus [ Ms. primum] Alexandriae Christum annuntians, constituit Ecclesiam, tanta doctrina [ Al. doctrinae] et vitae continentia, ut omnes sectatores Christi ad exemplum sui cogeret. Denique Philo disertissimus Judaeorum, videns Alexandriae primam Ecclesiam adhuc judaizantem, quasi in laudem gentis suae librum super eorum conversatione scripsit . Et quomodo Lucas narrat, Hierosolymae credentes omnia habuisse communia: sic et ille quod Alexandriae sub Marco fieri doctore cernebat, memoriae tradidit. Mortuus est autem octavo Neronis anno, et sepultus Alexandriae, succedente sibi Anniano.
Μάρκος μαθητὴς καὶ ἑρμηνευτὴς Πέτρου, καθὼς τοῦ Πέτρου ἐξηγουμένου ἀκήκοε, παρακληθεὶς ἐν τῇ Ῥώμῃ παρὰ τῶν ἀδελφῶν, βραχὺ συνέταξεν Εὐαγγέλιον, ᾧπερ ἐντυχὼν Πέτρος ἐδοκίμασε, καὶ τῇ Ἐκκλησία ἀναγνωσθησόμενον αὐθεντίσας ἐξέδωκε, καθὰ 844 συνεγράψατο Κλήμης ἐν τῷ ἕκτῳ τῶν Υποτυπώσεων λόγῳ, καὶ Παπίας Ἱεραπολίτης Ἐπίσκοπος. Μέμνηται τούτου τοῦ Μάρκου καὶ Πέτρος ἐν τῇ πρώτῃ Ἐπιστολῇ, ἐπ' ὀνόματι Βαβυλῶνος εἰκονικῶς Ῥώμην σημαίνων. Ἀσπάζεται ὑμᾶς, φησὶν, ἡ ἐν Βαβυλῶνι σὺν τῇ ἐκλεκτῇ, καὶ Μάρκος ὁ ἐμὸς υἱὸς. Παραλαβὼν τοιγαροῦν τὸ Εὐαγγέλιον, ὅπερ αὐτὸς συνέταξε, καταλαμβάνει τὴν Αἴγυπτον, καὶ πρῶτος ἐν Ἀλεξανδρείᾳ Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν κηρύττων, κατεστήσατο ἐκκλησίαν, τοσαύτῃ παιδεύσει καὶ βίου καρτερίᾳ διέπρεψεν, ὥστε πάντας τοὺς ἀκολουθοῦντας τῷ Χριστῶ ἕψεσθαι τῇ τούτου διαγωγῇ. Ὅθεν καὶ Φίλων ὁ τῶν Ἰουδαίων ἐλλογιμώτατος, ὁρῷν ἐν Ἀλεξανδρείᾳ πρώτην ἐκκλησίαν ἔτι Ἰουδαΐζουσαν, ὡσανεὶ εἰς ἔπαινον τοῦ οἰκείου ἔθνους βίβλον περὶ τῆς τούτων διαγωγῆς συνεγράψατο. Καὶ ὥσπερ Λουκᾶς διηγεῖται τοὺς ἐν Ἰεροσολύμοις πιστεύσταντας πάντα ἐσχηκέναι κοινὰ, οὕτως κᾀκεῖνος ὅπερ ἐν Ἀλεξανδρείᾳ ἐπὶ Μάρκου τοῦ διδασκάλου ἐώρα γινόμενον, τῇ μνήμῃ παρέδωκε. Τελευτήσας δὲ τῷ ὀγδόῳ τοῦ Νέρωνος ἔτει, ἀπετέθη ἐν Ἀλεξανδρείᾳ, διαδεξαμένου αὐτὸν Ἀνανίου.