Pre Irenaeus Mentions For Mark
Gospel of Thomas-
( 13) Jesus said to his disciples, "Compare me to someone and tell me whom I am like." Simon Peter said to him,
"You are like a righteous angel." Matthew said to him, "You are like a wise philosopher." Thomas said to him, "Master,
my mouth is wholly incapable of saying whom you are like." Jesus said, "I am not your master. Because you have
drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring which I have measured out." And he took him and
withdrew and told him three things. When Thomas returned to his companions, they asked him, "What did Jesus say
to you?" Thomas said to them, "If I tell you one of the things which he told me, you will pick up stones and throw them
at me; a fire will come out of the stones and burn you up." (Thomas 13.1-4)
Basilidas-
he second reference to Mark’s Gospel as a record of Peter’s preaching that may be independent of Papias is rather
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indirect. According to Clement of Alexandria (Stromateis 7.106.4), writing c. 200 CE, the Egyptian Gnostic teacher
Basilides claimed that he had been taught by a certain Glaucias, “the interpreter (hermēnea) of Peter.” This parallel to
Papias’s description of Mark as “the interpreter (hermēneutēs) of Peter” can hardly be accidental. Though the words
translated “interpreter” in each case are different (hermēneus, hermēneutēs), they are closely related and
synonymous. Since Clement knew and quoted Basilides’ own works, we can be confident that the claim to have been
a disciple of Glaucias goes back to Basilides himself. As for Basilides’ dates, Clement states vaguely that he was
active in the reigns of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius (117-61 CE), but Clement’s apparent concern to show that he
could not have been taught by a disciple of Peter may mean that his broad indication of dates errs on the late side.
Eusebius’s Chronikon gives the precise date of 132-33 CE for Basilides, but we do not know to what specific event
this date refers.103 It seems likely that Basilides was claiming to have been the disciple of Peter’s interpreter
Glaucias around the time when Papias was writing or perhaps somewhat later. Scholars who have argued that
Papias’s statements about the Gospels were motivated by anti-Gnostic apologetic104 have sometimes seen in his
description of Mark as Peter’s interpreter a polemical response to Basilides’ authorization of his teaching by reference
to Glaucias the interpreter of Peter. But there is little to be said for the idea that Papias was concerned with
anti-Gnostic apologetic, and the idea has generally been abandoned.105 It is much more likely that Basilides’ claim
was imitative of the description of Mark as Peter’s interpreter. He meant to authorize his own claim to esoteric
tradition transmitted orally from Peter by paralleling the claim that Mark’s Gospel conveyed Peter’s teaching. He may
have known this latter claim either directly from reading Papias106 or indirectly from Papias’s influence, but the
chronology makes it rather more plausible that he knew it as a tradition about Mark’s Gospel independently of Papias.
Also in favor of this view is the special association of both Mark and his Gospel with Alexandria, where Basilides had
his philosophical school. This association was known to Clement of Alexandria (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 2.16.1107). It is
very plausible that Mark was known as “Peter’s interpreter,” with reference to the authorship of his Gospel, in Egypt
from an early date. Therefore, as with the testimony of the Gospel of Thomas, we cannot be sure that this is evidence
for the association of Peter with Mark’s Gospel independent of Papias, but in this case the indications that it is are
quite strong
Justin Martyr-
et all the seed of Israel fear Him.' And when it is said that He changed the name of one of the apostles to Peter; and
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when it is written in the memoirs of Him that this so happened, as well as that He changed the names of other two
brothers, the sons of Zebedee, to Boanerges, which means sons of thunder; this was an announcement of the fact
that it was He by whom Jacob was called Israel, and Oshea called Jesus (Joshua), under whose name the people
who survived of those that came from Egypt were conducted into the land promised to the patriarchs. (Dialogue with
Trypho Chapter CVI)
Anti-Marcionite Prologue-
ark recorded, who was called Colobodactylus , because he had fingers that were too small for the height of the rest
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of his body. He himself was the interpreter of Peter. After the death of Peter himself, the same man wrote this gospel
in the parts of Italy. (https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/anti_marcionite_prologues.htm)
Mutorian Fragment-
Cut off
Post Irenaeus Mentions For Mark
Irenaeus-
herefore also Mark, the interpreter and follower of Peter, does thus commence his Gospel narrative: "The beginning
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of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; as it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send My messenger before
Thy face, which shall prepare Thy way (Against heresies 3.10. 5)
Clement of Alexandria-
ow, in the Gospel according to Mark, the Lord being interrogated by the chief of the priests if He was the Christ, the
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Son of the blessed God, answering, said, "I am; and ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power.
(Fragments I of Clement of Alexandria--Comments On The First Epistle Of Peter)
Tertullian-
I mean the Gospels of John and Matthew--whilst that which Mark published may be affirmed to be Peter's whose
interpreter Mark was (Book IV Chapter V Roberts-Donaldson Translation)
Origen-
he second written was that according to Mark, who wrote it according to the instruction of Peteri (Origen
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Commentary on Matthew Book 1)
Hippolytus-
For none of these (doctrines) has been written in the Gospel according to Mark. But (the real author of the system) is
mpedocles, son of Meto, a native of Agrigento (Refutationof All Heresies Book VIIChapter 18)
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here are eight sources who mention Mark as the author of the Gospel of Mark before 250. These
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are Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Pseudo-Hippolytus, Origen, Dionysius of Alexandra,
Cyprian, The Anti-Marcionite Prologues. And it turns out they all either knew Papias or someone else
from the list who knew Papias.
