Theophylact's Introduction to the Gospel of Mark as the One Preached in Alexandria

 VITA B. MARCI

Secundum Sophronium.

169 Marcus, Petri discipulus et interpres, postquam ejusdem Petri auditorem fuisset, a fratribus, qui Romae erant, accessitis, brevi Evangelium composuit, quod nantes Petrus approbavit, atque Ecclesiae legendum sua auctoritate dedit, quemadmodum scripsit Clemens libro sexto Hypotyposen. Papias item Hierapolitanus episcopus ejusdem Marci mentionem fecit. Denique Petrus in Epistola prima, sub nomine Babylonis metaphorice Romam significans: “Salutant vos,” inquit, “Ecclesia in Babylone collecta, et Marcus filius meus.” Accepto igitur quod scriptum erat Evangelio, Aegyptum aggrediur, et primus Alexandriae Jesum Christum praedicans, Ecclesiam instituit. Ubi tanta doctrina viguerit, ut in omnibus virtutibus excelluit, ut quotquot eum frequentes audierint, illo duce Christum secuti sint. Unde Philo ipse Judaeorum eloquentissimus, cum Alexandriae primam

A Ecclesiam adhuc Judaizantem vidisset, velut in laudem propriae gentis librum conscripsit de ejus vitae institutis. Et quemadmodum Lucas narrat primos Hierosolymae fideles omnia habuisse communia, ita et ipse memoravit in Alexandria apud Alexandrinos a Marco doctore facta viderat. Obiit octavo imperii Neronis anno, et Alexandriae sepultus est; cui successit Anianus.

Translation

Life of Blessed Mark
According to Sophronius.

169 Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, after he had been Peter’s hearer, at the request of the brothers who were in Rome composed a brief Gospel. Peter, when he learned of it, approved it and by his own authority gave it to the Church to be read, as Clement wrote in the sixth book of the Hypotyposes. Papias too, bishop of Hierapolis, made mention of this same Mark. Finally Peter, in his first Epistle, metaphorically signifying Rome under the name of Babylon, says: “She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, greets you, and so does Mark my son.” Having therefore received the written Gospel, he set out for Egypt and, as the first to preach Jesus Christ in Alexandria, founded the Church. There his teaching was so powerful, and he so excelled in every virtue, that all who frequently heard him followed Christ under his guidance. Hence Philo himself, the most eloquent of the Jews, when he had seen in Alexandria the first Church, which was still Judaizing, wrote a book in praise of his own people about its way of life. And just as Luke relates that the first believers in Jerusalem had all things in common, so he too recorded that in Alexandria among the Alexandrians the same things were done, as he had seen under the teacher Mark. He died in the eighth year of Nero’s reign and was buried at Alexandria; Anianus succeeded him.

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170 VITA B. MARCI
Ex Synopsi Dorothei martyris et Tyriorum episcopi.

Marcus evangelista, et primus Alexandriae episcopus, Alexandrinis et omni circa regioni Evangelium Domini praedicavit, ab Aegypto usque Pentapolim. Sub imperio Trajani, Alexandriae, injecto per collum fune, ab insanis idolorum cultoribus raptus est a loco Buculi dicto usque ad eum qui dicitur Angelorum, ubi igne crematus est, mense Pharmuthi, et ibidem sepultus.

Translation

170 Life of Blessed Mark
From the Synopsis of Dorotheus the martyr and bishop of Tyre.

Mark the Evangelist, and first bishop of Alexandria, preached the Gospel of the Lord to the Alexandrians and to all the surrounding region, from Egypt as far as Pentapolis. Under the rule of Trajan, at Alexandria, a rope having been cast around his neck, he was dragged by mad worshipers of idols from the place called Bucolus to the one called “of the Angels,” where he was burned with fire in the month Pharmuthi, and there he was buried.