Hi Badger —
Papias (60-130AD) wrote: "And the presbyter said this (who the presbyter is remains uncertain, possibly John, possibly Aristion, who might have been one of the 72 disciples mention in Scripture). Mark having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately whatsoever he remembered... For he neither heard the Lord nor accompanied Him. But afterwards, as I said, he accompanied Peter ... " (Fragments of Papias VI).
I do think that the Gospel of Mark is mostly an account of the memoirs of Cephas, and it does seem to me that he wanted his true account of what happened to be written down.
Papias's mention of Mark, thus, :- '....neither heard the Lord nor accompanied Him...' could be making mention of a single incident, such as the transfiguration, but is unlikely to have meant during the whole 11-12 months mission. In any event, only the author's account can offer any evidence of his presence during that time.
It's accepted from the earliest traditions that Mark might well have been John Mark, a cousin of Barnabas who accompanied Paul and Barnabas on their missionary journeys. He fell out with Paul although later reconciled, and was in Rome at the time of Peter's arrest. His style indicates his native tongue is Aramaic, but that he's writing for a Roman (non-Jewish) audience and occasionally uses Roman words.
Those earliest traditions suggest that Mark's native tongue was 'Aramaic', which seems place his birth and upbringing in the Northern Provinces, and that he was a cousin to Barnabas, this could place him in the North as well, with a prefix such as 'Bar'.
There's a lot of material out there on the question.
I do like reading about various Traditions and material about Jesus and his followers, the Cornish, Gaulish and Kashmir ones as well.
This isn't a tradition, nor hearsay, in my opinion, because the author of G-Mark wrote it.
I think he was at the arrest of Jesus. I think he was writing about himself in the third person when he mentioned the youth who broke free and ran from the guards.
Question:- Who saw this happen, or has any strong recollection of it?
Answer: Only those immediately involved in that encounter....nobody else. Everybody else was involved with their own urgent actions at that time...there were NO casual bystanders observing that event. None.
If I'm right, only those guards and the escapee would remember that event.
I don't think that the guards made much mention of their failure for the author of G-Mark to ever hear about it in later years, nor for the author to consider it to be an important scene during that event.
Only the person who saved themselves would have that event in mind for the rest of their lives. Burned in to memory.
It's better evidence than any other writings, that the author of G-Mark was there. And I do think that he was originally from the North and an Eastern Aramaic speaker.
