Christian Texts and History • The Pillar John is John Mark of Acts 15:37

Whom does the so-called circumcision party of Gal. ii, 12 consist of? In the writer’s mind, probably Judas and Silas, who in Acts xv, 32 deliver the apostolic decree to Antioch. According to certain manuscripts which rarely if ever are identified, however, it was a one-man party; and on that reading I would suggest that that man was John Mark, whose recent return from Jerusalem is implied in Acts xv, 37. (I suspect that the „John“ of Gal. ii, 9 is also Mark, not the disciple John.)