The Gospel of Mark and the Apostle Paul

There is no doubt about the points of contact between the theology of Luke and that of the Apostle Paul of which Luke was a prominent collaborator. Could we also say the same thing  about Marco? Is not the one who stands behind the second Gospel the same who is mentioned in Acts 13,13; 15,36-40, in Col 4,10 and in 2tm 4,11? We interviewed an expert of the Pauline world, Prof. Giuseppe Pulcinelli, professor of Pauline Literature in Rome and author of several contributions on Paul and his letters.

What are the opinions of scholars regarding this question? The relationship of dependence of Mark – understood as the author of the Gospel, which current critics consider the first in chronological order – with Paul, author of the first Christian writings, was a question debated already in the nineteenth century in the German world, and that 100 years ago with the publication of the in-depth study by Martin Werner – in which every possibility was denied – seemed definitively closed. Until about thirty years ago this point of view prevailed in the world of the New Testament, but it was above all the essay by Joel Marcus that gave a new impetus to studies, reconsidering Werner’s objections and providing a more solid and balanced basis for the arguments in favor of Paolo’s possible influence on Marco.

Are there any in-depth studies on the subject? Those interested in this topic now have at their disposal two recent collections of studies covering almost all fields of comparison between Mark and Paul, which appeared simultaneously for the same publisher, one mainly from the German-Anglo-Saxon world, the other from the Scandinavian world. I’ll quote them below: C.E. FERGUSON, A New Perspective on the Use of Paul in the Gospel of Mark, London-New York 2021 (see here). L. KNIGHT-JADCZYK, From Paul to Mark: Paleochristianity, Otto NC (USA) 2021 (see here). I myself am going to publish a detailed article on the subject.