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Saul and Barnabas were highly educated men. Mark was a friend of the fisherman Peter — young, active, a useful courier, no doubt, but not in his habits or tastes the social equal of his companions. From the first Mark does not seem to have been one of them. His heart was still at Jerusalem, his sympathies were Judaic, his natural friend and master was Peter, not Saul. He had his own work, but he soon found he was not called to the Gentiles. No, Mark! When you get to Perga and see those wild hills of Pisidia in the distance, when you think of those heathen cities beyond, those treacherous lone countries, you wont care to face them. Your mother is at Jerusalem, your teacher also is there; you cannot assimilate brother Saul's strong anti-Judaic doctrines, just yet at least; you don't share his contempt for ceremonies. You are a little nettled at one so new to the work (not one of the twelve) posing as an authority not quite in accord either with Peter or James, and yet habitually, and without question, stepping in front of Barnabas. Saul thinks you lukewarm. You are not exactly that. Nevertheless, you will "not go with him to work" — you will return to Jerusalem. Perhaps you are right. You have your own work; do it in your own way. Had you gone with those two you might never again have sat at Peter's feet, collected his memoirs, written that priceless, brief, matter-of-fact statement — the earliest, the most authentic of the Synoptic documents — which was once called Peter's Gospel, and which we know as the Gospel according to Mark.

(H. R. Haweis, M. A.)

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KJV: And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.

WEB: Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.