2 Timothy 4:11

Ver. 11. Luke alone is with me the beloved physician, as he is called in Colossians 4:14; there also, and in Philemon 1:24, coupled with Demas in salutations but now different in the relations they now occupy! All the names mentioned in the passage of Philemon referred to again recur here, except that of Aristarchus. De Wette asks what has become of it? and Alford justly replies, that while we have no means of answering the question, “a forger, such as De Wette supposes the writer of this epistle to be, would have taken good care to account for him.”

Mark take up (ἀναλαβὼν, here, the literal sense the best, implying that he was to be picked up on the way), and bring with thee; for he is serviceable to me for the ministry. There can be no reasonable doubt that the Mark here is John Mark, the evangelist, who caused the unfortunate split between Paul and Barnabas (Acts 15:36-41), but who at a later period became reconciled to the apostle, and was in close fellowship with him (Colossians 4:10). By being serviceable for the ministry εἰς διακονίαν cannot be understood otherwise, when spoken in this absolute manner, than of the ministry of the gospel. There is a similar omission of the article at 1 Timothy 1:12, where, beyond doubt, it is that kind of ministration which is meant. Mark, probably, had been more at Rome than most of the other evangelists known to Paul, and was hence better acquainted both with the language (whence not a few Latin words have crept into his Gospel) and the manners of the place. If so, the apostle might see his peculiar adaptation for evangelistic work there, and naturally wish to have him again employed in it.