Marjoram

(mārjo-rām.) (Bot.) See ORIGANUM. (sometimes written MARC,) (mah rk.) (Numis.) A money of account, or a coin. The English mark is two-thirds of a pound sterling, or 13s. 4d. The Hamburg mark is 18. 4d. THE EVANGELIST. " John whose surname was Mark " (Acts xii. 12) was the son of Mary, a woman of piety who lived at Jerusalem, where the disciples occasionally a embled at her house for prayer, and was sister to Barnabas (Col. iv. 10). He is also called Marcus. He accompanied the Apostle Paul and Barnabas to Antioch, Cyprus, and Perga in Pamphylia, returned to Jerusalem, and went afterwards to Cyprus, and thence to Rome (see Acts xiii.; Col. iv. 10; 2 Tim. iv. 11). Ecclesiastical tradition speaks of a mi ionary expedition of M. to Egypt and the west of Africa, of his suffering martyrdom about the year 62 or 66(the Coptic church still consider him their founder and first bishop), and of the transmi ion of his corpse to Venice, which city has chosen him for its patron saint. It is said that he wrote at Rome the gospel which bears his name. Tertullian and others pretend that St. Mark was no more than an amanuensis to St. Peter, who dictated this gospel to him; others a ert that he wrote it after St. Peter's death. Nor are the learned le divided as to the language in which it was written; some affirming it to have been Greek and others Latin. It however seems plainly intended for Christian converts from paganism, and is distinguished from the other evangelical writings by its brevity, pa ing over much that relates to the character of Christ as Me iah. [s. 578]