How do we know that Mark wrote the gospel of Mark? How do we
know that Mark recorded the observations of an eyewitness? The
short answer is because Papias (< 70 – c. 155) said so. Papias
was a bishop and an avid documenter of oral history from the
early church. His book Interpretations was written after 120 CE.
Jesus died in 30, Mark was written in 70, and Papias documents
Mark as the author in 120 (dates are estimates). That’s at least
50 years bridged only by “because Papias said so.” But how do we
know what Papias said? We don’t have the original of Papias, nor
do we have a copy. Instead, we have Church History by Eusebius,
which quotes Papias and was written in 320. Count the successive
people in the claim “Mark wrote Mark, which documents an
eyewitness account”: (1) Peter was an eyewitness and (2) Mark
was his journalist, and (3) someone told this to (4) Papias, who
wrote his book, which was preserved by (5) copyist(s), and (6)
Eusebius transcribed parts of that, and (7) more copyist(s)
translated Eusebi