Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas
Marcus was Barnabas's sister's son, the son of that Mary, in
whose house the church met, and prayed for Peter when in prison;
whose name was John Mark, whom Saul and Barnabas took along with
them to Antioch, and from thence, in their travels, to other
parts; but he leaving them at Pamphylia, was the occasion of a
contention between Saul and Barnabas afterwards, when returned to
Antioch; the latter insisting on his going with them again, and
the former refusing it on account of his departure from them;
which contention rose so high that they parted upon it, (
Acts 12:12
Acts 12:25 ) (
Acts 13:5
Acts 13:13 ) (
15:37-39
) though after this the apostle was reconciled to him; he
approving himself to be a faithful and useful minister of the
Gospel; and therefore he desires Timothy to bring him along with
him, ( 2 Timothy
4:11 ) and if this epistle was written after that, he was now
come to him; however, he was now with him, whether before or
after: Aristarchus was a Macedonian of Thessalonica; or very
likely the apostle had been the instrument of converting him
there, and who followed him from thence, and attended him
wherever he went; he was with him in the uproar raised by
Demetrius at Ephesus, and accompanied him into Asia; went with
him in his voyage to Rome, and was now a fellow prisoner there, (
Acts 19:29 ) (
20:4 ) (
27:2 ) (
Colossians 4:10 ) .
Demas is the same with him who is mentioned in ( 2 Timothy
4:10 ) and if this epistle is later than that, it should seem
that he was restored from his fall, and was returned to the
apostle. Lucas is the same with Luke the Evangelist, the beloved
physician, the brother whose praise was in all the churches, and
a constant companion of the apostle, in his travels; and who
wrote the book called, "The Acts of the Apostles": these the
apostle styles, "my fellow labourers", being all ministers of the
Gospel; and this shows the apostle's great humility, so to call
them, when they were far from being on an equal foot with him in
office, gifts, or usefulness: and the Christian salutations of
these persons are sent to Philemon, with this view, to engage him
the more to attend to the apostle's request, in which they all
joined.