Acts 12:25

After delivering the Antioch Christians’ gift to the church in Jerusalem (Acts 11:27-30), Barnabas and Saul returned to Antioch taking with them John Mark (Acts 12:12) who was Barnabas’ cousin (Colossians 4:10). The round trip between Antioch and Jerusalem would have been a distance of about 560 miles. This verse bridges what follows with the earlier account of the virile Antioch church (Acts 11:19-30). The reference to John Mark here also connects the preceding section about the Jerusalem church (Acts 12:1-24) with what follows. The effect is to give the reader the impression that what follows has a solid basis in both the Gentile Antioch church and the Jewish Jerusalem church, which it did.