Mara Bar Serapion - Pagan Witness To Jesus?

[♦ ficino ♦]

I just came across the letter of Mara bar Serapion. Written in Syriac, the author seeks to encourage his son to pursue wisdom. In the signal part, the author says that the Athenians, the people of Samos, and the Jews, respectively, suffered after they executed wise men: Socrates, Pythagoras, and "the wise king of the Jews." The Jews' suffering was the destruction of their kingdom. The letter mentions the Roman annexation of the author's city, Samosata, which was in 72. Wikipedia says it was not later than the third century.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mara_bar_Serapion_on_Jesus

 

There's controversy over this, of course, and it exists in 6th cent. manuscripts.

 

Has anyone heard of it? Some Christians claim it as evidence that Jesus was a real person, etc.

[Overcame Faith]

That is very interesting. I had never heard of it. The reference to the "wise king of the Jews" may refer to how Jesus was referred in the Gospels as the King of the Jews, most particularly on the sign supposedly placed on the cross by Pontius Pilate.

 

I wonder if there was someone other than Jesus who could be the "Wise king of the Jews" who was executed?

[♦ ficino ♦]

I saw one hypothesis that the letter is a later rhetorical exercise written by Syrian Christian. There are many pseudonymous letters in Greek, esp. from the later 1st to third centuries. But I don't know whether there's hard evidence behind that hypothesis or whether it's just a guess - perhaps by someone who doesn't want it to be genuine. I haven't researched it (just learned of it yesterday) but I may do so if I get the time later.

[bornagainathiest]

Hmmm...

 

Well I know next to nothing about these things, F.  But, because I have a logical turn of mind, a (potentially) helpful thought occurs to me.

 

Imho, investigation into the identity of this 'wise king of the Jews' should proceed along two paths, not just one.

Rather than just trying to make a positive case for Jesus being this person, by trying to find links and connections and similarities, efforts should also be made in the other direction - constructing a negative case.  Sometimes, when matters are unclear and the going difficult, it's easier to eliminate the possibilities, rather than to confirm them.

 

(Can't recall exactly which episode it was, but when Capt. Kirk was on the surface of a planet and in danger, the bridge crew of the Enterprise were performing sensor sweeps to locate him, so they could beam him up.  Chekov (or Sulu) reported to Spock that there was some kind of unknown force covering the planet, preventing them from pinpointing his location.  Spock then recommended performing a kind of negative search, saying something like...  "If we can't establish where the Captain is, let's try and establish where he is not.  We can then proceed on that information.")

 

On that basis Ficino, would something like this be of any help?

 

We have the following pieces of information to go on.

 

1.  We know (approximately) the time frame bar Serapion refers to.

2.  We know the title ("the wise king of the Jews") given to him.

3.  We know that, according to Serapion's letter, this person established a "new law".

 

So, using these criteria, instead of 'forcing the issue' and trying to positively tie these things to the Biblical Jesus, against the tide of so many unknowns and unknowables, maybe we should do the opposite and take a negative approach?

 

Maybe we should ask ourselves if there are any other kings or notable personages who lived in the time frame, who were referred to as wise and who established some kind of new law?  That is, to eliminate as many other candidates as possible and then see who is left?

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Just my layperson's 50 cents.

 

Thanks,

 

BAA.

 

 

 

[♦ ficino ♦]

The last Hasmonean king was Antigonus II - Mattathias.  He sided with the Parthians against Rome.  His forces were defeated by Herod's forces and he was crucified--or beheaded--by the Romans at Herod's instigation in 37 BCE,

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antigonus_II_Mattathias

 

After that, Judea was a client kingdom ruled by Herod under Roman overlordship. 

 

You could say that the Jews lost their kingdom after Antigonus' execution.  I don't really think you could say he introduced a "new law" or was particularly wise, though the priestly class continued to revere him as a martyred leader against the interloper, Herod.

 

I think we have to rule out Antigonus.  Someone over on earlywritings insists that the Jesus story was partly inspired by the story of Antigonus.

[♦ ficino ♦]

Etienne Nodet, in an appendix on the Slavonic Josephus, says that the letter of Mara bar Serapion was written after the sack of Seleucia by the Romans in 165. Hmm... that's close to a century later than the letter is often dated. It makes more sense to me, actually, because various features of it look like productions of the Second Sophistic movement, which flourished in the second century. That was a time when people wrote fictionalizing letters as rhetorical exercises. There are a lot of pseudonymous letters of Socrates and companions that date to that time.

[Overcame Faith]

If the words in the document are to be read literally, then the author could not have been referring to Jesus. He was never the actual King of the Jews. it seems to me that for the author to refer to Jesus, he would have written something like "the wise man called the King of the Jews."