Mara bar serapion biography samples full

Mara includes a fascinating testimony about Jesus (“the wise king of the Jews”) whom he aligns with Socrates and Pythagoras as examples of.

Mara Bar Serapion 73 A. It was just after that their Kingdom was abolished. On the Significance of A. As judgment, plague and famine came upon them. What did the men of Samos gain from burning Pythagoras? Shortly after this, their land was covered with sand. What did the Jews gain from executing their wise King? It was just after his death that their kingdom was abolished.

But Socrates did not die for good; he lived on in the teaching of Plato. Pythagoras did not die for good; he lived on in the statue of Hera. Nor did the wise King die for good; He lives on in the teaching which he had given. Apart from him, no certain reference is made to Christianity in any extant non-Christian Gentile writing of the first century.

There is, indeed, in the British Museum an interesting manuscript preserving the text of a letter written some time later than AD 73, but how much later we cannot be sure. Mara Bar-Serapion was in prison at the time, but he wrote to encourage his son in the pursuit of wisdom, and pointed out that those who persecuted wise men were overtaken by misfortune.

Famine and plague came upon them as a judgment for their crime. What advantage did the men of Samos, gain from burning Pythagoras?