Mara bar Serapion

[[File:Mara Bar Serapion.jpg|upright|thumb|Why the long face?]]
{{christianity}}
'''Mara bar Serapion''' (Syriac: ܡܪܐ ܒܪ ܣܪܦܝܘܢ) was an imprisoned [[Syria]]n with an unknown lifespan whose sole remaining work is a letter, written sometime between 73 CE and 200 CE.

==In Christian apologetics==
{{main|Apologetics}}
In a letter to his son, Mara bar Serapion made the following statement:<ref>[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ante-Nicene_Fathers/Volume_VIII/Memoirs_of_Edessa_And_Other_Ancient_Syriac_Documents/A_Letter_of_Mara,_Son_of_Serapion A Letter of Mara, Son of Serapion] ''Wikisource''.</ref><ref>''The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?'' by F.F. Bruce (1972) InterVarsity Press. 5<sup>th</sup> edition. ISBN 0851103073.</ref>{{rp|114}}<ref>[http://www.tektonics.org/jesusexist/serapion.php Mara bar Serapion's Testimony on Jesus] ''Tektonic Apologetics''.</ref>

{{quotebox|What advantage did the Athenians gain from putting [[Socrates]] to death? Famine and [[plague]] came upon them as a judgment for their crime. What advantage did the men of Samos gain from burning Pythagoras? In a moment their land was covered with sand. '''What advantage did the Jews gain from executing their wise King?''' It was just after that their Kingdom was abolished. [[God]] justly avenged these three wise men: the Athenians died of hunger; the Samians were overwhelmed by the sea; the [[Jews]], ruined and driven from their land, live in complete dispersion. 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 lived on in the teaching which He had given.'''}}

There are several problems with interpreting this as [[Evidence for the historical existence of Jesus Christ|evidence of Jesus's existence]]:<ref>[http://infidels.org/library/modern/jeff_lowder/jury/chap5.html#mara Josh McDowell's "Evidence" for Jesus, Is It Reliable?] by Jeffery Jay Lowder (15 May 2000) ''The Secular Web''.</ref>

*'''Time:''' It is unknown when Mara bar Serapion lived, whether he could have been an eyewitness to [[Jesus]], or when he wrote this letter. At ''minimum'', he wrote about 43 years after the supposed [[crucifixion]], and it is possible that he could not have witnessed it. From this alone, this is weak evidence. Even conservative scholar F.F. Bruce states the letter was "written some time later than 73CE, but how much later we cannot be sure",<ref>Bruce 1972, p. 114, quoted by McDowell in McDowell 1979, p. 84.</ref> and Archibald Robertson&nbsp;— who accepted the historicity of Jesus&nbsp;— reported that "such authorities as Cureton and M'Lean date it in the second or even third" century.<ref>''Jesus: Myth or History?'' by Archibald Robertson (1949) Watts & Co. 2<sup>nd</sup> edition.</ref>{{rp|87}}
*'''"Wise King":''' It is possible (although admittedly unlikely) that "wise King" did not reference Jesus. Given that the other mentioned characters lived long before Jesus, Farrell Till argued that "[[Messiah|<nowiki>[m]</nowiki>essianic pretenders]] in Judea were a dime a dozen" and that the 'wise King' could have been the "Teacher of Righteousness" mentioned in the [[Dead Sea Scrolls]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/19970615191150/http://www.infidels.org/library/magazines/tsr/1995/4/4mara95.html The 'Testimony' of Mara Bar-Serapion] by Farrell Till (1995) ''The Skeptical Review 4).</ref><ref>France 1986, p. 23 also questions whether 'wise King' refers to Jesus.</ref>
*'''Romans, not Jews:''' Given that Jesus was crucified by the [[Roman Empire|Romans]], not the [[Judaism|Jews]], Mara bar Serapion's choice of words is inexplicable unless we assume that he received his information about this 'wise King' from [[Christianity|Christians]]. (Early Christians held the Jews at least partially responsible for Jesus' crucifixion.) However, if Mara bar Serapion received his information from Christians, two conclusions follow. First, it is highly likely that the 'wise King' was Jesus.<ref>Cf. France 1986, p. 24.</ref> Second, Mara bar Serapion does not provide independent confirmation of the historicity of Jesus, but is merely parroting Christians.
*'''Athens vs Samos:''' Mara bar Serapion's letter includes other errors. Till notes that the letter implies that Pythagoras had been killed by his countrymen, yet "Pythagoras left the island of Samos in 530BCE and emigrated to the Greek colony of Croton in Southern Italy. He later died in Metapontum, which is now Metaponto, Italy."{{efn|Till 1995. — However, {{wpl|Metapontum}} was another Greek colony of {{wpl|Magna Graecia|Magna Graecia,}} so if "fellow countrymen" referred to Greeks (as opposed to {{wpl|Barbarian"Barbarian" in Greek historical contexts|"barbarians"}}) this would be more of a problem of vagueness than an outright factual error.}} Even apologists McDowell and Wilson admit that Mara bar Serapion's "information about Athens and Samos is inaccurate."<ref>McDowell and Wilson 1988, p. 54.</ref>

Even apologist Holding is forced to admit that "[t]his reference to Jesus is not particularly valuable."{{cn}}

==See also==
{{div col|2}}
*[[Evidence for the historical existence of Jesus Christ]]
*[[Josephus]]
*[[Tacitus]]
*[[Pliny the Younger]]
*[[Suetonius]]
*[[Thallus]]
*[[Phlegon]]
*[[Lucian]]
*[[Hadrian]]
{{div col end}}

==External links==
*{{wpa|Mara bar Serapion}}

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

[[Category:Apologetics and counter-apologetics]]
[[Category:Authors]]
[[Category:Jesus]]

Categories: Apologetics and counter-apologetics, Authors, Jesus