History
Mara bar Serapion on the "Wise King"
- Era
- c. AD 70-200
- Location
- Syria
- Discovered
- manuscript: British Library, 7th c.
A Syriac letter from a Stoic father to his son refers to a "wise king" of the Jews who was unjustly executed and whose teachings lived on through his disciples — a non-Christian, non-Jewish reference to Jesus from the eastern world.
The find
The letter, written in Syriac and preserved in a 7th-century manuscript, dates the original composition somewhere between AD 70 and the early 3rd century. Mara compares the unjust deaths of Socrates, Pythagoras, and "the wise king of the Jews," noting that the Jews "gained nothing" by it because "the wise king" lived on "in the teaching he had given."
Why it matters
It's another independent Eastern witness to the historical existence of Jesus, to the persecution of His followers, and to the fact that His teaching survived the death of its teacher.
Cross-linked Scripture
- Matthew 27:24-25
- 1 Corinthians 1:23— Mara calls Him the executed "wise king" — paralleling Paul's "Christ crucified".
- Acts 4:1-22
Doctrine check
Sources
- ·Van Voorst, R.E. (2000). Jesus Outside the New Testament, ch. 1
- ·Cureton, W. (1855). Spicilegium Syriacum
- ·Mara bar Serapion (Wikipedia)
See also
