In an attempt to motivate his son, Serapion, to become like the wise teachers of the past, Mara bar-Serapion writes a letter while in prison. A fragment of this letter is preserved in the British Museum and is dated to between 73 A.D. and the 3rd century A.D.
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.[1]
We learn a few things from this short passage[2]:
- Jesus is considered to be a wise and virtuous man.
- He twice is called the Jew's King. This is perhaps a reference to Jesus' own teaching about himself or of the notice posted above his head on the titulus while he hung on the cross.
- The punishment the Jews received was a result of their executing an innocent man.
- Jesus' teachings lived on in the life and work of his disciples.
- Mara bar-Serapion
- Habermas, Gary R. The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ. Joplin, MO: College Press Publishing, 2008, 207-208.