Mara Bar Serapion

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mara Bar Serapion (= Mara, son of Serapion; dates unknown) was the signatory and suspected author of a letter to his son, which was written in the Syrian dialect of Aramaic . Based on the content and stylistic features of the letter, it is believed that he was a Syrian stoic .

Apart from the information in this document, nothing is known about the author. It has been handed down as a copy from the 7th century; the drafting of the original is usually dated between 70 and 165. The Quest for the historical Jesus sees this as an early non-Christian source to Jesus of Nazareth .

content

The author portrays himself as a prisoner of the Romans who has been deported from Samosata with other prisoners and who is now awaiting his imminent execution. That is why he wants to pass on life advice in the form of a legacy to his son, who is also called Serapion and who enjoys private schooling in Hellenistic education far away . Its central theme is wisdom : it is the only thing through which people can live forever.

As examples, the author lists three violent killings of exemplary sages of antiquity :

“What advantage did the Athenians have in sentencing Socrates to death? Hunger and disease came upon them as punishment for their crimes. What benefit did the men of Samos have from burning Pythagoras ? In an instant their land was covered with sand. How did the Jews benefit from killing their wise king? A short time later, their kingdom was abandoned. God avenged these three sages: the Athenians starved; the people of Samos have been inundated by the sea and the Jews driven from their land after it was destroyed are completely dispersed. But Socrates did not die in vain. He lives on in the teachings of Plato; Pythagoras did not die in vain either, he lives on in the statue of Hera. Nor did the wise King of the Jews die in vain; he lives on in the doctrine he preached. "

It is usually assumed that Mara meant Jesus of Nazareth by the “wise king” who gave a “new law” and was executed by the Jews .

Dating

The above-mentioned deportation of the author from Samosata and the burial of “Samos” within an hour have often been interpreted as follows since Heinrich Ewald (1832): Mara came from this city and witnessed its conquest by the Romans (around 72) by the the Jewish historian Flavius ​​Josephus also reported in his main work Bellum Iudaicum . Accordingly, the letter cannot have been written before 70; it is then often dated between 72 and 75.

Researchers relate the fate of the Jews to the storming of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 and / or the consequences of the Bar Kochba uprising (132–135): At that time, the Romans forbade the defeated Jews to settle in Palestine , so that they are in Roman terms Richly scattered. A drafting after 165 AD is considered unlikely.

The British Museum has the only copy of this 7th century letter. This was part of a manuscript from a Syrian monastery in the desert of Nitria , which came into the possession of the British Museum in 1843 via the English coptologist Henry Tattam . It was first published in English translation in 1855 by William Cureton .

The letter as an exercise in rhetoric

According to a minor opinion , it should not be an authentic, but a fictitious letter as part of a classic Chrie rhetoric exercise . In addition to the structure, this is mainly justified by the end of the letter:

“The Mara bar Serapion once asked a friend of his who was in prison with him: 'By your life, Mara, tell me, what is ridiculous about you that makes you laugh?' Mara replied to him: 'I laugh at the fate that, without my lending him, repays me badly.' The letter from Mara bar Serapion is over. "

The end of the letter, which suddenly changes to the third person, is not compatible with an authentic letter.

Text output

literature

  • Henri Hugonnard-Roche: Mara bar Sérapion. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Volume 7, CNRS Éditions, Paris 2018, ISBN 978-2-271-09024-9 , pp. 589-593
  • Robert E. Van Voorst: Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids 2000, ISBN 0-8028-4368-9 , pp. 53-57.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert E. Van Voorst: Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence. 2000, p. 53ff.
  2. ^ AH Mathias Zahniser, Asma Afsaruddin: Humanism, Culture, and Language in the Near East: Studies in Honor of Georg Krotkoff. Eisenbrauns, 1997, ISBN 1-57506-020-5 , p 241. . Fergus Millar: The Roman Near East: 31 BC-AD 337. Harvard University Press, 1995, ISBN 0-674-77886-3 , p. 461.
  3. ^ Humanism, Culture, and Language in the Near East
  4. ^ W. Wright: Catalog of Syrian manuscripts acquired from the British Museum from 1838. 1872
  5. ^ Steven K. Ross: Edessa: Politics and Culture on the Eastern Fringes of the Roman Empire . Novel. Psychology Press, 2001, ISBN 978-0-415-18787-9 , p. 119.
  6. ↑ Catherine M. Chin: Rhetorical Practice in the Chreia Elaboration of Mara bar Serapion. Hugoye 9/2 (2006) ( Memento of the original dated September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 1.9 MB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bethmardutho.org
personal data
SURNAME Mara Bar Serapion
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Syrian stoic and writer
DATE OF BIRTH 1st century or 2nd century
DATE OF DEATH 1st century or 2nd century