1 Answers
Mara bar Serapion was a Syriac Stoic philosopher in the Roman province of Syria. He is only known from a letter he wrote in Syriac to his son, who was named Serapion, which refers to the execution of "the wise king of the Jews” and may be an early non-Christian reference to Jesus of Nazareth.
The letter indicates that Mara's homeland was Samosata, i.e. modern-day Samsat, Turkey , but his captivity appears to have been in Seleucia, in modern-day Iraq.
Mara's captivity took place after the AD 72 annexation of Samosata by the Romans, but before the third century. Most scholars date it to shortly after AD 73 during the first century.
8 views
Answered