Mara bar serapion biography of albert

Ancient Syrian author

Mara bar Serapion (Classical Syriac: ܡܪܐ ܒܪ ܣܪܦܝܘܢ), or "Mara son of 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,^[1][2] 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 (on the west bank of the Euphrates), but his captivity appears to have been in Seleucia, in modern-day Iraq (on the west bank of the Tigris River).^[3]

Mara's captivity took place after the AD 72 annexation of Samosata by the Romans, but before the third century.^[4] Most scholars date it to shortly after AD 73 during the first century.^[5]

The letter to his son

See also: Mara bar Serapion on Jesus

Mara's letter to his son begins with: "Mar