Mara Bar Serapion

1ST-3RD century

• While it mentions Socrates and Pythagoras, Jesus isn't mentioned and it was most likely referring to Simon Bar Kokhba.
• Simon Bar Kokhba was betrayed by his own people.
• Simon Bar Kokhba was called the promised King Messiah by Rabbi Akiva, a contemporary.
• Simon Bar Kokhba was a Prince and that title was reflected on his coins.
• Simon Bar Kokhba established a covenant, commanded obedience, and created new laws.
• The dispersion of the Jewish people was a result of the failed revolt. Which aligns with the mention that it was "just after that their kingdom was abolished."
• If it's supposed to be about Jesus, the details are incorrect:
  • No mention of the Romans' involvement.
  • No time, place, individual name, or how they were driven from their Kingdom.
  • If Mara Bar Serapion intended it to be a reference to the second temple's destruction, Jesus' alleged death was 4 decades earlier and unrelated.

Mara Bar Serapion. Letter to his son. 73CE-3RD century

What else can we say, when the wise are forcibly dragged off by tyrants, their wisdom is captured by insults, and their minds are oppressed and without defense? What advantage did the Athenians gain from murdering Socrates? Famine and plague came upon them as a punishment 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 and the Jews, desolate and driven from their own kingdom, live in complete dispersion. But Socrates is not dead, because of Plato; neither is Pythagoras, because of the statue of Juno; nor is the wise king, because of the "new law" he laid down.