Theodicy in the Letter of Mara Bar Serapion: Connections with Philosophical (Stoic) Accounts of Divine Retribution

What is it about?

This article analyses the issue of theodicy, namely the philosophico-theological problem of the “justice of God,” in Mara Bar Serapion’s Letter to His Son, a Stoicizing document of the Syriac Hellenized world of Roman imperial times. The analysis is conducted against the backdrop of Stoicism and Stoic theodicy. A close literary and philosophical investigation into the relevant passages of the Letter—also comparing it to early Syriac literary texts, and Stoic philosophy from the Ancient Stoa to early imperial times, as well as the first documents concerning Jesus Christ—seems to confirm the Stoicizing features of the concept of theodicy that is at the core of Mara’s treatment of Greek philosophers and, along with them, Jesus, “the wise king of the Jews.” Indeed, while it is not surprising that a letter written by a Stoicizing thinker and replete with Stoic notions also includes a theodicy and a divine explanation of tragedies that are close to Stoic tenets, the main difference consists in the inclusion of Jesus Christ, “the wise king of the Jews,” among famous Greek philosophers such as Socrates and Pythagoras, who (as the Letter emphasizes) were unjustly killed, but both were avenged and rewarded by God. Interestingly, Platonic and Christian discourses of otherworldly survival, with reward or punishment, are not deployed in this letter, which adds to its “pagan” Stoic flavour.

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Photo by Stephanie LeBlanc on Unsplash

Photo by Stephanie LeBlanc on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This article is important both in the history of ancient philosophy, since it adds an important voice to already well-known Stoic ideas and representatives, and in the study of Early Christianity, since Mara's Letter provides one of the first exapmples of the parallel drawn between Jesus Christ and ancient philosophers, especially Socrates and Pythagoras, within the context of theodicy and from the perspective of a (real or purported) 'pagan' Stoicizing upper-class thinker.

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