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Subject: APOLLONIUS 2 THE REAL CHRIST

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Date: Fri, 26 Dec 1997 07:22:20 +0200



Apollonius the Nazarene Part 2: Similarities Between Apollonius and Jesus By: Dr. R. W. Bernard, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. =A0 Let us now consider some of the essential points of similarity between th= e biographies of Apollonius and Jesus. Before his birth, the coming of Ap= ollonius was preceded by an Annunciation, his coming being announced to h= is mother by an Archangel. He was born in the same mysterious manner in t= he same year when Jesus is supposed to have been born (the year 4 B.C.) L= ike the latter, in his childhood he displayed wonderful precocity in reli= gious matters; then he went through a period of preparation; then came a = period of public and positive activity; then a passion; then a kind of re= surrection; and finally an ascension. = The messengers of Apollo sang at his birth as the angels did at that of J= esus. He also was exposed to the attacks of enemies, though always engage= d in doing good. He similarly went from place to place carrying out the w= ork of reform, being accompanied by his favorite disciples, amongst whom = disaffection, discouragement and even treachery made their appearance. An= d when the hour of danger was at hand, in spite of the prudent advice of = friends, and the abandonment of his disciples, he went straight to Rome, = where Domitian, the cruel emperor, was seeking to kill him, just as Jesus= went up to Jerusalem and to certain death. And before this event, he had= been a victim of Domitian's no less cruel predecessor, Nero, as Jesus ha= d been exposed to the machinations of Herod Antipus. Like Jesus, he is ac= cused of working miracles of mercy by the aid of magic and unlawful arts,= whereas he only succeeded in working them because he was a friend of the= gods and worthy to be esteemed as such. L! ! ! ike Jesus on the road to Damascus, he fills an avowed enemy with wonderin= g dismay by an apparition several years after his resurrection and ascens= ion. = Another remarkable resemblance between Apollonius and Jesus was the great= number of cases of evil spirits that were driven out at his bidding. He = speaks to them, as it was said of Jesus, with authority. The young man of= Athens, who was possessed, through whom the devil uttered cries of fear = and rage, and who could not face the look of Apollonius, reminds us of th= e Gospel narrative of the demoniac of Gadera. Neither was cured until som= e outward visible circumstance had taken place that gave the people reaso= n to believe that the devil had really gone out. In the one case a herd o= f swine rushed down into the lake, and in the other a statue falls, overt= hrown by the violence of the evil spirit as it rushes out of the young ma= n. = There is also mentioned in the biography of Apollonius another case of po= ssession singularly like the one of the epileptic child in the three firs= t gospels. In Rome, Apollonius restored a young girl to life under circum= stances which immediately remind us of the return to life of the daughter= of Jairus. It may be further remarked that both stories are so recorded = that a careful critic might ask himself with respect to each whether the = young girl who was brought to life again had really been dead after all. = The lame, the blind and the halt came in crowds to be healed by the layin= g on of hands by Iarchus, the chief of the Brahman sages of the Himalayan= heights whom Apollonius visited and under whom he studied and derived hi= s knowledge and power. = His miraculous appearance to his friends - Damis and Demetrius - who thou= ght at first that he was a spirit, remind us at once, in the way this was= related, of the resurrection of Jesus after his death. = The following inspiring description of the Christ-like figure of Apolloni= us is given by Campbell in his book, "Apollonius of Tyana:" "A strange di= stinctive figure, clad in white linen and not in garments wrought of skin= s; with feet unsandled and with locks unshorn; austere, reserved, and of = meagre mien; with-eyes cast upon the ground as was his manner, Apollonius= of Tyana drew to him with something of a saint's attraction all simple f= olk, and yet won as intimates the Emperors of Rome. = "Through his love for all life and swift appreciation of the beauty of th= e human form, he drew high to the sufferings of the body and became acqua= inted with the sufferings of the soul. He sought to heal, or at least to = soothe, some of the distresses, physical and spiritual, of poor humanity;= and to such a singular degree of skillfulness did he attain in the heali= ng arts of his day, that even the sacred oracles of Agaea and of Delphi p= ronounced him more than mortal, referred the distempered body and the smi= tten soul to him, for relief, knowing that from his very presence proceed= ed a peculiar virtue, a benign influence an almost theurigic power. = "By years of silence and contemplation, by extensive travel and by a cont= inuous spiritual and worldly experience, he deepened to no minute measure= , an originally, powerful. and intense personality, and so it was that at= length he became the admiration not only of all countries through which = he passed, but of the whole Roman and Hellenic world. Cities sent envoys = and embassies to him decreeing him public favors; monarchs bestowed speci= al dignities upon him, counting him worthy to be their counsellor; incens= e was burnt before his altars; and after his death divine honours were pa= id to his images, which had been erected, with great enthusiasm, in all t= he temples of the gods. Nor did his fame evanesce. All down the ages his = name has carried in it something of a hurricane; for speculative critics = of both early and later days have thought to find in the life of this exc= eptional character a parallel to the life of Christ, and to ground an arg= ument thereon, against the supernal claims! ! ! of the Son of Man. Hence for centuries even the name of Apollonius wag o= dious to Christians; for it seemed the very Gospel of the Son of Man was = at stake; and Christian apologists, on their part, in self-defense, were = not lacking to attack fiercely their adversaries' champion, and to denoun= ce him as little better than an imposter, a sorcerer and a magician; on t= his account they have generally failed to understand the man. They have l= acked, at least in their combative approach to him, that sweet affection = for signal worth, that gracious patience for nobleness, which is absolute= ly essential to comprehend a new or startling character or mode of life."= = Another writer gives the following description of Apollonius: = "He had a Zeus-like head, long beard and hair descending to his shoulders= , bound with a deep fillet. Damis describes Apollonius as ever mild, gent= le and modest, and in this manner, more like an Indian than a Greek, thou= gh, when witnessing some special enormity, he would burst out indignantly= against it. His mood was often pensive, and when not speaking he would r= emain for long with eyes cast down, plunged in deep thought. Though alway= s stern with himself, he readily made excuses for others. As an instance = of this, the following may be cited: During Nero's reign, when, on his wa= y to Rome, Apollonius was warned that he and his followers would be in da= nger, of thirty-four companions who set out with him, only eight remained= staunch enough to brave the threatened peril; while praising the courage= of those few who remained with him, he refused to blame as cowards the m= any who had fled." = >From Phliostratus's biography, we gather the following facts about the l= ife and character of Apollonius of Tyana. He was born in the year 4 B.C. = At the age of twelve he was sent to Tarsus in Cilcia, the alleged birthpl= ace and home of "St. Paul." There he studied every system of philosophy, = and perfected himself in rhetoric and general literature. He took up resi= dence in the temple of Aescalupius, famed for its marvelous cures, and wa= s initiated by its priests into their mysteries, after which he performed= cures that astonished not only the people but those masters of the art o= f healing. He then finally decided to adopt the philosophy of Pythagoras,= and rigorously observed the trying discipline instituted by the Samian s= age. He abstained from animal food, wine and women -- and lived upon frui= ts and herbs, dressed only in white linen garments of the plainest constr= uction, went barefooted and with uncovered head, and wore his hair and be= ard uncut. He was especially distinguished ! ! ! for his beauty, his genial bearing, his uniform love and kindness, and hi= s imperturbable equanimity of temper. = In these respects he was the personal embodiment of the imaginary traits = of the Christian Jesus, and was no doubt the original of the pictures of = the so-called Nazarene, now so venerated by the uninformed professors of = the Christian religion. (Almost every picture that in modern times is rec= ognized as a likeness of Jesus really have their origins in a portrait of= Apollonius of Tyana painted in the reign of Vespasian.) = Determined to devote himself to the pursuit of knowledge and the teaching= of philosophy, he gave away his large patrimony to his poor relatives an= d went to Antioch, then a center of learning but little less noted than A= thens or Alexandria. There he began his great mission by teaching philoso= phy to a number of disciples and to the people. He then entered the templ= e of Apollo Daphne at Antioch and learned the mysteries of its priests. L= ater he traveled to India in search of wisdom and visited the Gymnosophis= t philosophers of Egypt. He then returned to Greece to restore the Myster= ies and to teach the doctrines of Chrishna and Buddha, which he learned a= t the feet of his Himalayan teacher, Iarchus. (These Teachings, embodying= the Buddhist gospels that Apollonius carried westward, became the origin= of the Christian religion). = As a a social and political reformer, he traveled from one end of the Rom= an Empire to the other, inciting revolt against the cruel tyrants - Nero = and Domitian, for which he was arrested by both and thrown into jail. Aft= er his arrest by Domitian he was acquitted and "disappeared." After havin= g completed his labors for humanity which lasted a century, it is believe= d he went to India to rejoin his teachers in the Himalayas. When and wher= e he died is unknown. = Ells gives the following account of the life of Apollonius: = "He was born in Tyana, A Greek City of Asia Minor, three years before the= birth of Christ, and he lived about a hundred years, until the reign of = Nerva. As with Moses, no man knoweth his grave unto this day. Devoted to = philosophy from his boyhood, he studied it after the unequalled method of= those days, by listening to lectures and to disputations of rival thinke= rs in every market-place and from the steps of every temple. He chose as = his own the philosophy of Pythagoras, and enthusiastically practised its = austerities, maintaining absolute silence for five years as a mental disc= ipline, avoiding all relations with women, giving away his patrimony, and= wearing only linen [cotton] garments. = "In the phraseology of today he was a vegetarian and a total abstainer. H= e claimed that by this mode of life his senses were made abnormally acute= , so that he had a premonition of future events and became aware of the m= inds of men and of distant happenings; and he successfully set up that de= fense when he was tried for `sorcery' before the emperor. He prayed to th= e Sun three times a day, offering incense but never sacrificing victims. = He believed in the immortality of the soul, in metempsychosis [reincarnat= ion], and in a supreme diety - the Creator of the Universe. Indeed it may= be argued that in the deities whom he worshipped he saw merely phases an= d agencies of this Supreme Deity, for in referring to the gods collective= ly he is frequently quoted by Philostratus as using indiscriminately the = words `gods' or `god,' and the Indian sage Iarchus, with his evident appr= oval, likens the Universe to a ship of which the Creator is the Master an= d the subordinate `gods' are petty officer! ! ! s [cf. the Christian idea of orders of `angels' who assist in the smooth = running of creation, and the Hindu idea of a trinity of `gods' - Brahma, = Vishnu and Shiva - representing the creative, preserving and destructive = energies that are operating continually within the creation, each having = their correlative functions or energy centers (chakras) within the human = body - which in itself is but a microcosm or reflection of the macrocosmi= c universe.] = "All his life long his advice and help were constantly sought by cities, = temples and rulers everywhere, and were freely given without reward. He j= ourneyed over the known world from the Atlantic ocean to the Ganges river= , and south to the cataracts of the Nile, acquiring and imparting wisdom.= In middle age, when his travels were not half completed, he told his dis= ciples that he had already seen more of the earth's surface than any othe= r man had ever done. During his long and laborious life he wrought many w= onders, and many men regarded him as an incarnate divinity. The kings of = Persia and of India vied with each other to do him honor. After his death= the Emperor Hadrian built a temple and endowed a priesthood for his wors= hip of Tyana. The emperor Aurelian vowed to do the like, calling him the = most godlike, holy and venerable of mankind, endowed with more than morta= l powers, and declaring: "If I live, I will publish at least a summary of= his wonderful deeds, not because they nee! ! ! d anything my words can give, but to make them familiar to all lips, as t= hey are marvelous." = "Another emperor, Alexander Severus, with questionable taste, set the ima= ge of Apollonius in his private chapel or solarium, among his tutelary de= ities, in company with Orpheus, Abraham and Christ (Though this reference= has been quoted by many writers, it appears very improbable that early R= oman emperors, prior to Constantine, who was the first to accept Christia= nity, had statues of Abraham or Christ in their chapels. This statement i= s obviously a Christian interpolation. [forgery] The statue of Orpheus is= the only one we can believe to have existed side by side with that of Ap= ollonius. As Eisler has shown, even in the Catacombs of the early Christi= ans there was no representation of Jesus, while Orpheus is represented as= the central object of Worship. It is probable that Orpheus was considere= d as the founder of the religion of which Apollonius was the apostle.) = This very history we owe to the reverence paid to his memory by the empre= ss Julia Domna, the wife of Septimius Severus, who commissioned Philostra= tus to write it and supplied him with most of the materials. For two hund= red years after his death, Apollonius was generally acclaimed as more div= ine than human, until in the reign of Diocletian a Roman pro-consul Hiero= cles attempted to sweep back the rising tide of Christianity by publishin= g his "Candid Words to Christians," in which he drew unfavorable comparis= on of Christ with Apollonius. The nascent church easily confuted his atta= ck, but could not forget nor forgive it; and not content with its victory= over its assailant, it stigmatized the long-dead philosopher as a charla= tan inspired and aided by the devil. = The chorus of destruction has been very persistent. As late as the time o= f Charles II, when one Charles Blount tried to publish in England a trans= lation of Philostratus' biography, he complains in his preface that the c= lergy would only let him print the first two of its eight books, and that= the Catholic priesthood was especially active in its opposition. (Eells,= C.P., "Life and Times of Apollonius of Tyana.") = Since ancient times, the controversy raged between the followers of Apoll= onius and those of Jesus as to who was the more highly moral type. The pa= rtisans of Apollonius argued that he, being a man, offered humanity a mor= e useful moral example than Jesus, a god, who could only be worshipped, b= ut not imitated, and in comparison with whom Apollonius was as virtuous i= n every respect, and in some ways more so. They pointed out in particular= , that a man who, from his sixteenth year, resolved to live only on fruit= s and herbs and to remain forever chaste -- which resolution he strictly = followed throughout his long life of over a century -- was certainly a hi= gher and more moral type than one who sat and ate among publicans the via= nds offered him and who drank wine at wedding feasts. = Already at the beginning of the fourth century A.D., Hierocles wrote a tr= eatise in which he maintained that Apollonius was a much higher type than= the Jesus of the Gospels. Hot controversies ensued on the subject; and t= he Catholic opponents of Apollonius invented the most ridiculous lies to = belittle his character. Thus Arnobius and the fathers of the church, just= after its formation at the beginning of the fourth century, maliciously = attributed the reputed miracles of Apollonius to magic, while putting up = a fictitious imitation of him in the form of the messiah of their new rel= igion. Even as late as the fifteenth century, we find Pico della Mirandol= a, and as late as the sixteenth century, Jean Bodin and Baronius, still d= enouncing Apollonius as an evil magician who had a pact with Satan. = However, even the enemies of Apollonius had to admit that his life was ex= emplary, for here was a man who, from a tender age, resolved to abstain f= rom meat, from wine and from association with women, who let his hair gro= w long and did not permit a blade to touch his chin, and who also as a Py= thagorean naturist, went around bare footed or wore sandals made from bar= k, not from leather, dressing only in white linen robe and considering it= an impurity to wear clothing made from the wool of sheep. = Spending his time in a temple, his silence was extraordinary, yet his kno= wledge of languages was universal. From one end of the Roman Empire to th= e other he traveled as a teacher and healer, to whom the sick flocked whe= rever he went. He was also a social reformer and revolutionist, who fearl= essly opposed tyrants, inciting uprisings against them, and organizing hi= s followers into communistic communities. = It thus appears that Apollonius was a much higher moral, as well as intel= lectual type than the humble carpenter of Galilee. Such considerations ha= ve led Reville, a Catholic writer, in his book on Apollonius of Tyana, to= admit, "Jesus was only the offering of an obscure people; his doctrine w= as but the refinement of a paltry local tradition; his life, of which lit= tle is known the great majority of his contemporaries, was extremely shor= t. He soon fell victim to the attacks of two or three priests, a petty ki= ng, and a prosecutor, and a few remarkable progidies alone distinguished = him from a crowd of other existences which had nothing whatever to do wit= h the destinies of humanity. = "Apollonius, on the contrary, a Greek by birth, had stored his vast intel= lect with the religious doctrines of the whole world, from India to Spain= ; his life extended. over a century. Like a luminous meteor he traversed = the universe, in constant intercourse with kings and the powerful ones of= the earth, who venerate and fear him, and if he ever meets with oppositi= on, he triumphs over it majestically, always stronger than his tyrants, n= ever subject to humiliation, never brought into contact with public execu= tioners. = Tredwell, in his "Sketch of the Life of Apollonius of Tyana," writes as f= ollows: = "That Apollonius was a great and good man can hardly be questioned; the t= ribute paid him by Titus, Vespasian and Aurelius is a guarantee. Even amo= ng those of the present day most willing to detract from his character ma= ny are forced to admit that a certain pure and true morality pervades the= whole of his system of teaching. There is a well- established theory in = it, that virtue and true piety is the only foundation of happiness. = "Apollonius was chaste and temperate; he was actuated by a noble desire t= o know and the still nobler desire to communicate his knowledge to mankin= d. He was ingenious, learned and original in his language. No man ever li= ved who utterly rejected all vulgar artifice for producing effect upon me= n; no majestical pomp of words characterised his teachings. And he was re= ady at all times and in all places to impart good instruction; and from a= ll testimony of him no man was more emphatically an apostle of peace. It = is difficult, indeed, to overcome the common-sense conclusion that Apollo= nius, whom Philostratus has placed before us, is a real man, a corporeity= , and not a spirit; he walks the earth, eats, drinks and sleeps like othe= r men, loves and hates as experience teaches us is natural for man. He is= an observer of natural phenomena, compares and speculates, adores nature= , birds, animals, trees, flowers and is not destitute of humor, although = of great gravity and dignity. Everywhere i! ! ! n nature and art, with the Brahmans of India, he found something to admir= e." = Towards the end of the third century, just previous to the formation of t= he church, the struggle between the Pythagorean supporters of Apollonius = and his opponents, who later organized the Roman Catholic Church at Nicea= , reached its last and bitter stages . At this time there were temples an= d shrines all over Asia Minor dedicated to Apollonius and his work, but t= here were none to Jesus, for he was unknown since he did not exist. = In the place of the august Apollonius, whose fame was world wide during t= he first three centuries, and who was revered in all centers of learning = as the wisest of men, his opponents endeavored to set up an uneducated yo= uth of only local significance, who was known only to a few illiterate fi= shermen in his vicinity, and whose short period of activity (3 years) and= his short life (33 years) precluded his achieving what Apollonius with h= is century of incessant activity had accomplished. While Jesus spent his = life in Galilee among the common people, Apollonius traveled from one end= of the world to the other, studying the wisdom of the greatest minds tha= t could be found -- the Brahmans of the Himalayas, the Gymnosophist philo= sophers of Egypt, and Druids of Gaul, etc. = According to Tredwell, Apollonius travelled more extensively than any man= of his age. "That he was a man of no mean account," Tredwell adds, "is e= vident from his letters addressed to kings, rulers, philosophers societie= s and the first men of his time, still extant, reserved in the works of P= hilostratus and Cujacius. He traveled among the Magi and was everywhere t= he more honored on account of his modesty and virtues; giving always wise= and prudent counsel, and rarely disputing with anyone. The prayer which = he was accustomed to offer up to the gods is admirable. "O, ye immortal g= ods, grant us whatever you shall judge it fit and proper to bestow, and o= f which we may not be undeserving." = For many centuries after his passing, a halo of sanctity was thrown aroun= d his head, and he was worshipped as a god in many parts of the world. Th= e Tyanaeans elevated him to the position of a demigod, and the Roman empe= rors approved his apotheosis. But in the course of time, the deification = of Apollonius showed the same fate as that decreed the Roman emperors; an= d his chapel became as deserted at that which the Athenians erected in ho= nor to Socrates. = It was claimed for Apollonius by his followers that he was the son of a g= od (Proteus), a claim which he repudiated. Nevertheless it was believed b= y people that Apollonius was of divine parentage and that messengers of A= pollo sang at his birth. Ammonianus Marcellinus ranked Apollonius among t= he most eminent men, and claimed that he prophesied by supernatural aid o= f a genius, as did Socrates and Numa. = The miracles said to have been performed in India by the Hindu savior, Ch= rishna, during his mission being almost identical with those attributed t= o Apollonius, were all well known and discussed in Alexandria at this tim= e; and although Apollonius never encouraged the propagation of his divine= nature, yet he never emphatically repudiated it, knowing that but little= respect attached to the person or teachings of any philosophy with the v= ulgar multitudes unless founded on evidence of divine inspiration, the de= monstrations of which were in the form of "miracles," and he appears to h= ave allowed the vulgar populace to believe this. Thus arose the belief th= at he was the son of God, and was a second Chrishna, or a Christ. = Out of respect to Apollonius, his native birthplace of Tyana was regarded= as a sacred city and was exempted from the jurisdiction of governors sen= t from Rome. Gibbon, in his history of Rome, states that a superstitious = reverence of the countrymen of Apolloniua caused the emperor Claudius Aur= elian (A. D. 273) to treat with lenity the conquered city of Tyana.* (*Th= at in spite of his eminence as a historian of Rome, Gibbon was ignorant o= f the true significance of Apollonius, is indicated by the following stat= ement of his: "We are at a loss to discover whether Apollonius was a sage= , an impostor or a fanatic." In view of such ignorance by an outstanding = authority on Roman history, we can well imagine how the general public we= re uninformed on the subject at the time that Gibbon wrote, as it still i= s.) = Vopiscus writes that as the forces of Aurelian were marching against Tyan= a, the citizens having shut the gates against him, incensed the emperor s= o that he declared that he would not leave a dog alive in the city; but t= he spirit of Apollonius appeared to him in his tent, threatened him into = a better mind, and for Apollonius's sake, he spared the inhabitants. Late= r he dedicated a temple in his honor, as the emperor Marcus Aurelius also= did. The emperor Hadrian, with reverent pomp, deposited Apollonius's wri= tings in his splendid palace at Antium, whither pilgrims flocked daily in= crowds to see them. = Apollonius's reputation as a saint was so well established during the ear= ly centuries that even after the advent of Christianity, many Christian w= riters, including Cassiodorus, spoke highly in his praise. Lactantius say= s that a statue of Apollonius was erected at Ephesus. Statues were erecte= d to him in the temples and divine honors were paid him by the Emperors C= aracella, Alexander Severus and Aurelain, while magical virtues were attr= ibuted to his name. Newman claims that Apollonius was everywhere hailed a= s a god, and when he entered a city made converts as soon as seen. This w= as the case in Olympia, where the crowds paid more attention to him than = to the games, almost worshipping him. = At Ephesus, he was worshipped under the title of Hercules, the warder- of= f of evil. Reville says that "after his death, the city of Tyana paid him= divine honours; and the universal respect in which he was held by the wh= ole of the Pagan world testified to the deep impression which the life of= this supernatural being had let indelibly fixed in their minds, an impre= ssion which caused one of his contemporaries to exclaim, "we had a god li= ving among us."* = (*Newman, a Catholic apologist, first seeking to discredit Apollonius and= then admitting his greatness, writes: "Apollonius is represented as maki= ng converts as soon as seen. It was not then his display of marvels, but = his Pythagorean dress and mysterious deportment, which arrested attention= , and made him thought superior to other men, because he was different fr= om them. Like Lucian's Alexander, he was skilled in medicine, professed t= o be favored by Aesculapius, pretended to foreknowledge; was in collusion= with the heathen priests, and was supported by the Oracles; and being mo= re strict in conduct than Paphlagonian, he established a more lasting cel= ebrity.") = After Apollonius's passing, for centuries he received from emperors honor= s equal to those which they claimed for themselves, and he was universall= y deified and worshipped as a demi-god. Philostratus writes that "the cou= ntry people say he was a son of Zeus, but he claims to be the son of Apol= lo, as his name indicates. Apollonius has been called the "true friend of= the gods." Pierre Bayle, in "Dictionaire Historique et Critique" (1696),= remarks that Apollonius was worshipped in the beginning of the fourth ce= ntury under the name of Hercules, and refers for his authority to Vopiscu= s, Eusebius and Marcellinus. Albert Reville says, "The universal respect = in which he was held by the whole pagan world testified to the deep impre= ssion which the life of this supernatural being had indelibly fixed in th= eir minds." = Philostratus speaks of a temple in Tyana dedicated to his memory and foun= ded at the imperial expense, "for the emperors had judged him not unworth= y of like honors with themselves." It was from the priests of this temple= , who had gathered as much information as they could about Apollonius, th= at Philostratus got much of the material for his biography. = Concerning Apollonius's universal renown during the first century, W.B. W= allace writes: "His noble countenance, his winning presence, his pure doc= trine, his unsullied life, his ardent advocacy of the immortality of the = soul, as well as his miracles - led men to believe, wherever he went, tha= t he was more than mortal. He consorted and corresponded with the mighty = ones of the earth. (J.A. Froude writes: According to Philostratus he was = a heathen saviour, who claimed a commission from heaven to teach a pure a= nd reformed religion, and in attestation of his authority went about heal= ing the sick, curing the blind, raising the dead men to life, casting out= demons, stilling tempests, and prophesying future events - which came af= terwards to pass. = "He was born four gears before the Christian era in Tyana, a city of Capp= adocia. His parents sent him to be educated at Tarsus, in Cilicia, a plac= e of considerable wealth and repute, and he must have been about the begi= nning of his studies when St. Paul as a little boy was first running abou= t the streets. On the death of his father, he divided his property among = the poor, and after five years retirement he traveled as far as India in = search of knowledge. Here he discoursed with the learned Brahmans, and ca= me home with enlightened ideas. He began his career as a teacher in the R= oman Empire. He preached his new religion and performed miracles to induc= e people to believe in him. He was spiritual advisor of Vespasian. By Dom= itian he was charged with having pretended being a god himself. He was ar= raigned, convicted and was about to suffer, when he vanished out of the h= ands of the Roman police and reappeared at Ephesus... Apollonius of Tyana= , among many others, was looked upon as an! ! ! emanation of the divine nature. --(J. A. Froude, in "Nineteenth Century,= " Sept. 1879.) = Tigellinius, the brutal favorite of Nero, cowered before him, Vespasian w= as encouraged by him to aim at the Imperial diadem. His disciples were nu= merous.* (*On this point, Mead, in his "Apollonius of Tyana," writes: "He= attracted to himself many followers and disciples. It would have been in= teresting if Philostratus had told us more about these 'Apollonians,' as = they were called, and whether they constituted a distinct school, or whet= her they were grouped together in communities on the Pythagorean model, o= r whether they were simply independent students attracted to the most com= manding personality of the times in the domain of philosophy.") = Indicating the high reverence in which Apollonius was held in his day, Ju= stin Martyr, in his work written in the second quarter of the first centu= ry, made the following statement: = "Question 24: If God is the maker and master of creation, how do the cons= ecrated objects of Apollonius have power in the (various) orders of creat= ion? For, as we see, they check the fury of the waves and the power of th= e winds and the inroads of vermin and attacks of wild beasts." = The followers of Apollonius, who were called Apollonians, continued to wo= rship him until the fourth century. Many of them wore the same dress as h= imself and adopted his Pythagorean vegetarian mode of living.* (*However,= Apollonius never imposed his mode of life on others, even on his persona= l disciples, whom he gave utmost freedom. Thus, he tells Damis that he ha= s no wish to prohibit him from eating flesh and drinking wine, though he = demands the right to refrain himself and of defending his conduct if call= ed to do so. This is an indication that Damis, who was the source of Phil= ostratus's information concerning the life and teachings of Apollonius, w= as not a member of the inner circle of discipline, and therefore was not = in a position to communicate as much about his master as he otherwise wou= ld have been able to do. = In the Pauline Epistles, which, in their original form, were undoubtedly = written by Apollonius, Damis is referred to as "Demas,"** a companion of = the apostle (Paul, or Pol, representing Apollonius, who also appears in t= he epistles as "Apollos," who is said to have preached a similar doctrine= and in a similar manner as Paul.***) = [** Colossians Chapter 4: Verse 14; 2nd Timothy, Chapter 4: Verse 10; Phi= lemon: Verse 24.] = [*** I Corinthians, Chapter 3: Verses 4 - 6; also Verse 22; I Corinthians= , Chapter 4: Verse 6; Titus, Chapter 3: Verse 13.] = Admitting that he was not permitted to enter the inner circle of his teac= her and master, Damis refers to his manuscript on the "Life, Journeyings = and sayings of Apollonius of Tyana," which later came into the possession= of Julia Domna, who obtained it from a relative of Damis, and which cons= tituted the basis of Philostratus's biography, as "the crumbs of the feas= t of the gods." Repeated mention is made of their accompanying Apollonius= on his travels, sometimes as many as ten of them at the same time, but n= one of them were allowed to address each other until they had fulfilled t= he vow of silence. The most distinguished of his followers were Musonius,= who was considered the greatest philosopher of the time after Apollonius= , and who was the special victim of Nero's cruelty, and Demetrius, `who l= oved Apollonius' as his master. = These names are well known to history; of names otherwise unknown are the= Egyptian Dioscorides, who was left behind owing to weak health on the lo= ng journey to Ethiopia; Menippus, whom he had freed from an obsession; Ph= aedimus and Nilus, who joined him from the Gymnosophists; and of course D= amis, who would have us think that he was always with him from the time o= f their first meeting at Ninus. = There is reason to think that the followers of Apollonius were Essenes or= Therapeuts, of which sects he was undoubtedly the leader. According to R= eville, "Apollonius and his followers, like Pythagoras and his disciples,= constituted a regular order of Pagan monks." = Lecky, in his well known book, "History of European Morals," states that = Apollonius "obtained a measure of success second only to that of Christ.*= (*Renan called Apollonius "a sort of Christ of paganism." Reville calls = him a Greek or Pagan Christ, "a universal priest, a philosopher who is so= holy as entitled to divine honors," and "a god in human form". "He advoc= ated a morality and virtue far in advance of the religious sentiments of = his age." Again he writes: "Apollonius of Tyana, at the close of the Flav= ian period, endeavored, with noble purpose, to unite moral training with = religious practice; the oracles, which had long ceased, were partially re= stored."* = (*According to Phillimore, Apollonius founded a church and a community, c= omposed of his disciples - who were undoubtedly the branch of Essenes kno= wn as Nazarenes or Therapeuts. Phillimore says, "Apollonius may be said t= o have founded a 'church;' but there was nothing commercial in the instit= ution; he was not salaried by his admiring disciples." = It appears that Apollonius was himself an object of worship -- because of= his sanctity, wisdom, beauty, etc. - wherever he went. "His magic powers= , which seem to have been considerable, procured for local piety his reco= gnition as an object of cultus in his Cappadocian birth-place," writes Ph= illimore. There is evidence that Apollonius's "church," whose adherents w= ere known as "Apolloniei" survived for some centuries after his death, an= d constituted the origin of what, after the Council of Nicea, was later t= ransformed into he Christian Church.) = G.R.S. Mead, a student of early Christian and Gnostic movements, writes a= long similar lines as follows: "Apollonius of Tyana was the most famous p= hilosopher of the Graeco-Roman world of the first century, and devoted th= e major part of his long life to the purification of the many cults of th= e Empire and to the instruction of the ministers and priests of its relig= ions. With the exception of Christ no more interesting personage appears = upon the stage of western history in these early years." = Appuleis classes Apollonius with Moses and Zoroaster, and other famous pr= ophets and magi of antiquity. Arnobius, the teacher of Lactantius, at the= end of the third century, also classes him among the great prophets, sid= e by side with Zoroaster. But while the previous universal high opinion o= f Apollonius was lost after the formation of the Church, the Church fathe= rs were not all of the same mind concerning him, for on the one hand we f= ind John Chrysostom bitterly denouncing Apollonius as a deceiver and evil= -doer, Jerome asserts that the philosopher found everywhere something to = learn and something whereby he could become a better man. Also in the nex= t century, St. Augustine, while ridiculing the attempts that were made at= comparison with Jesus, admits that the character of Apollonius was exemp= lary in virtue. = Vopiscus, a writer who lived at the end of the third century, is very ent= husiastic about Apollonius, whom he called "a sage of the most widespread= renown and authority, an ancient philosopher and a true friend of the go= ds, indeed, a manifestation of Deity." Vopiscus resolved to write a life = of Apollonius in Latin, so that, he says, "his deeds and words may be on = the tongues of all, for as yet the only accounts are in Greek. For who am= ong men," he adds, "was more holy, more worthy of reverence, more venerab= le and more god-like than he?" He it was who gave life to the dead. He it= was who did and said so many things beyond the power of men. = Vopiscus did not fulfill his intention, but Soterichus, an Egyptian epic = poet of the last decade of the third century, Nichomachus, and Tascius Vi= ctorianus all wrote lives of Apollonius, which were lost after the format= ion of the Church, having been destroyed by the Christians. = During the fifth century, we find Volusian, a pro-consul of Africa, desce= nded from an old Roman family, still worshipping Apollonius of Tyana as a= supernatural being. Lactantius refers to a statue erected to him at Ephe= sus. Sidonius Apolinaris, who wrote his biography in the last half of the= fifth century, speaks of him as the favorite of monarchs and the admirat= ion of the countries he traversed. This same writer sent a copy of Philos= tratus's "Life of Apollonius of Tyana" to his friend, Leo, the chancellor= of a Frankish king at Toulouse, with this message: = "Throw aside your endless labors and steal a respite from the burdens and= bustle of the Court, so that you may really study this long-expected vol= ume as it deserves. When once absorbed in it, you will wander with our Ty= anean over Caucasus and Indus, to Brahmans of India and the naked philoso= phers of Nubia. It describes the life of very much such a man as you are,= with due respect to your Catholic faith. Courted by sovereigns, but neve= r courting them; eager For knowledge; aloof from money-getting; fasting a= t feasts; linen-clad among wearers of purple; rebuking luxury; self-conta= ined; plain-spoken; shock-headed in the midst of perfumed kings, who them= selves were reeking with myrrh and malo-bathrum and polished with pumice-= stone; taking from the flocks nothing to eat or to wear; and notwithstand= ing all these peculiarities not distrusted but honored wherever he went t= hroughout the world, and although royal treasures were placed at his disp= osal, accepted from them merely those gift! ! ! s to his friends which it suited him better to bestow than to receive. In= short, if we measure and weigh realities, no philosopher's biography equ= al to this has ever appeared in the times of our ancestors; so far as I k= now; and I am certain that in my times it finds a worthy reader in you." = Other references to Apollonius were derived from a certain Machus, the un= usual color of whose robes won him the name of Porphyry, who wrote a cele= brated treatise against Christianity which was destroyed by the Emperor, = but his life of Pythagoras and his school, written in the last years of t= he third century and the first years of the fourth, is still in existence= , as is also a similar work by Iamblichus written at the same time; and b= oth refer to Apollonius's biography of Pythagoras, the first thirty secti= ons of which constituted the course of their information. = Tredwell says that there was a vast amount of literature produced during = the Apollonian period, "more probable than was ever produced during a lik= e period by the like number of persons. All we know about it is, that it = once existed and was destroyed during the subsequent ages. It was obvious= ly burnt by the Christians." = Apollonius was a man of extensive learning and the author of many books, = all of which have been destroyed by the Christians.* (*Apollonius was the= author of the following books: = (1) "The Mystic Rites or Concerning Sacrifices." This treatise as mention= ed by Philostratus, who tells us that it sets down the proper method of s= acrifice to every god, the proper hours of prayer and offering. It was in= wide circulation, and Philostratus had come across copies of it in the l= ibraries and cities, and in the libraries of philosophers. Several fragme= nts have been preserved and have been found in the writings of Eusebius. = Noack tells us that scholarship is convinced of the genuineness of this b= ook, which was widely circulated and held in the highest respect. It is s= aid that its rules were engraved on brazen pillars at Byzantium, which we= re melted down by the Christians. = (2) Four books entitled "The Oracles or Concerning Divination." According= to Philostratus, the Full title was "Divination of the Stars," and he sa= ys that it was based on what Apollonius learned in India; but the kind of= divination Apollonius wrote about was not the ordinary astrology, but so= mething which Philostratus considers superior to ordinary human art in su= ch matters. He had, however, never heard of anyone possessing a copy of t= his rare book. = (3) "The Life of Pythagoras." Porphyry refers to this book, and Iamblicus= quotes a long passage from it. = (4) "The Will of Apollonius." This was written in the Ionic dialect, and = contained a summary of his doctrines. = (5) "A Hymn to Memory." (Eudocia speaks of many other works, all of which= , including the ones above described, were destroyed by the churchmen.) H= e was familiar with Plato, Pythagoras, Livy and Horace, as indicated by h= is frequent quotations from them; but his favorite author was Homer, and = his philosophy was the dialectic stoicism of Zeno. He was the author of f= our books on Judicial Astrology and a treatise on Sacrifice, referred to = by Eusebius and Suidas. = The Emperor Hadrian had a book he had written which he kept with his lett= ers in his palace at Antium. According to Tredwell, it seems probably tha= t Apollonius was the author of a voluminous literature, much of which Phi= lostratus must have had before him in a diary of Damis. Marcus Aurelius (= A.D. 130) learned stoic philosophy from Apollonius's writings. "From Apol= lonius," said Aurelius, "I have learned freedom of will and understanding= , steadiness of purpose, and to look to nothing else, not even for a mome= nt, except to reason." = ******* =
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