As can be gleaned from the title, the investigation proved to be essentially worthless - just another pack of lies spouted by moronic fools and pseudo "Bible researchers" that should make anyone feel superior in intelligence.
But please, do read on - it should help if you ever come across such lemons.
Paul and Apollonius: Another ridiculous comparison
It came to my attention recently that there is a new tactic (well, regurgitated tactic) regarding trying to discredit Paul/Sha’uwl of Tarsus, and this entails trying to attach him to a Pythagorean Philosopher/miracle worker known as Apollonius of Tyrna. I discovered a few YouTube videos regarding this, and I shall be going through and pointing out the extremely laughable errors, misinformation, and outright lies contained within at least one of them. I may add more later, but they more or less repeat the same fraudulent things. I shall be concentrating mostly on the Apollonius-Paul comparisons, and only go into a few other things they get wrong, but not too detailed.
The video I shall be criticising is the following: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9npnLdwdjUU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; uploaded by someone named douglasnvideo.
Feel free to watch the full 10 mins, but be warned - it's full of it. Also, the music is very annoying. I wish people would stop doing imbecilic stuff like that.
Anyway, onto the first error that the Video has stated as fact:
1. Paul is a false prophet (28-30 seconds into the video).
Firstly, in order for one to be a “false prophet” they need to utter prophecies that are false. As another thing that such people like to pout is that Paul never actually states anything prophetic, therefore Paul can’t be a false “prophet”, as there’s no prophecy of his to point to, to therefore show that it didn’t come true. What these people seem to want to actually indicate is that Paul is a false teacher, not a prophet (especially as the Tanakh differentiates between the “prophets”: the nabiy/נביא style prophets and the choseh/חֹזה style prophets). If you’re going to criticise something or someone, learn to understand the terms that you’re using. Trust me, it'll help you a lot.
I could mention the error mentioned about 49-50 seconds into the video (the mention of hell), but that’d really take us too far away from the supposed Paul/Apollonius connection, so it is actually...
2. ‘Jesus’ established the ‘churches’ of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, & Laodicea (1:19-26).
Incorrect names aside (you know, especially for the Messianic Jew, Douglas), the Messiah didn’t actually establish any ‘church’ (technically better terms would be assembly, congregation or Ekklesia) bar sending off the disciples to make followers of “every nation” (the Great commission: MattithYah/Matthew 28:16-20). Nevertheless, we have no evidence of any of the Eleven Disciples visiting or going anywhere near the seven assemblies mentioned above: Paul was certainly in Ephesus (Acts 19), and church tradition places Yahuchanon/John there, but neither are mentioned as the ones who established them; they just went there. We know very little of Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia or Laodicea, apart from their mention in Revelation chapters 2-4, and only Paul refers to them in one of his letters (technically, one of his attributed letters - most scholars don’t think that Paul wrote the Epistle to the Colossians, however some do); but again, he isn’t mentioned as their founder.
Outside Revelation, Thyatira is mentioned only in passing in Acts 16:14, where the women Lydia originates from; whether she then went off and established the congregation in Thyatira we have no way of knowing. Regarding the remaining cities mentioned (Smyrna, Pergamos, Sardis & Philadelphia) they aren’t mentioned anywhere else outside Revelation, so anything regarding their “establishment” is only mentioned by the Early Church Fathers, and they really don’t give us much to go on. Nevertheless, Smyrna, Pergamos, Sardis & Philadelphia are all within a 100 mile radius of Ephesus, so really, there are only two candidates for whom could have “established” them - Paul or Yahuchanon/John. But then again, there’s no reason to think that either of the two established them - they could’ve been around for several years before either of the two had even approached Ephesus, never mind visit their neighbouring cities.
In conclusion: the video’s statement in 1:19 is incorrect: ‘Jesus’ didn’t establish the ‘churches’ in these places, and we have no evidence of who actually did.
3. Paul established the ‘churches’ of Crete, Thessalonica, Colossi, Philippi, Galatia, Corinth and Rome (1:27)
Even Paul in his letter to the Romans indicates that he himself did not “establish” the church in Rome - it was there long before he’d even thought about going to it. The same is true for Colossae; there is no evidence that Paul visited Colossae either before or after his apparent letter to them. However, it isn’t all that far from Ephesus (120 miles east), so he may have taken a trip there. Nevertheless, there’s no evidence that he did, so there’s definitely no evidence that he “established” the ‘church’ there. Now Paul did preach in Thessalonica for three Sabbath days according to Acts 17, but then had to flee due to the Jewish authorities becoming jealous, so Paul really didn’t have time to “establish” a full on assembly there. But I guess we can let Douglas have this one. The same is true for Philippi and Corinth. However, Crete, unlike Thessalonica, Colossae, Philippi, Corinth and Rome is a land, not a city like the four places above mentioned, and there’s no evidence that Paul actually “established” any ‘churches’ in Crete. According to the Letter to Titus, it was actually Titus who was doing the establishment of assemblies (Titus 1:5) because Paul was actually in Nicopolis (Titus 3:12). Last but not least is “Galatia” which again, wasn’t a city, but a huge Roman province that covered almost 8500 square miles. Oh, and Paul never founded any ‘churches’ there either (he also didn’t write the Letter to the Galatians either - http://tinyurl.com/63eusmp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)
So, Douglas got three out of seven correct in his statement here. But that doesn’t really help as he is trying to state that the two sets of seven cows mentioned by Pharaoh in Genesis 41:2-4 and 17-21 are the seven ‘churches’ of ‘Jesus’ being eaten by those of Paul. But as we learned above and here, he’s essentially only got 3 out of 14 correct, therefore rendering his fanciful idea rather moot. It also doesn’t help that Joseph already explained the meaning of the two sets of cows in Genesis 41:25-27. Oops!
4. ‘Paul’ is an alias of Apollonius (1:37-47)
I really don’t know exactly where to start with this - mainly because it’s obviously absurd, but hey, absurd doesn’t always mean wrong. Although in this case, it does. As there’s no evidence or source for such a thing given, this is essentially a statement backed up with...nothing; nothing at all.
5. Apollonius was a student at Asklepius in Agaea, Greece (1:37-47)
There are, in these 10 words, three things wrong with it. Firstly: there’s no town or city called Asklepius; secondly, the Aegae in Apollonius’ story (which Douglas misspells) wasn’t in Greece, but near Tyana in Turkey; and thirdly, Apollonius wasn’t a student there, or really, anywhere. At the start of the text at 1:37-47, Douglas states that he discovered these things whilst “researching Paul”. I must wonder exactly where he was looking, because they obviously hadn't got their facts straight, and Douglas doesn't appear to have checked them.
Now for some actual facts: “Asklepius” is more commonly spelt Asclepius, and Asclepius is actually the god of medicine and healing in ancient Greek religion - http://tinyurl.com/n42a7e" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - and there, oddly, is no town or city named after him. The city of Aegae in Apollonius’ story (as outlined in the Life of Apollonius - more on this later on) wasn’t all that far from Apollonius’ actual home town of Tyana; and Apollonius spent more time in Asia Minor than in Greece.
6. Apollonius planted churches in Asia Minor (1:48-59)
Starting the actual line at 1:48 with “Facts about Apollonius”, Douglas immediately goes into spouting nonsense - again. I have read through the entire translation of the Life of Apollonius (see http://www.livius.org/ap-ark/apollonius ... .html#%A71" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - and again, more on this later), and found no mention of the word ‘church’ anywhere; not even “assembly” or “congregation”, never mind Apollonius planting or “establishing” anything.
7. Apollonius travelled with a man named Titus just like Paul
Again, utter nonsense. The Titus in Apollonius’ story wasn’t a travelling companion, but was actually The Roman Emperor Titus Flavius Caesar Vespasianus Augustus (http://tinyurl.com/2fh7ram" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;), and the meeting between Apollonius and Titus was supposedly after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE - at least 6-7 years after Paul’s death, making what Douglas said in point 4 above even more absurd (See The Life of Apollonius, book 6 chapters 29-34 http://tinyurl.com/7m8xvoo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;). Titus was, like many names nowadays, a common one. People with the same name are more or less not the same person - they just share the same name. You know - basic logic.
8. He [Apollonius] was associated with a man named Demetrius just like Paul (1:48-159)
Demetrius in Apollonius’ story was more than an associate - they met several times throughout books 4-8, with Apollonius rescuing Demetrius’ student Menippus from a female Vampire (yes - a vampire). This Demetrius was a Cynic philosopher from Corinth. The Demetrius mentioned in Acts 19:24 and 38 (Demetrius is never mentioned by Paul in any of his letters) was actually a silversmith from Ephesus, who made sculptures of the goddess Artemis and tried to have Paul captured and made a public example of for preaching against the polytheistic gods of Ephesus. So Paul is hardly “associated” with Demetrius - Demetrius just happened to be one of the names of the Silversmiths at Ephesus. There is also a Demetrius mentioned in 3 John 12, whom is most certainly associated with Yahuchanon/John (be it delegate or elder); are Yahuchanon/John and Apollonius alias’ of each other too? I think not.
9. He [Apollonius] was associated with a man named Stephanus just like Paul (2:00-)
Whilst there is certainly a man named Stephanus in Apollonius’ story, he isn’t an associate of Apollonius at all - he is actually the man who helped instigate the murder of Emperor Domitian in 96 CE (See http://tinyurl.com/7p86htw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;); the events of which Apollonius apparently witnessed in a vision from Ephesus (Life of Apollonius Book 8 Chapters 25-26 http://tinyurl.com/6mapo4y" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) Are people really trying to equate this Stephanus with the that mentioned in 1 Corinthians chapters 1 and 16? I should point out that Stephanus/Stephanas are both variants of Stephanos/Stephen, a man also named this was murdered as recorded by Acts 7. It was a very, very common Greek name, and quite a lot of people have had it since (even me
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The apparent “association” isn’t really an association - oddly enough, the Life of Apollonius has got some historical facts in it - like Stephanus stabbing the Emperor Domitian. Stephanus wasn’t Apollonius’ associate though, nor was he Paul’s (Paul had been dead almost 30 years by the time the Emperor Domitian was assassinated).
10. He [Apollonius] had a scribe named Demas just like Paul (2:00-)
I have searched all over for this apparent “Demas” in any actual book regarding Apollonius, and can’t find a single mention of anyone named Demas, never mind him being a scribe. There is a Damis, but Damis and Demas don’t share the same letters in their names. If anyone has any information where Demas actually appears in an account of Apollonius, please let me know.
11. He [Apollonius] fought wild beasts at Ephesus just like Paul (2:00-something)
It took me a while to find something regarding “wild beasts” and “Ephesus”, and the closest thing I came to was at the end of Book 4 Chapter 10, where a plague has broken out in Asia Minor, engulfing Smyrna and Ephesus. In Ephesus, Apollonius leads the Ephesians to the theatre, where they stumble upon an old man, begging, referred to as an ‘mendicant’. Immediately Apollonius tells the Ephesians to pick up stones and stone the guy. The Ephesians are reluctant, but then they notice that the old mendicant is a demon, and so they stone him to death. Then Apollonius gets them to take the stones away from the “wild animal” they (the Ephesians, not Apollonius) had slain, only to find that the demon had switched places with a Molossian dog (See the story here: http://tinyurl.com/6pgsx4d" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;).
So essentially, Apollonius didn’t fight with “wild beasts” at Ephesus - but had a demon stoned by the Ephesians. Furthermore, Paul’s quip in 1 Cor 15:32 about fighting with “beasts” at Ephesus is hotly debated - does he actually mean wild animals, or is he being insulting to a group of humans? Nevertheless, the two events (or lack thereof) aren’t the same, nor do they even mirror each other.
12. Apollonius escaped from prison by a supposed miracle just like Paul
Here Douglas is referring to Acts 16:16-40, where an earthquake happens and opens the jail cell doors. Paul doesn’t actually escape from the jail here, but instead stays and saves the jailer’s life.
In Apollonius’ story however, Apollonius isn’t in fetters; an earthquake doesn’t release him; he doesn’t save someone’s life. After being imprisoned by the Emperor Domitian for denouncing Tyrants, Domitian is advised to have Apollonius transferred to a fetterless “jail” - more or less like a detainee centre. Apollonius then drafts a rather long defensive speech, but before he could actually give it, Domitian apparently forgets why exactly Apollonius is in court, and the actual point of the trial. Apollonius is then acquitted, and walks out of the court after disappearing in front of them. (See Life of Apollonius Book 8 chapters 1-9 http://tinyurl.com/76ekeyu" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;).
As you can see, that Apollonius “escapes” a jail cell is a complete fabrication - it has no correlation with the story in Acts 16:16-40. I should also note that Acts 12:1-18 notes that Peter also miraculously escapes a jail cell; Peter is jailed by Herod after Passover; an Angel appears in Peter’s jail cell, wakes him up, removes the chains, blinds the guards eyes, and Peter miraculously walks to Mark’s house. Is Peter also one of Apollonius’ alias’ too? Paul/Peter/Apollonius/John all apparently have things in common: they must all be the same person! (C’mon conspiracy nut-jobs - I know you’d just love to lap something like this up).
13. Apollonius started a religious community in Corinth, as did Paul
Whilst the Life of Apollonius mentions Corinth several times, I found nothing regarding Apollonius starting a ‘religious community’ there or, in fact, anywhere for that matter. Numerous famous people have visited Corinth, and many have started a following of some god or other thing there - I doubt they’re all the same person, so this really is a ridiculous thing to even point out (despite the fact that, you know - it isn’t actually true).
14. Apollonius was shipwrecked like Paul
As per the above supposed “relationship” between Apollonius and Paul, I found no mention of Apollonius being shipwrecked. There’s a good reason why you’re supposed to give sources for what you state - it’s so that people can verify them quickly, and not have to go traipsing through 8000+ words to find what supposedly happened. Until a reference can be brought forth, this is nothing more than a lie.
Now, there are numerous other things wrong with Douglas’ YouTube video (the fact that he spouts the brain farts of Robert Eisenmen about the writings in the Dead Sea Scrolls as “truth” is one major one - The Dead Sea scrolls community writings predate Paul by over 50 years, so contra R.E., they can’t be about James or Paul), but I just wanted to concentrate on the supposed Apollonius-Paul connection.
As we’ve seen: there isn’t one. Not a single thing Douglas has said regarding Apollonius is true - not a single thing. Douglas is as much a liar as he claims Paul to be.
There are others that spout the same nonsense that Douglas has regarding Apollonius and Paul, one of which is none other than Achayra S/Dorothy Murdoch of http://www.truthbeknown.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; fame, as well as her books The Christ Conspiracy and Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled. She has the following page pointing out supposed “correlations” between Paul and Apollonius (as well as Jesus): http://www.truthbeknown.com/apollonius.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Let’s have a quick look at the list of the supposed Paul-Apollonius connections:
1. Raised in Tarsus; 2. Religiously precocious as a child; 3. Claimed to be a speaker of Hebrew; 4. Had a disciple named Demas from Asia Minor; 5. Had an associate named Titus; 6. Associated with a Demetrius; 7. Associated with a Stephanus; 8. Followed abstinence and asceticism; 9. Wore long hair and robes; 10. Was unmarried and childless; 11. Went to Jerusalem; 12. Spent much time at Antioch; 13. Made missionary journeys around Mediterranean; 14. Travelled to the East for three years, where he was taught by external forces; 15. Fought "wild beasts" at Ephesus; 16. Founded a religious community at Corinth; 17. Had his life threatened; 18. Condemned by Roman emperor; 19. Miraculously escaped prison; 20. Was shipwrecked.
As can be seen, even Ms. Murdoch makes the same baseless claims that Douglas has done, providing no proof for the things she’s stated here. We’ve already seen that points 4, 5, 6, 7, 15, 16, 19 & 20 are all bogus and have absolutely no historical basis for them in Apollonius’ life. I guess that leaves me to answer 1-3, 8-14, 17-18.
Point 1: Apollonius was educated in Tarsus from the age of 14 (Life of Apollonius Book 1, Chapter 6); Paul was born in Tarsus, but whether he was there for a long enough time before he was sent to study under Gamiliel is completely unknown. This is hardly a correlation however - pretty sure quite a lot of people lived in Tarsus at the time.
Point 2: I’m not sure how one can determine how “precocious” Paul was as a child - we know very, very little about his childhood. We know quite a bit about his adulthood, but whether he had “developed certain abilities” younger than most people is essentially incapable of being proven. This is therefore a moot and/or false thing to state.
Point 3: Again, I searched through the Life of Apollonius and found no reference at all to Hebrew, never mind Apollonius speaking it. Also, Paul did speak Hebrew if we’re to take the claims of Acts seriously (Acts 21:40; 22:2; 26:14), he didn’t just “claim” to speak Hebrew. Again, this is a false correlation.
Point 8: ...Paul followed abstinence from what, exactly? Sex/Food/Alcohol? If from sex, then yes. So did the Messiah too, but I doubt we’re going to say that Paul and Yahushua are the same either. The same goes for asceticism. Again, an awful lot of people in the world at that time practised some form of abstinence of asceticism - it’s hardly worth mentioning.
Point 9: Where on earth does it state that Paul had long hair and wore robes? The fact that Paul speaks against men having long hair in 1 Corinthians 11:14 is more than adequate evidence to show that this is a completely moronic thing to state.
Point 10: Again, we don’t know much about Paul’s pre-conversion life. There are many speculations that he was a widower, and there’s no mention whether he and his wife had had a child that had died. This entire point is speculative in nature, and therefore shouldn’t’ve even been mentioned. It lacks evidence either way.
Point 11: There is no mention of Apollonius going to Jerusalem - anywhere. Jerusalem is mentioned in the Life of Apollonius, but only in connection with the Emperors Titus and Vespasian, who are mentioned regarding the siege of Jerusalem between 66-70 CE. There is absolutely no mention that Apollonius even went into Israel/Judea, never mind Jerusalem.
Point 12: Which Antioch we talking about? There’re at least three different ones that this point could be referring to, and I don’t know which one is supposed to be the one mentioned.
Point 13: Whilst both did indeed travel extensively, I don’t think Apollonius’ travels can be called “Missionary Journey’s”. Apollonius also travelled much further east than Paul does - Paul pretty much goes around the cities among the coast lines of Asia Minor (Turkey), Greece and Italy. He doesn’t go to the same places that Apollonius does.
Point 14: As I point out in The Great Galatians Debate (http://tinyurl.com/63eusmp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) - Paul didn’t write Galatians, and so Paul never made any claim of going “east”.
Points 17 & 18: I’m combining the last two as they’re more or less moot points. Many people had their life threatened, and quite a few by Emperors. I don’t even know why these two are even mentioned - the two Emperors in question aren’t the same one!
As can quite easily be seen, Ms. Murdoch’s list is just as stupid as this YouTube video. Both state things with no credible sources (or any sources in Douglas’ case), and when one checks the one and only major source regarding Apollonius’ life, the Life of Apollonius, we discover that the entire Life of Apollonius was written around 220 CE by a sophist named Philostratus, on the commission of the Empress Julia Domna. So really, if there’s any borrowing going on, it has to be the other way around - Paul’s life was recorded long before Philostratus was even born in 170 CE. It’s also widely accepted that Philostratus’ Life of Apollonius is far more colourful than historical.
Conlcusion
What’s really left to say? All the supposed Paul-Apollonius correlations have absolutely no backing to them whatsoever, and those that spout such nonsense have probably never actually read the only novelistic biographical account of Apollonius, which shows that those who try to spout the Apollonius-Paul myth are complete and utter fools who really aren’t worth the time of day.
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Feel free to comment. I'll be posting a link to this free, open thread on Douglas' YouTube. Hopefully he'll be smart enough to take the YT video down.