Often Christians treat Jesus as the most special and unique figure in all of history, even when you set aside the fact that in their view, he is God. However, although Jesus has novelties to him he’s not as unique as some claim. There is another figure in the ancient world who is extremely similar to Jesus, Apollonius of Tyanna, another divine man from the first century1. This article will bring quotes from The Bible and Philostatuses The Life of Apollonius Of Tyanna (which can be found here and will be abbreviated to TLAT) to show every similarity. This will help display how Jesus and Apollonius part of a wider cultural idea of divine men in antiquity.
Similarity One: Rejecting Earthly Things
We can see the teachings of Jesus speaking out against a care for an abundance of possessions
“15 And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” (Luke 12:15 KJV) “
and
“19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:” (Matthew 6:19 KJV)
Quotes like these would later inspire groups like the Ebionites who lived poor lifestyles in an attempt to follow the teachings of Jesus.
Apollonius also rejects earthly things through his actions.
“they say that he declined to wear apparel made from dead animal products and, to guard his purity, abstained from all flesh diet” (TLAT 1:1)
Similarity Two: Divine Claim
Although there’s debate over whether Jesus himself claimed to be God, it’s undeniable later thinkers saw him as God and wrote him making Divine claims.
“I and the father are one” (John 10:30 KJV)
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6 KJV)
We also see Apollonius of Tyanna being recorded as making Divine claims
“whereas other men only make conjectures about divinity and make guesses that contradict one another concerning it, - in his own case he said that Apollo had come to him acknowledging that he was the god in person” (TLAT 1:1)
Similarity Three: Magician Accusations
Philostratus records some reactions to Apollonius. Specifically, we see that some saw Apollonius as a magic user:
“While some, because he had interviews with the wizards of Babylon and with the Brahmans of India, and with the nude ascetics of Egypt, put him down as a wizard, and spread the calumny that he was a sage of an illegitimate kind, judging of him ill. “ (TLAT 1:2)
This isn't seen directly in the New Testament, however, we do see some who see Jesus as a magician such as modern thinkers like Morton Smith, and ancient thinkers such as Celsus as seen by Origen's quotation of him in Contra Celsus
“He asserts, ‘that he (Jesus), having been brought up as an illegitimate child, and having served for hire in Egypt, and then coming to the knowledge of certain miraculous powers, returned from thence to his own country, and by means of those powers proclaimed himself a god.’ " (Contra Celsus 1.38)2
Similarity Four: Special prenatal Visits
In Luke's account of the birth of Jesus, the pregnant Mary is visited by Gabriel who gives her information about her child to come:
“And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, 27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary: (Luke 1:26-27)
Gabriel tells Mary about her baby's status”
“And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. 32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David” (Luke 1:31-32)
The mother of Apollonius of Tyanna also is visited by a divine being, Proteus who tells her of her child’s coming status:
“To his mother, just before he was born, there came an apparition of Proteus, who changes his form so much in Homer,note in the guise of an Egyptian demon. She was in no way frightened, but asked him what sort of child she would bear. And he answered: "Myself."
"And who are you?" she asked.
"Proteus," answered he, "the god of Egypt." (TLAT 1.4)
Similarity Five: Son Of The Highest
Jesus, famously is viewed as the son of the God of the Jews. We can see from the prior quotation from Luke 1 that he’s viewed as “the Son of the Highest”, so too Apollonius was viewed as a son of the highest God in Grecco-Roman belief, Zeus.
“The people of the country, then, say that Apollonius was the son of this Zeus, but the sage called himself the son of Apollonius.” (TLAT 1.6)
Similarity Six: Skill With Alphabets
For this similarity, we must exit our canonical gospels and go to the infancy gospel of Thomas3. In it, we see that Jesus is especially skilled with the Greek alphabet.
“Thou who art ignorant of the nature of the Alpha, how can you teach others the Beta? Thou hypocrite! First, if you know, teach the A, and then we shall believe you about the B. Then He began to question the teacher about the first letter, and he was not able to answer Him. And in the hearing of many, the child says to Zacchæus: Hear, O teacher, the order of the first letter, and notice here how it has lines, and a middle stroke crossing those which you see common; (lines) brought together; the highest part supporting them, and again bringing them under one head; with three points of intersection; of the same kind; principal and subordinate; of equal length. You have the lines of the A” (The Infancy Gospel Of Thomas)4
Daniel Eastman notes that Jesus in the Infancy Gospel is similar to other divine philosophers men such as Apollonius of Tyanna.4 We see this in Philostratuses writings
“On reaching the age when children are taught their letters, he showed great strength of memory and power of application; and his tongue affected the Attic dialect, nor was his accent corrupted by the race he lived among. “ (TLAT 1.7)
Similarity Seven: Trip Down To Egypt
In some Gospel accounts Jesus goes down to Egypt to flee Herod and then returns to his homeland. The same thing occurs by Apollonius who temporarily goes down to Egypt for much of TLAT
Similarity Eight: No Marriage
Despite some claims,0 Jesus was never married. So too Apollonius avoided marriage
“And as Pythagoras was commended for his saying that "a man should have no intercourse except with his own wife," he declared that this was intended by Pythagoras for others than himself, for that he was resolved never to wed nor have any connexion whatever with women. In laying such restraint on himself he surpassed Sophocles, who only said that in reaching old age he had escaped from a mad and cruel master; but Apollonius by dint of virtue and temperance never even in his youth was so overcome. While still a mere stripling, in full enjoyment of his bodily vigor, he mastered and gained control of the maddening passion” (TLAT 1.13)
Similarity Nine: Lawgiver
Jesus is often described by Christians as their lawgiver. Apollonius also describes himself as a lawmaker
“"How then," the other asked him afresh, "O Apollonius, should the sage converse?"
"Like a law-giver," he replied, "for it is the duty of the law-giver to deliver to the many not the instructions of whose truth he has persuaded himself.” (TLAT 1.17)
Similarity Ten: Bad Apostles
There is a trend in the Gospels that the apostles don’t quite get it. Andy Rau for Bible Gateway says:
“One of the most perplexing things about the Easter story is that Jesus’ own disciples just didn’t get it.
All the way up to (and even beyond) Jesus’ resurrection, his disciples—who had traveled, studied, and ministered under Jesus for most of his public ministry—seem remarkably confused about what’s happening.”
He gives an example from The Last Supper in John:
“When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. 22 Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake. 23 Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved. 24 Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him, that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake. 25 He then lying on Jesus’ breast saith unto him, Lord, who is it? 26 Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sopc, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. 27 And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly. 28 Now no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him. 29 For some of them thought, because Judas had the bag, that Jesus had said unto him, Buy those things that we have need of against the feast; or, that he should give something to the poor.” (John 13:21-29)
So it’s clear reading the Gospels that the disciples of Jesus were not in tune with his teachings5. It’s the same thing with the disciple of Apollonius, Damis. He is constantly getting proven wrong by his teacher as well.
"Then, Damis, God is a painter, and has left his winged chariot, upon which he travels, as he disposes of affairs human and divine, and he sits down on these occasions to amuse himself by drawing these pictures, as children make figures in the sand."
Damis blushed, for he felt that his argument was reduced to such an absurdity. But Apollonius, on his side, had no wish to humiliate him, for he was not unfeeling in his refutations of people, and said: "But I am sure, Damis, you did not mean that; rather that these figures flit through the heaven not only without meaning, but, so far as providence is concerned, by mere chance; while we who by nature are prone to imitation rearrange and create them in these regular figures." (TLAT 2.22)
Similarity Eleven: Protecting Adulterers
Jesus has his very famous story of the woman taken in adultery. The Jewish authorities wanted to stone a woman for adultery and Jesus protects her through his famous line
“He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” (John 8:7)
Apollonius has a similar incident when he’s in Athens. Apollonius stops some Athenians who would take adulterers and other sinners to fight each other to the death
“He also corrected the following abuse at Athens. The Athenians ran in crowds to the theater beneath the Acropolis to witness human slaughter, and the passion for such sports was stronger there than it is in Corinth today; for they would buy for large sums adulterers and fornicators and burglars and cut-purses and kidnappers and such-like rabble, and then they took them and armed them and set them to fight with one another. Apollonius then attacked these practices, and when the Athenians invited him to attend their assembly, he refused to enter a place so impure and reeking with gore.” (TLAT 4:22)
Similarity Twelve: Prophecy
One of the things Muslims and Christians agree upon about Jesus is that he was some kind of prophet. Apollonius of Tyanna is also depicted as having prophetic abilities as seen clearly when his charges are being explained:
“But the charge which most appeals to the credulity of the Emperor, although I cannot credit it in the least, for I know that you are opposed even to shedding the blood of victims, is the following: they say that you visited Nerva in the country, and that you cut up an Arcadian boy for him when he was consulting the auspices against the Emperor; and that by such rites as these you roused his ambitions; and that all this was done by night when the moon was already on the wane. This is the accusation as compared with which we need not consider any other, because it far outweighs them all.
For if the accuser attacks your dress and your mode of life and your gift of foreknowledge, it is only by way, I assure you, of leading up to this charge; and it was moreover these peculiarities which prompted you to commit the crime of conspiring against the Emperor, so he says, and emboldened you to offer such a sacrifice. You must then be prepared to defend yourself upon these counts, and I would only ask you in what you say to show great respect for the sovereign." (TLAT 7.20)
Similarity Thirteen: Roman Trials
Jesus, in the gospel narratives, was put on trial by Pontius Pilate. Apollonius also gets into trouble for allegedly being a magician (among other crimes) and is brought to trial
“In this way Aelian tried to put off the king until Apollonius arrived, and then he began to use more addresses; for he ordered Apollonius to be arrested and brought into his presence. And when the counsel for the prosecution began to abuse him as a wizard and an adept at magic, Aelian remarked, "Keep yourself and your charges against him for the Royal Court."
But Apollonius remarked: "If I am a wizard, how is it that I am brought to trial? And if I am brought to trial, how can I be a wizard? Unless indeed the power of slander is so great that even wizards cannot get the better of it." (TLAT 7.17)
In the end, Apollonius falls out of favor with the emperor and is sentenced to death
Similarity Fourteen: Surviving a Death Sentence
Jesus famously survives his death sentence and crucifixion by coming back after death. So two Apollonius returns after his death sentence:
“Here then they disembarked, and thinking it well worth their while to go to Olympia, they went and stayed there in the temple of Zeus, though without ever going further away than Scillus. A rumor as sudden as insistent now ran through the Hellenic world that the sage was alive and had arrived at Olympia. At first the rumor seemed unreliable; for besides that they were humanly speaking unable to entertain any hope for him inasmuch as they heard that he was cast into prison, they had also heard such rumors as that he had been burnt alive, or dragged about alive with grapnels fixed in his neck, or cast into a deep pit, or into a well. But when the rumor of his arrival was confirmed, they all flocked to see him from the whole of Greece, and never did any such crowd flock to any Olympic festival as then, all full of enthusiasm and expectation.
The similarities between Jesus and Apollonius are certainly interesting. However, it’s important to note the differences as well. Apollonius is a far more global divine man. He travels to India, and Egypt whereas Jesus remained in Judea. Apollonius is also more in tune with Greek philosophical ideas. While Jesus quotes and discusses the ideas of the Old Testament Apollonius quotes and discusses the ideas of Pythagoras and Socrates. These differences are part of one key historical difference between the two figures. While Jesus and his followers came up in the historical context of Judea and that Judean culture, Jesus and his followers came up in the historical context of the wider Roman empire and Roman intellectual culture, making Apollonius an interesting peek into what Jesus might have looked like if he lived in a different cultural context.
Ehrman, Bart D. How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher From Galilee. First edition. New York, NY, HarperOne, 2014.
Henry, Andrew Mark. “Was Jesus a Magician?” Www.youtube.com, 20 May 2022, www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYOO-xSPa5Q. Accessed 1 May 2024.
For a longer analysis of The Infancy Gospel Of Thomas, read my article, Baby Jesus, The Murderer? here
Eastman, Daniel. “Cursing in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas.” Vigiliae Christianae, vol. 69, no. 2, 2015, pp. 168–208. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24754478?seq=1. Accessed 27 Apr. 2024.
Rau, Andy. “The Disciples Who Didn’t Get It.” Bible Gateway Blog, Bible Gateway, 3 Apr. 2012, www.biblegateway.com/blog/2012/04/the-disciples-who-didnt-get-it/ Accessed 2 May 2024