Bible’s Jesus a copy of Apollonius of Tyana?
There lived a very famous Greek philosopher whose birth and death is uncertain but as per his primary biographer Philostratus the Elder it is 3 BC — 97 AD, in the Roman empire of Tyana. He was a student of Pythagoras, named Apollonius of Tyana.
But what does the world know his story as? Jesus Christ!
The Christians argue that Apollonius of Tyana was born few years after Jesus and died many years after Jesus. Well the bad news is that there is no evidence of Jesus birth date or death date even after so many thousands of years, even the earthquake that is mentioned in the Bible when Jesus died is in question. Also 12 years of Jesus are missing in the Bible along with a grave found in Kashmir marked as Hazrat Isa tomb is found. What does all this mean?
A few articles are also out that state that the Bible written by many people over centuries as the style of writing and words reflects different time periods.
Apart from that the versions of Jesus differ in different disciples books in the New Testament. For ex. While on the cross Jesus apparently says before dying “My God My God Why have you forsaken me?’’ in Matthew and in Luke it says Jesus said ‘’Father into your hands I commit my spirit’’ and in John it is written Jesus said ‘’ It is Finished’’.
Secondly, In Matthew it is written, Jesus on the cross was offered wine with gall. In Luke it is written wine mixed with myrrh and in Luke it is written Wine vinegar, first two offered it on a spear and the latter offered it on the stalk of a hyssop plant.
Similarly in these three books of Matthew and John and Luke a lot of other details of the crucifixion differ. Why is this so? When they all were there together and saw it together how can they have different versions of it? Also, if they all went separate and wrote their own versions then who compiled all of them?
Since Bible is word of God then how can it have variations in the description of a single event?
Similarly there are many more such variations in narration of incidents by different disciples’ books in the Bible.
Old versions of Bible and new versions of it are all differing in many places!
All this has yet not found any concrete answer and probably never will because this is a political document of a group of vested interests and motivated group of people who want to rule the world by brainwashing people in the name of a fictitious and invented person named Jesus.
Next coming to Pontius Pilate who allegedly crucified Jesus and his historicity. Pontius Pilate’s stone inscription has reportedly been found but it is disputed as to how a prefect of Judaea cannot have any archaeological evidence except a broken stone inscription and a cheap metal ring. Also, apparently, in the Bible he is shown to be a very just and thoughtful Governor of Judaea and gives Jesus all opportunities to prove himself innocent and washes his hands off the death of Jesus as he could not further anger the Jewish Rabbis, but in other historical records he is portrayed as a brutal and ruthless governor who continued to govern Judaea for a good 4–5 years after the crucifixion of Jesus, who slaughtered a group of unarmed Samaritans(a community of Jews) who had gone to a Mount to gather artifacts related to Moses. So if he listened so much to the Jews and executed Jesus then why he was attacking communities of the Jews a few years later?
He was called back by Tiberus and then he was dismissed from service and he retired. No other historical evidence is available. But in some Christians accounts he is shown to commit suicide or became a Christian convert and is even called a martyr, etc. So much for the one who hanged Christ!
So probably it was a political game plan of the early Christians to strike a deal with the Romans later on to convert them to Christianity?
Also the First Council of Nicea in AD 325 under Constantinople had to be convened to determine and begin the propaganda that Jesus was divine or not. Just like NCERT meeting to determine what to begin writing in school textbooks of history.
Suprisingly there is no important mention of Jesus in any historical or archaeological evidence all over the world.
Thallus, an ancient historian, who mentions about a darkness or solar eclipse but nothing about Jesus, and the Christians jumped the gun saying it is the same eclipse that the Bible talks about when Jesus died on the cross.
Another one, Josephus first writing of Jesus, all highly praised, is considered a later Christian forgery and interpolation, it is surprising that in another writing of Josephus he talks of two Jesuses, one the son of Damneus and the other a son of Gamaliel both were appointed as High Priests of the Jews. Apart from this, he writes that James the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ is considered a great evidence of Christ being an important figure. However, nothing else is written or mentioned about this great figure throughout this book and in comparison with Hegesippus’ account of James’ death, most scholars consider Josephus’ to be the more historically reliable.[7] However, a few scholars still question the authenticity of the reference, based on various arguments, but primarily based on the observation that various details in The Jewish War differ from it.[8][9] L. Michael White considers the account to be spurious on the grounds that no parallel account exists in the Antiquities of the Jews. There is no mention of James in the Gospel of John or the early portions of the Acts of the Apostles. So Bible is really unconcerned about any continuity or even mentioning brothers of Jesus!
Next mention of Jesus, by Tacitus. Christus, from whom the name (Christians) had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus. So this is taken to be something that he heard from his sources while writing that this is the origin of Christianity and so he wrote it. Where does it substantiate that it is true? Also he does not talk anything about the great Jesus if he was such an impactful person.
And all these are rather lesser known Historians, none of the prominent historians talk anything about it.
And last but not the least, the Apollonius of Tyana lived during the same time as Jesus, who traveled far and wide from Turkey to India to experience knowledge and mysticism and all renowned sages and Magis and mystics, but did not mention, leave alone visit Jerusalem to meet Jesus whose wonders supposedly went far and wide and all came to see him.
Apollonius biography around 100–150 years later after he died also makes no mention of Jesus if he was such a great figure.
So, go figure.
Do read this amazing collection of posts on Jesus Vs Apollonius of Tyana: http://apollonius-iesuschristus.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-apollonius-jesus-question.html
Some more interesting reads:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_Jesus
https://www.history.com/news/was-jesus-real-historical-evidence
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/12/jesus-tomb-archaeology/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120228102137.htm
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=shroud+of+turin+fake
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_myth_theory
https://www.livescience.com/20605-jesus-crucifixion.html
https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/false-messiahs-wars-and-natural-disasters/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sources_for_the_historicity_of_Jesus
Pontius Pilate: An Archaeological Biography
https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Jesus-Christ-not-mentioned-in-Roman-records
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontius_Pilate%27s_wife
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_background_of_the_New_Testament
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dating_the_Bible
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authorship_of_the_Bible
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_Bible
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1560249
https://www.quora.com/Is-there-any-evidence-for-Pontius-Pilate-having-been-a-real-historical-figure
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1560249
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus
https://crossexamined.org/was-apollonius-of-tyana-a-jesus-parallel/
http://www.mountainman.com.au/atyana21.html
https://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/aot/aot/aot04.htm
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Apollonius_of_Tyana
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bart_D._Ehrman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagoras
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neopythagoreanism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phraotes
https://archive.org/details/lettersofapollon0000apol
https://archive.org/details/philostratusinho00philuoft
https://archive.org/stream/indiantravelsofa00priarich/indiantravelsofa00priarich_djvu.txt
https://ia802900.us.archive.org/30/items/lifeofapollonius01phil/lifeofapollonius01phil.pdf
https://archive.org/stream/sketchoflifeofap00tred/sketchoflifeofap00tred_djvu.txt
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesop%27s_Fables
http://www.decodinghinduism.com/2016/04/apollonius-of-tyana-real-jesus.html