| Born 3rd or 4th Year BC in Tyana in Cappadocia, at | | | | are most numerous, and actually manifested in present |
| 16 Appollonius of Tyana became a disciple of | | | | facts, so as to lead astray all beholders?" |
| Pythagoras, renouncing flesh, wine and women. He | | | | The book by Philostratos was therefore, and not |
| wore no shoes and let his hair and beard grow long. | | | | surprisingly, kept back from translation and distribution. |
| He soon became a reformer and fixed his abode in | | | | In fact, the books of the New Testament did not |
| the Temple of Aesculapius - the serpent healing deity | | | | appear until at least one hundred years after the Life |
| we discovered to be of paramount importance in The | | | | of Apollonius. |
| Serpent Grail, and who himself originated from the | | | | Even the birth of Apollonius bears some remarkable |
| Egyptian architect Imhotep. | | | | similarities to the fictional life of Christ. Whilst his mother |
| It was claimed of Appollonius that he was one of the | | | | was pregnant with Apollonius, Proteus, the Egyptian |
| wisest of all men and in all likelihood he gained his | | | | God, appeared to her and said, "Thou shalt bring forth |
| immense wisdom whilst at the feet of the wise | | | | me!" The mother of Apollonius was to bring forth God. |
| serpentine Naga sages of the Indian sub-continent. | | | | Incidentally, Proteus was known to take the form of a |
| We can see evidence of this from Philostratos [1], the | | | | snake. |
| biographer of Appollonius, who tells us of the journey | | | | According to Phillimore, Apollonius actually founded a |
| to Kashmir to meet the Naga sage Larchus and of the | | | | church and a community, made up of his disciples. It is |
| "emerald valley set in a rim of pearls" and of the tales | | | | highly likely that these were connected to a branch of |
| that Apollonius told his travelling companion, Damus, of | | | | the Essene, known as the Therapeuts and Nazarenes. |
| dragons which lived in the hills. Both emerald and pearls | | | | Indeed there was a group known as the Apolloniei, the |
| have symbolic resonance with wisdom and knowledge | | | | adherents of Apollonius, who actually survived some |
| and the dragons which lived in the hills were nothing | | | | centuries after his death. These constituted what |
| more than the Naga, or serpent followers of the region. | | | | became the Christian Church, after the Council of |
| The hill where these wise men lived [2] was defended | | | | Nicaea - so Apollonius did indeed begin Christianity, |
| on all sides by immense piles of rocks. As soon as the | | | | based upon serpentine myths and traditions of the |
| travellers had dismounted a messenger from one of | | | | oldest order. |
| the Masters appeared, wearing of all things, a serpent | | | | In fact Eunapius stated that Philostratos should have |
| Caduceus on his brow - an obvious allusion to the | | | | called his book "The Sojourning of a God Among |
| enlightenment process via the Indian Kundalini, or coiled | | | | Men." However once the decision had been made to |
| serpent. | | | | plump for the newly created Christ, cobbled together |
| Platitudes were given and when in conversation | | | | from various deities, Apollonius was repressed. It is |
| Apollonius learned from Larchus, that these Nagas had | | | | basically because of books like the one of Philostratos |
| delivered their wisdom to the Egyptians and even | | | | that the ancient libraries at places such as Alexandria |
| Ethiopia, which as Hivviah or Cush was named after | | | | were torched. Destroy the evidence of the opposition |
| the worship of serpents. | | | | and there appears to be no opposition. But they |
| Eventually Apollonius became a wise sage himself and | | | | missed one vital piece of evidence in their own book. |
| his own notoriety grew. Aurelian vowed to erect | | | | In 1st Corinthians 3:3-6 it says, "for while one saith, I am |
| Temples and statues to his honour "for was there | | | | of Apollos, are ye not carnal? Who, then, is Paul, and |
| ever any thing among men more holy, venerable, noble, | | | | whom Apollos, but ministers, by whom ye believed, |
| and divine than Apollonius? He restored life to the | | | | even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, |
| dead; he did and spoke many things beyond human | | | | Apollos watered; but God gave the increase." |
| reach." (Vopiscus in Aurelian, cap. 24) | | | | I could so easily have overlooked this had it not been |
| Truly, Temples and statues were erected to Apollonius | | | | for a chance discovery of an ancient version of 1st |
| in many places, including his own town of Tyana. Unlike | | | | Corinthians found in a French monastery by a |
| Jesus, there is evidence to prove that Apollonius | | | | Huguenot soldier entitled the Codex Bezae. The name |
| actually existed. As Moncure D. Conway said in his | | | | Apollos is spelt Apollonius! In fact in the Encyclopaedia |
| book Modern Thought: | | | | Britannica the name Apollo in this context can also |
| "The world has been for a long time engaged in writing | | | | mean Apollonius. Indeed this Apollos was said to have |
| lives of Jesus." | | | | even visited Paul (the apostle who did not suffer from |
| The library of such writing has grown since then. But | | | | snakebites) and he was called an Alexandrian Jew. It |
| when we come to examine them, one startling fact | | | | is possible that Apollonius brought back a new gospel |
| confronts us: all these books relate to a personage | | | | of Chrishna from the Kashmir interlude with the |
| concerning whom there does not exist a single scrap | | | | serpent sages and it was this, which gave birth to the |
| of contemporary information - not one! Nobody can | | | | Christ that was in reality based upon serpent worship. |
| say with any conviction that Jesus was a real person. | | | | Now we know why Christ sloughed off his shroud in |
| On the other hand and by accepted tradition, | | | | the tomb, just as the snake sloughs its skin and is |
| Apollonius was born in the reign of Augustus, the great | | | | resurrected. Now we know why the early Christians |
| literary age of the nation of which he was a subject. In | | | | were known as Ophites, it simply means serpent |
| the Augustan age historians flourished; poets, orators, | | | | worshippers. |
| critics and travellers abounded. Yet not one of them | | | | Notes |
| mentions the name of Jesus Christ, much less any | | | | 1 In De Vita Apollonii (The Life of Apollonius) |
| incident of his life. The Emperor Marcus Aurelius | | | | Philostratos tells us of the superstitious practices |
| admitted that it was to Apollonius that he owed his | | | | carried out by those of Arabia and India with some |
| own philosophy, and erected Temples and statues in | | | | remarkable tales about "eating the heart and liver of |
| his honour. No statues or Temples were erected to | | | | serpents, for the purpose of acquiring knowledge of |
| Jesus. | | | | the thoughts and languages of animals." Philostratos |
| Faust said, "Everyone knows that the Evangeliums | | | | wrote extensively on Apollonius of Tyana, the great |
| were written neither by Jesus nor by his apostle, but | | | | sage who is seen by many as being the true Christ. |
| long after their time by some unknown persons, who, | | | | 2 Taxila was the capital of ancient Punjab (Hindus). In |
| judging well that they would hardly be believed when | | | | the Sanskrit language it was Takshacila or simply |
| telling of things they had not seen themselves, headed | | | | "Prince of the serpent tribe." Taxila was a famous |
| their narratives with the names of the apostles or | | | | place, having been mentioned in several languages and |
| disciples contemporaneous with the latter." | | | | connected with the infamous Silk Road between the |
| On the other hand, the written record of the life of | | | | Far West (Babylonia) and the Far East (China). Here |
| Apollonius is very sound and Philostratos who wrote | | | | lies the oldest known Hindu shrine in the Pillared Hall, on |
| the Life of Apollonius was the close friend of Damus | | | | the site of the western end, said to have had a |
| who had related the whole thing in person. | | | | ceremonial function. The king of Taxila was called |
| Philostratos said, "Some consider him as one of the | | | | Taxiles and in 329 BC he invited Alexander the Great |
| Magi, because he conversed with the Magi of Babylon | | | | to support him against aggressors. In 184 BC the |
| and the Brahmans of India and the Gymnosophists of | | | | Greeks invaded and placed Demetrius on the throne. |
| Egypt. But even his wisdom is reviled, as being | | | | The town was rebuilt and strangely it was called |
| acquired by the magic art, so erroneous are the | | | | Sirkap (severed head). It was a multi-ethnic area now |
| opinions formed of him. Whereas Empedocles and | | | | with Greeks, Bactrians, western Iranians and Hindus all |
| Pythagoras and Democritus, though they conversed | | | | living together. There was a great mix of Hinduism, |
| with the same Magi, and advanced many paradoxical | | | | serpent worship, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism and Greek |
| sentiments, have not fallen under the like imputation. | | | | religious beliefs all mixing together--a place very much |
| Even Plato, who travelled in Egypt, and blended with | | | | like Alexandria. |
| his doctrines many opinions collected there from the | | | | Apollonius of Tyana went to Taxila as we find in the |
| priests and prophets, incurred not such a suspicion, | | | | Life of Apollonius of Tyana by Philostratos. "I have |
| though above all men on account of his superior | | | | already described the way in which the city is walled, |
| wisdom." | | | | but they say that it was divided up into narrow streets |
| The very fact that Apollonius was in danger of | | | | in the same irregular manner as in Athens, and that the |
| usurping the "idea" of Christ with his own "factual" life | | | | houses were built in such a way that if you look at |
| caused much consternation amongst the early | | | | them from outside they had only one storey, while if |
| Christians. Justin Martyr, one of the Church Fathers of | | | | you went unto one of them, you at once found |
| the 2nd century said, "How is it that the talismans by | | | | subterranean chambers extending as far below the |
| Apollonius have power over certain members of | | | | level of the earth as did the chambers above." |
| creation, for they prevent, as we have seen, the fury | | | | (Section 2.2). It was the King of Taxila (Phroates) who |
| of the waves, the violence of the winds, and the | | | | wrote a letter of recommendation for Apollonius to |
| attacks of wild beasts. And whilst Our Lord's miracles | | | | Iarchus in-order to have him learn the wisdom of the |
| are preserved by tradition alone, those of Apollonius | | | | Nagas of Kashmir. |