THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
for her a biography of Apollonius and for this purpose supplied him with data, including the traveljournal of his companion, the Assyrian Damis, and a collection of his letters. On the basis of these, with large additions of legendary matter and notices of every description, the book was prepared; but it was not published till after the death of the empress (217). It bears every evidence of being a historical novel, and its miraculous details are not deserving of analysis; but non- Christians ever since have pretended to find in Apollonius a pagan Christ, and in the stories told about him, counterparts of those related of Christ and his apostles.
The earliest person named who made this use of Philostratus's novel is Hierocles, governor of Bithynia during the Diocletian persecution (303), who wrote a work against the Christians in which he instituted a comparison between Apollonius and Christ. This stirred up the church historian Eusebius, to write a refutation, in which he shows how unreliable as a source the romance of Philostratus is. The deist Charles Blount (see Deism) and Voltaire revived this use of Philostratus in the interest of their paganism, while in the nineteenth century Ferdinand Christian Baur called attention afresh to Philostratus's work and elaborated the thesis that Philostratus had purposely modeled his narrative on that of the Gospels. Edward Zeller followed him in this advocacy, the Frenchman Albert Reville also. But there is no evidence that Philostratus had any knowledge of the Gospels and the Acts, and the life of the Apostle Paul is a much closer parallel to Apollonius than that of Christ, who was no peripatetic philosopher.
Bibliography: Sources: C. L. Kayser's ed. of Fl. Philostrati Opera, 2 vols., Leipsic, 1871, contains also Apollonii Epistolae and Eusebius adv. Hieroclem; the latter is also in MPG, iv.; Eng. transl. of first two books of Philostratus, by C. Blount, London, 1680, and of all by E. Berwick, 1809; French transl. by J. F. Salvemini de Castillon, Paris, 1774, and by A. Chassang, 1862, with transl. of the letters of Apollonius; Germ, transl. by E. Baltzer. Consult also: E. Miiller, War Apollonius . ein Weiser, Betruger, . Schwarmer und Fanatiker, Breslau,
1861; A. Reville, Apollonius of Tyana, London, 1866; J. H. Newman, in Historical Sketches, ii., London, 1872 (noteworthy); O. de B. Priaulx, Indian Travels of Apollonius, ib. 1873; F. C. Baur, Apollonius von Tyana und Christus, in Drei Abhandlungen, Leipsic, 1876; C. Monckeberg, Apollonius von Tyana, Hamburg, 1877; C. H. Pettersch, Apollonius von Tyana, Rcichenberg, 1879; C. L. Nielsen, Apollonius fra Tyana, Copenhagen, 1879; J. Jessen, Apollomus . und sein Biograph, Hamburg, 1885; D. M. Tredwell, Sketch of the Life of Apollonius of Tyana, New York, 1886; K. S. Guthrie, The Gospel of Apollonius of Tyana, Medford, 1900; G. R. S. Mead, Apollonius of Tyana, London, 1901; T. Whittaker, in The Monist, xiii. (1903) 161-217.
APOLLOS, a-pel'es (probably a contraction from Apollonius): A man eminent in New Testament history. His special gifts in presenting Christian doctrine made him an important person in the congregation at Corinth, and his name came to be attached to a faction there (I Cor. i. 12), but there is no indication that he favored or approved an overestimation of his person. Nor can it be said that Paul objected to his work of presenting the way of salvation; on the contrary he thinks Apollos a valuable helper in carrying on his work in the important Corinthian congregation (I Cor. hi. 6,
iv. 6, xvi. 12). In harmony with Paul's notices are the statements of the Acts of the Apostles (xviii. 24-28) that Apollos was a highly educated Alexandrian Jew, who came to Ephesus (probably in 54 a.d.), was instructed in the gospel there by Aquila and Priscilla, and afterward settled in Achaia, where, by the grace of God he showed himself useful to the Church. The rest of this notice to the effect that he came to Ephesus as a disciple of the Lord and preached Jesus in the synagogues, when he knew only of John's baptism, is odd.
It is difficult to get a correct idea of his religious standpoint; but it probably was that of the socalled disciples of John, of whom mention is made in Acts xix. 1-7. Taken all in all, it may be said that Apollos was a zealous missionary, who, while confessing Jesus, did not have the full New Testament revelation, and stood in danger of becoming antagonistic to the apostolic message to all the world; he became, however, an adherent of the Pauline doctrine, and the author of the Acts of the Apostles thought this fact of sufficient importance to be included in his history. In the Epistle to Titus (iii. 13) Apollos is mentioned, with Zenas, as bearer of the letter to Crete. The Epistle to the Hebrews (q.v.) has often been ascribed to Apollos, beginning with Luther, and he has been suggested as the author of the fourth Gospel ( [Tobler], Die Evangelienfrqge, Zurich, 1858). (K. Schmidt.)
Bibliography: E. Renan, St. Paul, pp. 240, 372 sqq., Paris, 1869; Conybeare and Howson, St. Paul, ii., chap, xiv., London, 1888; C. von Weizsacker, The Apostolic Age, 2 vols., London, 1894-95; A. C. McGiffert, Hist, of Christianity in the Apostolic Age, New York, 1897; W. Baldensperger, Der Prolog des vierten Evangeliums, pp. 93-99, Freiburg, 1898.