Apollos - Apelles

[Peter Kirby]

Since this is all conjecture and no serious scholar would take this seriously and we know Paul wrote all 13, 10, 7, 4 of the epistles attributed to him with only a few strongly attested text critical interpolations and glosses, does anyone think that the Ignatian epistles were written to supplant the Pauline writings with another competing letter collection to various churches?

The Epistula Apostolorum and 3 Corinthians likewise aim to make Paul safe for orthodoxy and use the letter form.

[Stephan Huller]

Perhaps the most interesting thing I have to say about Apelles is twofold. We start with Eusebius's reference to Apelles in a letter written by someone to a 'Callistiwn.' Hilgendorf argued that the person is Callistus of Rome (the familiar 'diminutive form' = Callist-iwn). The Philsopumena tells the story of his rescue during the reign of Commodus. He went on to be the second in command under Zephrinus his predecessor but still must have held a position of rank before that.

So let's think about that first. Commodus's mistress manages to get Callistus rescued from the mines. So he's close to the Imperial government. Then Eusebius shows us receiving a letter from a pupil of Tatian where the Marcionite Apelles is surrounded by orthodox accusers having to defend his beliefs in more than one 'ruler' (i.e. a lower 'ruler of the world' and a hidden but greater lord who is God the Father). It is a fascinating situation given Apelles's response.

The accusers (who by implication are close to the government given that they report to Callistus) want the Marcionite to admit that there is only one ruler i.e. to acknowledge the monarchia. Interestingly Apelles appears to waver. 'Sure,' he says, 'I guess you might be right' he goes on 'I find it really hard to explain my position,' and then 'can't we just go on believing what each of us believe.'

If you really look at it carefully it could well be an interrogation much like the Liber Pontificalis reports bishops (or 'bishop') being summoned to Rome to accept the correct dating of Easter. In other words, if you look at the testimony of an 'Apollos' being interrogated and executed by Commodus's point man, 'Apelles' being strangely compliant and evasive during an interrogation with Roman church figures, the Liber Pontificalis and other texts having the dating of Easter set in the same period it would seem as if this was the period that Marcionism and 'Quartodecimanism' overcome in the same age - known to have many, many Christian sympathizers in the Imperial court including Commodus's mistress Marcia.

[Stephan Huller]

And then you have to wonder - the idea that 'heretics create schisms from their master(s)' may well have been an artificially engineered process. With the age of Commodus we clearly have the beginning of 'state sponsored' or state influenced Christianity. Just remember how after 911 American leaders were actively seeking out 'government friendly' Islamic leaders. Same thing in antiquity. Italian scholars tentatively date the 'event' which caused government involvement - and persecution - of older forms of Christianity with the Bucolus uprising in Alexandria against Commodus's father. The uprising epicenter was the very place where Christianity was founded in Egypt.

If Peter Kirby can provide me with a way to link an article I can show the most recent underwater research in the area from my friend Harry Tzalas. So in short, the epicenter of Egyptian Christianity (where it started) is now underwater owing to Nasser's water diversion practices in the 60s

[Peter Kirby]

If Peter Kirby can provide me with a way to link an article

What does that mean?

http://zeldawiki.org/Link

Does that help?

[Stephan Huller]

Sorry multitasking. I have a PDF want to let everyone read it

[Peter Kirby]

Sorry multitasking. I have a PDF want to let everyone read it

There is an "upload attachment" option below the text area when posting (with the full editor).

[Stephan Huller]

File is too big. Sorry.

[Peter Kirby]

Okay I just changed the file size limit from its default of 2MB and raised it to 30MB.

Maybe give it another go.

If that's not enough, then the PDF is just not properly compressed and you can fix that with an online tool:

http://smallpdf.com/compress-pdf
https://www.pdfcompress.com/

[Peter Kirby]

Okay I just changed the file size limit from its default of 2MB and raised it to 30MB.

Maybe give it another go.

If that's not enough, then the PDF is just not properly compressed and you can fix that with an online tool:

http://smallpdf.com/compress-pdf
https://www.pdfcompress.com/

Okay sorry I actually had to change two different settings to make it work.

So now you should be able to get it to upload a file up to 30MB (tested).

[Stephan Huller]

Sila tripati.pdf

(6.75 MiB) Downloaded 282 times