Apelles (Gnostic)
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Apelles (Greek: Aπελλής) was a second-century Gnostic Christian thinker. He began his ministry as a disciple of Marcion of Sinope, likely in Rome. However, at some point, Apelles either left or was expelled from the Marcionite church.
According to Tertullian, this separation occurred because Apelles became involved with a woman named Philumena, who claimed to be possessed by an angel that revealed 'revelations' to her. Apelles publicly read these revelations, which was seen as controversial.[1] Since Marcion preached that Christians should practice celibacy and abstain from marriage,[2] Apelles' relationship with Philumena was deemed unacceptable by the Marcionite church.
After his departure from the Marcionite community, Apelles traveled to Alexandria, where he developed his own distinctive theological doctrine — a modified form of Marcionism.
Doctrine
[edit]Philosophy and beliefs
[edit]Apelles' philosophy appears to have been a departure from the strict dualism and complete rejection of the material world found in Marcion's teachings. For example, Apelles believed in a single Supreme God, as opposed to the two gods posited by Marcionism. According to Apelles, the Supreme God first created the heavens along with the "powers and angels" who inhabit them.[3] The Earth, however, was created by a fiery angel subordinate to the Supreme God.[4] This angel sought to imitate the heavenly world but failed to replicate it with the same perfection as the Supreme God.[5]
Christology
[edit]Unlike the Docetic view promoted by Marcion — which held that Jesus never possessed a physical body — Apelles taught that Jesus had true human flesh. However, he denied that Jesus was born of human parents.[6] Instead, Apelles claimed that Jesus descended directly from heaven and that his body was formed from the "stars and the substances of the higher world" as he passed through the heavens to Earth.[7]
Apelles also taught that during Jesus' ascension back to heaven, he dismantled his fleshly body, returning its constituent elements to their original places in the heavens. This view is distinct from mainstream Christian doctrine, which asserts that Jesus ascended bodily into heaven.[8][9]
Views on Jewish scriptures
[edit]Apelles' attitude toward the Hebrew scriptures was notably different from that of Marcion. While Marcion viewed Jewish scripture as a legitimate revelation from the "creator god" (albeit a lesser god distinct from the Supreme God),[10] Apelles believed that much of the Old Testament was composed of "fables" and contained failed prophecies.[11][12]
Despite this critical view, Apelles did not reject all of the Jewish scriptures. He regarded certain parts as divinely inspired, though it remains unclear which specific portions he accepted as true and which he considered false.[13] This nuanced stance distinguished him from Marcion, who rejected the Jewish scriptures entirely as the product of a false god.
Theological differences with Marcion
[edit]Although Apelles diverged from Marcion on several key points, he retained some core elements of Marcionite theology. Like Marcion, Apelles rejected the belief in the resurrection of the body. Instead, he taught that only the souls of Christians would be saved and transported to heaven, while their physical bodies would not be resurrected.[14][15]
Additionally, Apelles continued to use Marcion's Apostolikon as scripture. This collection consisted of shorter versions of ten Pauline epistles, which had been edited to exclude passages that Marcion and his followers viewed as contrary to their theological views.[16]
Legacy
[edit]Apelles authored several books, none of which have survived. One of his most notable works was Revelations, which he claimed was based on the divine revelations of his partner, Philumena. According to Tertullian, Philumena was a virgin who later became a "monstrous prostitute" and misled Apelles into composing the Revelations under her influence.[17]
Apelles also authored a series of books titled Syllogisms, in which he sought to disprove specific passages from the Pentateuch regarding the nature of God. These works aimed to expose what Apelles believed to be the falsehoods of Moses' writings about God.[18] The title Syllogisms suggests that Apelles may have intended to counter Marcion's Antitheses, which juxtaposed the teachings of the Old Testament with those of the New Testament.
There is also evidence that Apelles may have had his own gospel, referred to by Jerome as the Gospel of Apelles (Latin: Apellis euangelium).[19] Scholars have described this gospel as being similar to the Gospel of Marcion, although little is known about its specific contents.[20]
Apelles is last mentioned as being active in Rome toward the end of the 2nd century AD.[21]
The followers of Apelles, known variously as the Apellitae, Apelliacos, or Apelleasts, remain largely obscure. Tertullian reportedly wrote a tract against them, but this work has not survived. Some of what is known about this sect comes from the writings of Ambrose of Milan in the 4th century. In his work De Paradiso (On the Garden of Eden), Ambrose directed several of his comments against the Apellitae. However, it is unclear if the sect was still active at that time or if Ambrose was merely citing earlier material, possibly drawing from a now-lost work of Tertullian on the same topic.
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ Tertullian, De praescriptione haereticorum 30.
- ^ Tertullian, Adversus Marcionem IV.23.
- ^ "He introduces one God in the infinite upper regions, and states that He made many powers and angels..." - Pseudo-Tertullian, Against All Heresies 6
- ^ "Apelles fashioned some kind of glorious angel of the Higher God as the Creator and God of the Law and of Israel, affirming Him to be of fire..." - Tertullian, On the Prescription of Heretics 34
- ^ "By [the angel] he will have it appear that the world was originated in imitation of a superior world. With this lower world he mingled throughout (a principle of) repentance, because he had not made it so perfectly as that superior world had been originated." - Pseudo-Tertullian, Against All Heresies 6
- ^ "For indeed the notorious Philumena persuaded Apelles and the other seceders from Marcion rather to believe that Christ did really carry about a body of flesh; not derived to Him, however, from birth, but one which He borrowed from the elements." - Tertullian, Adversus Marcionem III.1.1.
- ^ "He borrowed, they say, His flesh from the stars, and from the substances of the higher world. And they assert it for a certain principle, that a body without nativity is nothing to be astonished at, because it has been submitted to angels to appear even among ourselves in the flesh without the intervention of the womb." - Tertullian, On the Flesh of Christ 6
- ^ "[He] restored, in the course of His ascent, to the several individual elements whatever had been borrowed in His descent: and thus — the several parts of His body dispersed — He reinstated in heaven His spirit only." - Pseudo-Tertullian, Against All Heresies 6
- ^ Patristic Studies. Catholic University of America. 1955-01-01. p. 75.
- ^ Harnack, Adolf (1921). Marcion: The Gospel of the Alien God. Translated by Steely, John E.; Bierma, Lyle D. Grand Rapids: Baker. p. 58. ISBN 978-1-55635-703-9.
- ^ Origen, Against Celsus 5.54
- ^ Hippolytus, The Refutation of All Heresies 10.16
- ^ Epiphanius, Panarion 44.5.1
- ^ Epiphanius, Panarion 44.4.1
- ^ "This man denies the resurrection of the flesh... He teaches the salvation of souls alone." - Pseudo-Tertullian, Against All Heresies 6
- ^ "He uses, too, one only apostle; but that is Marcion's, that is, a mutilated one." - Pseudo-Tertullian, Against All Heresies 6
- ^ "...he fastened on another woman, that very virgin Philumena already mentioned, who afterwards herself also became a monstrous prostitute; and misled by her influence he wrote the 'Revelations' which he learnt from her." - Tertullian, On the Prescription of Heretics 30
- ^ "[Apelles] has, besides, his own books, which he has entitled books of Syllogisms, in which he seeks to prove that whatever Moses has written about God is not true, but is false." - Pseudo-Tertullian, Against All Heresies 6
- ^ Wilhelm Schneemelcher; R. Mcl. Wilson, eds. (1990). New Testament Apocrypha, Vol. 1: Gospels and Related Writings. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 399. ISBN 978-0664227210. Section G4.
- ^ Dillon, E J (June 1893). "The Primitive Gospel". The Contemporary Review. 63. London: 857–870.
- ^ Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History.
References
[edit]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, Philip (1870). "Apelles". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. p. 223.
