Who was this guy, really? I have run across several references to an Apollonius of Tyana, who lived more or less at the same time as Jesus. He seems to have been a wandering Neopythagorean philospoher and may or may not have been credited with miracles as well. Some of the references infer he was a sort of an anti-Christ or pseudo-Christ. Supposedly a biography of him exists, but I don’t know if it is by an admirer or a detractor.
Use a search engine. Google gives 1760 hits on 'Apollonius Tyana". The first one references his bigraphy.
He was also the coolest character in the brilliant 1930s cult novel THE CIRCUS OF DOCTOR LAO, by Charles Finney.
The bio of Apollonius of Tyana is published by Harvard University Press as part of the Loeb Classical Library.
There’s independent confirmation of the existence of Apollonius, apparently, in other writings and in artifiacts that have been found.
Read Lucian’s work on “Alexander the Miracle Worker” about Roman-era “God Men”. (It, too, is in a Loeb Classical edition work by Lucian. It’s also in a now out-of-print Penguin Classic book). Alexander also existed, and we have artifacts from his sites.
Some people feel that works on Apollonius were suppressed because Christians didn’t want Christ compared to such pagan “god men”.
In taking the search engine suggestion, I find a bazillion sites on the person. He is (take your pick): a fraud, a sponge/bulletin board for various miracle and wonder stories, the original miracle worker and thus the source of these stories, God, a wonder-prophet, an “immortal”, the “real” St. Paul, the “true” Jesus Christ, a Jainist (or Hindu, or Buddhist) convert and missionary, another obscure Greek philosopher and teacher, etc. etc. etc. One web site seems to say the word “Christ” comes from a term for “sprinkled with semen”. Very helpful. NOT! Now how about the >>Straight<< Dope?
Some seem to say that various Christian stories (scriptural, hagiological, aprocryphal, etc.) come from the stories that were attached to him (rightfully or otherwise). Others say the stories that attached to him were taken FROM Christian sources. Is there any reliable, non-wacko scholarship that tell us which is correct? Is this even knowable?
P.S. I get the feeling that if I’d had the time to read ALL of the Apollinus of Tyana related web sites, sooner or later one would say that he still lives and currently goes by the name of “Cecil Adams”. Say it ain’t so!