************* M*W: Was Paul of Tarsus really Appolonius of Tyana? This man lived during Jesus' time, but had never met Jesus. Could Appolonius of Tyana and Paul of Tarsus be one and the same? Appolonius was a miracle worker and healer. He also studied in Tarsus and spread christianity to the pagans.
See this article on Apollonius of Tyana at Livius.org for a scholarly perspective. From Wikipedia: Some scholars, both ancient and comtemporary, believe that Apollonius was actually the Christian Apostle Paul, as many of his teachings coincide with those of Paul, and Apollonius is said to have done many of the same things Paul did. But there is no concrete evidence of this.
Paul certainly wasn't a vegetarian, however. He ate with gentiles and one of his books, I believe, warns against such vegetarian cults in the last days.
The way names work is that everybody has their own unique name. Also, Paul was famously obnoxious and very public about it. He was not in a position where he could easily change his name back and forth. I also think you are giving Paul more credit then he has due. You compare him to Appolonius in regards to being a Miracle Worker, but if you study the claims made for Paul, he never really was much for performing miracles. In his entire ministry they can only sight one instance where he was on hand when a young man recovered his wind after having fallen out of a low window. After that, you can scour the scriptures all you like and find that Paul was all talk and no real action. Paul was NOT a miracle worker.
Leo Volont: The way names work is that everybody has their own unique name. Also, Paul was famously obnoxious and very public about it. He was not in a position where he could easily change his name back and forth. I also think you are giving Paul more credit then he has due. You compare him to Appolonius in regards to being a Miracle Worker, but if you study the claims made for Paul, he never really was much for performing miracles. In his entire ministry they can only sight one instance where he was on hand when a young man recovered his wind after having fallen out of a low window. After that, you can scour the scriptures all you like and find that Paul was all talk and no real action. Paul was NOT a miracle worker. ************* M*W: Far be it from me to give Paul any credit at all! I was curious about the name 'Ap-pol-onius'. As I've said before, Paul was a liar, thief and murderer. Nothing he wrote should be believed.
Dear MW Many of the Gurus and Pretend-Gurus of the Hellenic World may have taken names to suggest a connection to Apollo (The Hellenic God of Healing, Prophecy, the arts...). Paul would not have been the only one to think of it... nor Apollonius. Jeepers, even the United States once named a Project in their Space Program "Apollo", and I don't think you suppose it has any connection to Paul. But I wonder whether 'Paul' is close enough to suggest 'Apollo'. It would probably take some expert in ancient linguistics to tell us just where the name 'Paul' come from -- what it meant and in which language.
Leo Volont: Dear MW Many of the Gurus and Pretend-Gurus of the Hellenic World may have taken names to suggest a connection to Apollo (The Hellenic God of Healing, Prophecy, the arts...). Paul would not have been the only one to think of it... nor Apollonius. Jeepers, even the United States once named a Project in their Space Program "Apollo", and I don't think you suppose it has any connection to Paul. But I wonder whether 'Paul' is close enough to suggest 'Apollo'. It would probably take some expert in ancient linguistics to tell us just where the name 'Paul' come from -- what it meant and in which language. ************* M*W: After hearing about Appolonius, it made me think that Paul's name may have been taken from him. That's why I posed the question. Now I realize that I have blasphemed Appolonius, and I regret that. The Aramaic glossary online indicates Paul's name aptly means 'deceiver.' I'm curious why he would rename himself Paul? I never thought that Paul was a name in those days, but Ap-pol-onius was.
I can't think of any circumstance in which 'Paul' would have actually meant 'deceiver' in the common language of the day. It would not have helped him, and Paul was nothing if not an opportunist. And then, even by his own account, he was always answering accusations of being a liar and an embezzler, and if his name gave any warrant to those accusations, then it certainly would have come up in puns, ridicule, and so forth. I simply think that your Aramaic Source was doctored after the fact, as some kind of joke among scholars... or perhaps even an ill-bred instance of hostility as old Jewish or Islamic Scholars take a cheap shot at the Christian Scholastic Community while sacrificing the Truth to do so. Or perhaps the connotation of 'deceiver' did not come to the name until Paul wore it. It is like the way Americans toss around "Benedict Arnold" to mean "traitor" (though it is odd that they should term a 'traitor' the only one among themselves to keep loyal to the original oath they made upon entering Public Service, which was for loyalty to their King). Or the contemptable meaning that is expressed by name "Judas" which had not always attached to that name. (I was shocked to find the name "adolf" coming back. At a party of people who were not Neo-Nazis this one man was introduced to me as Adolf and I could only barely restrain myself from asking if he were insane, and to point out that no judge in the World would keep him from changing THAT name and would probably even pay the Court Costs for him). So I would guess that before Paul made the name of 'paul' mean 'deceiver' that it quite meant something else, which perhaps scholarship has forgotten, Aramaic being a dead language from which there are apparently no sources dating back to prior the Age of Christianity. We will then never know.
Oh sure there is evidence for everything...well was the answers that we seek to the great history mystories were all found and gathered by Alexander the Great yeah for a fire in Alexandria, Egypt.
podave: Oh sure there is evidence for everything...well was the answers that we seek to the great history mystories were all found and gathered by Alexander the Great yeah for a fire in Alexandria, Egypt. ************* M*W: And your point would be?
