An Amazon Prime documentary has made claim that Jesus Christ was not a Jew from Nazareth, but rather a Greek philosopher named Apollonius, born in the Anatolia region of Turkey.
The theory proposed by “Bible Conspiracies,” released in 2016, has drawn attention from several news sources after Sputnik News published the article, “Jesus Wasn’t a Jew, Bombshell Documentary Claims,” as The Independent observed.
“The film is peppered with dated computer animations and stock images in the place of interviews with experts or original footage, all accompanied by a monotone voiceover,” The Independent described.
“What about this person, Jesus? Was he real? Was he created? Was he alien?” asks the film’s narrator.
“There is, in fact, a man who can be found in text outside of the Bible after the after the church failed to eradicate him from history,” the film claims. Born around the same time as Jesus, Apollonius “became a disciple of Pythagoras renouncing flesh, wine and women. He wore no shoes and let his hair and beard grow long. He soon became a reformer and fixed his abode in the Temple of Aesculapius,” the narrator describes.
The film claims that Jesus did not exist, and instead has been mistaken for this philosopher. Like Jesus, Apollonius preached, and supposedly performed miracles and amassed a number of followers.
“He reportedly restored life to the dead and spoke of things beyond the human reach. And, unlike Jesus, there is evidence to prove that Apollonius actually existed,” the documentary says. “Nobody can say with any conviction that Jesus was a real person.”
As The Independent points out, academics overwhelmingly agree that Jesus was a real person. The online newspaper reports that Simon Gathercole, senior lecturer in New Testament Studies at Cambridge University explained that Apollonius was well-known in the ancient world, and was often compared to Jesus, but Gathercole dismissed the theory as “crackers,” telling The Independent, “There was no doubt in the ancient world or now over whether Jesus existed. … There is no doubt in the evidence from the first sources that Jesus was Jewish and not Greek.”
“Bible Conspiracies” proposes other theories such as the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by a nuclear explosion, and poses the question, “did an alien race known as the Annunaki destroy the tower of Babel?”
The majority of response to the low-budget film has been critical, with one viewer saying “Does not live up to its name – doesn’t reveal any Bible ‘conspiracies’ only tries to cast doubt on the Bible with no historical evidence or interviews with trustworthy experts, just pure conjecture.”
Other viewers wrote with similar criticism, “The writers of this film not only have NO actual Biblical knowledge, they quote many myths that have been not only been disproved, but are laughed at in theological circles. In this video, there are no experts, no theologians, only many rhetorical lies that are often spewed by evolutionist and atheist.”
Photo courtesy: Pixabay
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