Apollonius was born around 15 AD — meaning when Jesus was crucified, Apollonius was still a young man. His public career began after Jesus's ministry and death. More critically, all New Testament documents were written within the first century AD, within the lifetimes of eyewitnesses, while Philostratus wrote 125+ years after Apollonius died. If any borrowing occurred, Philostratus likely borrowed from Christian categories.

The Gospels are recognized in New Testament scholarship as ancient biography (bios), a genre focused on carefully portraying a real person's life and character. The Life of Apollonius does not meet this standard — it is more likely a literary novel meant to inspire devotion, as evidenced by its fantastical content, internal contradictions, and the explicit political agenda behind its commissioning.

Even Bart Ehrman — one of the most prominent critical scholars — acknowledges that the New Testament documents are the earliest and best sources for historical knowledge about Jesus, undercutting the dismissal of the Gospels as unreliable.

Twitter response 3: Want documented accounts with originals protected — which is what we have

Third respondent's example of extraordinary evidence.

Textual criticism: the discipline that traces copies back to originals and why we can trust the transmission

Brief explanation of how we verify the integrity of the New Testament text.

Twitter response 5: Contemporary writings of life, death, resurrection with originals — we have near-contemporary documents, especially 1 Corinthians 15

Fifth respondent example; Mike pivots to addressing 1 Corinthians 15 as key early evidence.

Adding corroborating evidence: reasons to believe God exists and Scripture is reliable further overcome any prior improbability

Mike adds to the cumulative case by connecting evidence for God and Scripture to the prior probability question.

Bart Ehrman acknowledges we probably have what the originals said, despite popularizing text-critical skepticism

Mike's nuanced engagement with a prominent skeptical scholar on textual transmission.