11. Casting out demons was a feat accomplished by healers and sorcerers
As Jesus conducted his ministry in Galilee, he was said to have encountered an unknown number of poor souls possessed by demons, whom he restored by casting the demons out, a clear sign of his divinity and rule over heaven, the earth, and the underworld. At least according to the New Testament and those who believe it infallible. But the earth on which Jesus lived was well-populated with faith-healers and exorcists who cast out demons. Jesus himself warned his disciples against them. Ancient records record they were relatively common. About the same time Jesus lived and conducted his ministry, Apollonius of Tyana wandered about the ancient world, famed for both raising the dead and casting demons and evil spirits from the souls of the living.
Apollonius reported a vision of the murder of Domitian in 96 CE, which he received on the day the Emperor was assassinated. The vision was reported by Roman historians which included the normally reliable Cassius Dio. Apollonius is believed to have been known in India during his lifetime, and though he, like Jesus, was eventually encountered by Roman authority over the crime of sedition, he wasn’t executed. Apollonius (though long dead) reportedly appeared to the Roman Emperor Aurelian when the latter prepared to sack the city of Tyana in 272 CE. Warned by the apparition to spare the population of the city, Aurelian complied. Until the appearance in writing of the earliest works of Paul and the gospels, Apollonius was at the center of a cult of followers which rivalled that of Jesus, and he was attributed with many of the same miracles of healing which were ascribed to Jesus in the growing Christian literature.
