APELLES. - A disciple of Marcion, from whom he separated, going for a time to Alexandria and then returning to Rome. He wrote a large volume of Syllogisms to prove Moses false, and published the revelations of a certain Philumene, probably his disciple. He was already old when, under Commodus, he had a public dispute with Rhodon, a disciple of Tatian (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., V, 13). According to the Praedestinatus, 22, he was also opposed by Origen.
A. admits only one god, good, who creates the angelic world. One of these angels is the demiurge who created this lower world of matter in the image of that higher one; but his work turns out so defective that he departs from it and prays God to provide for its correction. Thus Jesus is sent, who at the end of the ages was to renew the whole world. According to some, the demiurge would be for A. the angel of fire who appeared to Moses, and therefore the god of Israel himself. By allurements of material foods he succeeds in drawing the souls of men down from heaven and fixing them in the flesh.
Bibliography
Erik Peterson