Description: Alexandros ho Pseudomantis was probably written after A.D. 180, some 10 years after Alexander's death (Harmon, LCL, Lucian, vol. 4, p. 173). Ostensibly at the request of a friend, Lucian described the career of Alexander, the "prophet" of Asclepius at Abonoteichus in Paphlagonia, northern Asia Minor. Lucian described how Alexander planned to be a religious charlatan: he bought a large snake, selected a region of gullible people, planted bronze tablets, prepared a fake talking serpent's head, claimed descent from a god, planted a baby snake in a goose egg, etc. He read questions inside of sealed papers and gave answers of varying obscurity; he sent out advertising agents, cultivated friends in government, and generally fooled almost everyone.

Relevance to NT Studies: Alexander shows the religious climate of the time: a gullible populace "swayed by two great tyrants, hope and fear" (Harmon, p. 185, §8). People were overly anxious to believe in something. Even if the oracle was obscure, ambiguous, or unintelligible, they respected it (p. 205, §22). Lucian called them idiots, dolts, fat-heads, and simpletons.

The baby snake was called Asclepius, "born twice, when other men are born but once" (p. 195, §14). "Born twice" at first sounds similar to the Christian doctrine of being born again, but the differences are greater than the similarities. Asclepius was born again in a crudely literal way, from an egg, and he was the only one so born. The devotees of the cult were not said to be born again, were not changed in any way, were given help in this life primarily. Harmon's footnote suggests that the "born twice" idea is a literary allusion rather than a religious concept.

Lucian describes Epicureans in complimentary ways. They were rational, and would not believe a sham even if they could not figure out how the trickery was done (p. 199, §17). Epicurus "discerned the nature of things and alone knew the truth in them" (p. 209, §25) — something similar was said about Jesus. Lucian described numerous virtues of Epicurus' book (p. 235, §47) and called him "saintly and divine" (p. 253, §61).

Asclepius asked that people honor his servant, Alexander, and to give their riches to him (p. 207, §24). This was of course invented by Alexander as a self-serving device, but it has parallels to John 5:23; 13:20: "Whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me." People were probably familiar with the idea of treating a representative as if the person were the divinity.

Lucian mentions Christians twice in passing: Alexander (to divert attention away from himself) claimed that "Pontus was full of atheists and Christians" (p. 209, §25). Alexander invented a celebration of mysteries, in which atheists, Christians and Epicureans were expelled (p. 225, §38).

Alexander made "belated oracles to make amends for those in which he had made bad predictions" (p. 213, §28). Similarly, some say that the Gospels' predictions of the destruction of the temple were written after the fact.

Also relevant: Alexander's use of missionaries (advertising agents), contemporary concepts of prophecy (relevant to 1 Cor. 14), and Paul's repeated insistence that he is not promoting himself.