(Ἀπελλῆς), a disciple of Marcion, departed in some points from the teaching of his master. Instead of wholly rejecting the Old Testament, he looked upon its contents as coming partly from the good principle, partly from the evil principle. Instead of denying entirely the reality of Christ's human body, he held that in his descent from heaven he assumed to himself an aerial body, which he gave back to the air as he ascended. He denied the resurrection of the body, and considered differences of religious belief as unimportant, since, said he, "all who put their trust in the Crucified One will be saved, if they only prove their faith by good works."

Apelles flourished about A. D. 188, and lived to a very great age. Tertullian (Praescript. Haeret. 30) says, that he was expelled from the school of Marcion for fornication with one Philumene, who fancied herself a prophetess, and whose fantasies were recorded by Apelles in his book entitled . But since Rhodon, who was the personal opponent of Apelles, speaks of him as universally honoured for his course of life (Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 5.13), we may conclude that the former part of Tertullian's story is one of those inventions which were so commonly made in order to damage the character of heretics. Besides the Φανερώσεις, Apelles wrote a work entitled " Syllogisms," the object of which Eusebius states (l.c.) to have been, to prove that the writings of Moses were false. It must have been a very large work, since Ambrose (De Paradis. 5) quotes from the thirty-eighth volume of it. (See also Tertull. ad v. Marcion. 4.17; Augustin. de Haer. 23; Epiphanius, Haer. 44.)