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Porphyry (c. 234–305 CE), a Neoplatonist philosopher from Tyre, was one of Christianity's most sophisticated ancient critics. His work Against the Christians survives only in quotations and rebuttals by Christian authors because it was later suppressed and ordered destroyed by Christian emperors.

Several of his arguments were centuries ahead of their time:

-He denied that Moses wrote the Pentateuch. Modern scholarship likewise generally concludes that the first five books of the Bible were compiled from multiple sources over a long period rather than written by Moses.

-He argued that Book of Daniel was written during the 2nd century BC rather than the 6th century BC. Today this is the majority scholarly view because the book's "predictions" are highly accurate up to the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes but become much less accurate afterward.

-He claimed the Gospel authors were not eyewitnesses and relied on traditions and hearsay. Modern historians generally regard the Gospels as anonymous works written decades after Jesus' death, though there is disagreement about the extent to which they preserve eyewitness testimony.

-He treated Jesus' miracles as comparable to other miracle and magic traditions found throughout the Greco-Roman world.