In Christianity, Docetism (from the Greek δοκέω [dokeō], "to seem") is the belief that Jesus' physical body was an illusion, as was his crucifixion; that is, Jesus only seemed to have a physical body and to physically die, but in reality he was incorporeal, a pure spirit, and hence could not physically die. This belief treats the sentence "the Word was made Flesh" (John 1:14) as merely figurative. Docetism has historically been regarded as heretical by most Christian theologians [1].
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Christology and theological implications
This belief is most commonly attributed to the Gnostics, many of whom believed that matter was evil, and hence that God would not take on a material body. This statement is rooted in the idea that a divine spark is imprisoned within the material body, and that the material body is in itself an obstacle, deliberately created by an evil lesser god (the demiurge) to prevent man from seeing his divine origin. Docetism could be further explained as the view that, because the human body is temporary and the spirit is eternal, the body of Jesus therefore must have been an illusion and his crucifixion as well. Even so, saying that the human body is temporary has a tendency to undercut the importance of the belief in resurrection of the dead and the goodness of created matter, and is in opposition to this orthodox view. Docetism was rejected by the ecumenical councils and mainstream Christianity, largely dying out during the first millennium A.D. . Other surviving gnostic movements, such as Catharism incorporated docetism into their beliefs, but the movement was destroyed by the Albigensian Crusade (1209-1229).
General Facts
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Docetism was an early Christian heresy. The term is derived from the Greek word dokein, meaning "to appear." Docetism proposed that Christ only "appeared" to have a real human body. This belief was a prevalent feature of Gnosticism, which held that matter and spirit are antagonistic. For the Gnostics, salvation consisted in liberation from the bondage of matter; consequently, while accepting Christ as Saviour, Gnosticism could not logically accept a real incarnation. Another common Docetistic tenet was that Christ's sufferings on Calvary were an illusion or that someone else was substituted for Him. The origins of Docetism are obscure. Some indications of its existence and repudiation are found in the New Testament. By the early 2d century, Ignatius of Antioch had condemned it. More detailed refutation were given by Irenaeus and Tertullian. Earl Doherty and Timothy Freke have suggested docetism arose from Christ mythicism
Texts including docetism
New Testament
Non-canonical Christian texts
- Gospel of Phillip
- Second Treatise of the Great Seth
- Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter
- Gospel of Judas
- In the contra epistulam fundamenti, Augustine of Hippo makes reference to the Manichaeans believing that Jesus was Docetic.
Qur'an
- The Qur'an([Qur'an 4:157])—Islam teaches that Jesus was a fully human prophet, but also asserts that Jesus's crucifixion was an illusion: "They did not kill him and they did not crucify him, but it was made to seem so to them...".
See also
External links
- Docetae in the Catholic Encyclopedia
