In general, Docetism was the view that Jesus Christ was not really human. Docetism comes from the Greek word dokeo, which means “to seem.” It was a “high Christology,” meaning a higher view of Jesus, as opposed to a “low Christology,” which would see Jesus as merely human and not divine. This high Christology was a way of viewing Jesus as above any of the issues with being mortal. To many Docetists, Jesus was so divine that he wouldn’t leave footprints!
To the Docetists of the first two centuries in Early Christianity, the “spiritual” Jesus was viewed as either entering the physical Jesus at birth or baptism, only to have “left” Jesus on the cross. Hence, to some Docetists, Jesus’ crying out to his Heavenly Father was the act of the “human” Jesus, all alone, while the “divine or spiritual” Jesus was up in heaven. Some Docetists took the view that Jesus never took upon himself flesh, only that he “seemed” to have done so. This is due to the fact that to them, Jesus was God. Because of this, God could not have suffered on the cross, he only “seemed” to do this. How could God be both human and divine? To the Docetists, this seemed to be counter intuitive. Orthodoxy had not been established at the time of the Docetists, and thus bishops in early Christianity worked to stamp out what they viewed were heretical teachings of Christians with views such as this.
According to Everett Ferguson, “Our earliest evidence for a group of Christians holding Docetic views of Christ concerns the opponents attacked in Ignatius of Antioch’s letters (A.D. 114) to the Smyrneans (2.1-8.2) and the Trallians (10). Against the Docetists, Ignatius insists upon the physical realities of Christ’s birth, “bearing the flesh,” suffering and death on the cross, and resurrection… Without the resurrection of the “fleshly” Christ, human nature would not have been transformed (Trall. 9.2; Smyrn. 7.1). A variant of Luke 24.39 is cited to prove the fleshly reality of the risen Christ (Smyrn. 3.1). As a counter to the eucharists celebrated by the Docetists, Ignatius insists upon a realistic identification of the bread with the “flesh” of Jesus (Smyrn. 7.1). 1
Notes
- Everett Ferguson, Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, Garland Publishing, New York and London, 1990, p. 272.