Skip to content
Docetism

File:Spas_vsederzhitel_sinay_(cropped1).jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

EntityQ207674· pop 49· linked from 664 articles

Also known as Docetæ

thumb | right | alt=Lamentation of Christ  | Lamentation of Christ  In the history of Christianity, docetism (from the dokeĩn "to seem", dókēsis "apparition, phantom") was the doctrine that the phenomenon of Jesus, his historical and bodily existence, and above all the human form of Jesus, was mere semblance without any true reality. Broadly, it is taken as the belief that Jesus only seemed to be human, and that his human form was an illusion.

Wikidata facts

Image
Andrea Mantegna - Beweinung Christi.jpg
Sources (3)

via Wikidata · CC0

~6 min read

Article

11 sections
Contents
  • Definitions
  • Christology and theological implications
  • Islam and docetism
  • Docetism and Christ myth theory
  • Texts believed to include docetism
  • Non-canonical Christian texts
  • See also
  • Footnotes
  • References
  • Further reading
  • External links

thumb | right | alt=Lamentation of Christ  | Lamentation of Christ  In the history of Christianity, docetism (from the dokeĩn "to seem", dókēsis "apparition, phantom") was the doctrine that the phenomenon of Jesus, his historical and bodily existence, and above all the human form of Jesus, was mere semblance without any true reality. Broadly, it is taken as the belief that Jesus only seemed to be human, and that his human form was an illusion.

The word Dokētaí ("Illusionists") referring to early groups who denied Jesus's humanity, first occurred in a letter by Bishop Serapion of Antioch (197–203), who discovered the doctrine in the Gospel of Peter, during a pastoral visit to a Christian community using it in Rhosus, and later condemned it as a forgery. It appears to have arisen over theological contentions concerning the meaning, figurative or literal, of a sentence from the beginning of the Gospel of John: "the Word was made Flesh".

Gallery (4)

Connections

Categories