Docetism: Definition, History, & Beliefs (Heresy Series)

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily match my own. - Dr. Bart D. Ehrman

Among the earliest theological controversies in the emerging Christian faith was Docetism—a belief that questioned the very humanity of Jesus Christ. Docetism wasn't just a theological curiosity—it was part of a broader struggle in the early Church to define who Jesus was and how divine truth interacted with flesh and blood.

In this article, I’ll explore the definition, theological foundations, and historical trajectory of Docetism, tracing its origins in early Christian communities, its development within theological thought, and the Church's response to it. Through New Testament texts, writings of early Church Fathers, and apocryphal gospels, we’ll examine how this view emerged, why it gained traction, and what ultimately led to its official rejection.

Docetism Definition

The name of this particular Christian heresy comes from the Greek word dokeĩn meaning “to seem” or “to appear.” The reason for this name, which was almost certainly not used by people who believed in it but was given to it by heresy hunters, can be found in the definition of Docetism, provided here by Wilhelm Schneemelcher in the New Testament Apocrypha: Gospels and Related Writings. Vol. 1:

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In other words, one of the key Docetism beliefs is that although Jesus appeared to be a human being during his lifetime, this was a divine trick, making the divine Spirit, the “real” Jesus, seem to possess a physical human body. Bart Ehrman, notes that Docetists believed the physical world to be too messy and full of misery for Jesus to be a part of it:

If this sounds familiar, you may have read my article on the Gnostics—a term and category that is far too broad to accurately include all the groups often put in it. Generally, though, Gnostics believed that the material world had been created by an inferior, or even evil, god, often identified as the God of the Old Testament. The God of the New Testament was supposed to be the true God who sent Jesus into the world. However, suffice it to say that while all Docetists (that we know about) could be classified as Gnostics, not all Gnostics were Docetists.

We’ll look at their beliefs in more detail below. Next, however, let’s dive into the history of this view and how the Church addressed it.

History of the Docetism Heresy: What Were Docetism’s Beliefs?

While we can theorize about why a heresy like Docetism developed, its actual origins are hard to pin down. Scholars have been debating where it came from for decades. For example, in The Suffering of the Impassible God: The Dialectics of Patristic Thought, Paul Gavrilyuk notes that Docetism may have emerged from Jewish Christianity which was more concerned with maintaining strict monotheism and didn’t want Jesus to be seen as another or separate god. This seems plausible, but again, there is no way to determine the origin with any precision.

However, it must have emerged fairly early in the development of Christian thought, as there are a few verses in the New Testament that seem to condemn it, although they don’t use the word Docetism. For instance, in 1 John 4:2, we read that “by this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.” Even stronger is this verse from 2 John 1:7:

Both these books were written at the very end of the 1st century CE, so we can see that there were at least the beginnings of the Docetism heresy happening at that time. Then, there are the letters of Ignatius of Antioch.

Ignatius was an early 2nd-century bishop from Antioch, Syria, a major center for early Christianity, who was arrested by the Romans and transported to Rome for execution. On the way to Rome, he wrote a number of letters of advice to Christian communities. In his letter to the Christians of Smyrna, a city in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey), Ignatius attacks theological opponents who, from his description of them, may have been Docetists:

In They Went Out from Us: The Identity of the Opponents in First John, Daniel Streett notes that Ignatius' emphasis here, not only on the flesh of Jesus but on his physical suffering, may be an argument against Docetism. Specifically, the idea that Jesus, if he only appeared to have a body, could not have truly suffered.

Late in the 2nd century, another Christian writer, Irenaeus, wrote quite clearly about his opinions of Docetism. In his massive work Against Heresies, he wrote that "Vain indeed are those who allege that He [Jesus] appeared in mere seeming. For these things were not done in appearance only, but in actual reality." He also asserted that "in no other way could we have learned the things of God, unless our Master, existing as the Word, had become man." In other words, if Jesus had not assumed a flesh and blood body, he could not have brought about our salvation at all.

We don’t see the word Docetist (Greek: Dokētaí) in any Christian writings until around the time of Irenaeus in a letter written by another bishop of Antioch named Serapion. Serapion writes that he had found this heresy in an apocryphal gospel called the gospel of Peter. And indeed, the gospel of Peter, probably written in the middle of the 2nd century CE, has one line that might have indicated a docetic tendency, although it’s a bit hard to tell for sure.

This line comes at the point when Jesus has just been nailed to the cross. The gospel says that “he was silent as having no pain.” Note that it doesn’t say he had no pain, just that he acted as if he had no pain. Is this Docetism? Maybe.

Docetism is a bit clearer and more obvious, however, in another apocryphal book called the Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter, likely written in the 3rd century. At one point in this book, Peter has a vision of Jesus being crucified and says

Bart Ehrman notes that this is a truly docetic scene:

Since Docetists believed that Jesus did not really have a human body, they naturally rejected the idea that he was human in any way at all. This idea was vehemently rejected at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 CE, as we can see in the Nicene Creed. While the main purpose behind the council and the Creed was to combat Arianism, the Creed explicitly stated that Jesus

Despite this official rejection, Docetism did not immediately die out. However, by the end of the 1st millennium, all evidence of this heresy disappears.

Interestingly, though, Islam, in its view of Jesus’ crucifixion, seems to have retained a bit of this idea, as we see in this passage from the Quran, which was written in the 7th century CE:

It's hard to know for certain whether the passage was intended to be Docetic, but Muslims generally believe that instead of being crucified, Jesus was instead raised to heaven by God, while a different person was crucified in his place.

Conclusion

From very early on, Christianity was quite diverse. What we now call heresies were merely different forms of Christian belief and practice that eventually lost out to the group scholars now call the proto-orthodox, represented by the majority at the Council of Nicaea. Docetism, a sort of subgroup among Gnostics, was one of these early forms of Christianity.

The whole idea behind Docetism was that Jesus, rather than being both God and human as later affirmed by the proto-orthodox, was a divine being who only appeared to be human. As such, Jesus was far too spiritually refined to actually take on a body from the material plane, which Docetists considered inferior to the spiritual plane.

We see a few anti-docetic references in the New Testament, especially in 1st and 2nd John, which both say that anyone who does not affirm the physical nature of Jesus’ body and the suffering and death that he endured is not a true follower of Christ. After this, letter writers such as Ignatius of Antioch and Irenaeus reaffirmed this message, warning their readers to avoid the teachings of the Docetists in order to follow the true teachings of Christ.

Docetists clearly had their own texts, however, such as the Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter, in which Jesus appears to be crucified, while his real self, bodiless, hovers over the cross laughing at the fact that his murderers can’t see what is really going on.

Eventually, though, the 4th-century Council of Nicaea made plain that Jesus was both human and divine, implying that Docetism was a heresy. This official pronouncement was the beginning of the end of Docetism which eventually died out and disappeared.

By the way, if you’re interested in this topic, look into Bart Ehrman’s course Early Christian Heresies.