Docetism
A Christ who only seemed to bleed, and a cross that only appeared to hurt
Docetism, from a Greek word for 'seeming,' is the teaching that Christ only appeared to have a body and to suffer, denying that he was truly human. It was opposed early by Ignatius of Antioch, who insisted Christ really was born, really ate, and really died, and by the First Letter of John. Among the earliest errors the Church condemned, it threatened the reality of the incarnation and the saving death.
How it traveled
- 1 JohnEphesus · 100challenges
- Epistle to the Smyrnæans: Shorter and Longer VersionsAntioch · 108challenges
- Against Heresies: Book ILyons · 202explains
- Against Heresies: Book VLyons · 202challenges
- Against Heresies: Book IIILyons · 202challenges
- On the Flesh of Christ.— · 220challenges
- Appendix: Against All Heresies.— · 220explains
- The Acts of the Disputation with the Heresiarch Manes.— · 220applies
- Against the Valentinians.— · 220challenges
- A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity.Rome · 258challenges
- The Church History of EusebiusCaesarea · 339explains
- The Catechetical Lectures of S. CyrilJerusalem · 386explains
- The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. JohnConstantinople (Istanbul) · 407challenges
- Reply to Faustus the ManichæanHippo Regius · 430challenges
- Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of JohnHippo Regius · 430challenges
- The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of TheodoretCyrrhus · 458challenges
- The Letters and Sermons of Leo the GreatRome · 461challenges
- Treatise on the Incarnation (qq[1]-59)Paris · 1274challenges
- Book Second. of the Knowledge of God the Redeemer, in Christ, as First Manifested to the Fathers, Under the Law, and Thereafter to Us Under the GospelGeneva · 1564challenges
Key passages(20)
Epistle to the Trallians: Shorter and Longer Versions · Ignatius of Antioch
A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity. · Novatian
Against Heresies: Book I · Irenaeus of Lyons
Epistle to the Smyrnæans: Shorter and Longer Versions · Ignatius of Antioch
Epistle to the Smyrnæans: Shorter and Longer Versions · Ignatius of Antioch
On the Flesh of Christ. · Anti-marcion
On the Flesh of Christ. · Anti-marcion
Reply to Faustus the Manichæan · Augustine of Hippo
Reply to Faustus the Manichæan · Augustine of Hippo
Serapion, Bishop of Antioch. · Remains of the Second and Third Centuries
The Acts of the Disputation with the Heresiarch Manes. · Archelaus
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril · Cyril of Jerusalem
The Church History of Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea
The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret · Theodoret of Cyrus
The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great · Leo the Great
Against Heresies: Book V · Irenaeus of Lyons
On the Flesh of Christ. · Anti-marcion
Reply to Faustus the Manichæan · Augustine of Hippo
The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John · John Chrysostom
Epistle to the Philadelphians: Shorter and Longer Versions · Ignatius of Antioch