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70 - Docetism

Docetists were heretics of very early date who held the Lord's Body to have been only the appearance of a body, not a material or real one. This heresy rests upon the notion of the inherent evil of matter. For with a material body inherently evil the Divine Nature cannot be thought to have united Itself; neither in the systems of the Gnostics, who tried to bridge over the space between the Deity and Matter, could it be thought that the AEon, derived from the Divine Nature, whose office was to correct the work of the evil Demiurge, united himself with the handiwork of that Demiurge. In this difficulty, some were led to deny the reality of the body, some the truth of the union. The former were the Docete. Of them, some held that the Body of our Lord was merely simulated, that it was an immaterial phantasm : some allowed that it was a substantial body, but of a celestial substance.

Hippolytua ascribes this heresy to Simon Magus. "And so it was," he writes, "that Jesus appeared as man, when in reality He was not a man. He suffered, not as actually undergoing suffering, but appearing to the Jews to do so " [Refat. vi. 14]. Docetism thus appeared along with Gnosticism. But, again, Hippolytus [viii. 1-8] treats the Docetae as a separate sect, and describes the system of AEons which they held. Of this system it is sufficient to say that it is much more developed than the system of Simon, and very nearly identical with the system of Valentinus.

It appears, therefore, that this point of Gnostic teaching was brought more prominently forward, so as to give to a division of Gnostics a distinctive name. By this, consequently, is to be interpreted the statement of Clement of Alexandria, that Julius Cassianus was the author of the sect of Docetae. The tenet had been held before, but Cassianus insisted more upon it. Cassianus was a disciple of Valentinus. He brought Docetism into notice in connection with Encratite austerity. His book, quoted by Clement, was On Continence, and Clement states that in this matter he agreed with Tatian, with whom he was contemporary. It appears strange that Clement and Jerome should speak of the heresy as introduced by Cassian and Tatian ; for there is no doubt that it existed in apostolic times, and was generally held by the Gnostics.

Serapion, consecrated Bishop of Antioch in AD 190 or 191, found the error in the Gospel of Peter, which he obtained from the successors of some heretics called Docetae [Euseb. H. E. vi. 12]. Grabe and Beausobre suppose, with much probability, that this Gospel was forged by Leucius, who is placed by Lardner AD 135-150. From this Gospel Serapion says he learnt what the heresy of Marcianus was. Lardner assumes that Marcianus was Marcion, but it is very improbable that Serapion was not before acquainted with the tenets of so notorious a heretic. If, however, Leucius were the author of the Gospel of Peter, we have a connection with Marcion, Leucius being his disciple. Marcion undoubtedly was a Docetic. So were Cerdo, Bardesancs, Saturninus.

In short, the tenets of Gnosticism include the Docetic heresy, unless, as an alternative, one of two opinions be adopted, either that upon Jesus, born of human parents, the Christ descended, or that the body assumed by Christ was of celestial substance, which passed through the person of the Virgin as water through a tube. This last was the opinion of Valentinus8 [Epiph. Panar. Indie. torn. II. xi.] These three, it is evident, alike deny that the Word was made Flesh. Jerome said that the Lord's body was declared to be a phantom while the Apostles were still in the world and the blood of Christ still fresh in Judaea. There can be little doubt, then, that the words of St. John [1 Ep. iv. 3] were directed against a sect of Docetae then existing.

Thus in the early Church there were two principal heresies, each of several branches, the Gnostic and the Jewish. The Gnostics were in general Docetae. Erring with regard to the nature of God, they allowed, with more or less departure from Catholic troth, a divine nature, more or less clearly defined, in the Lord ; but they denied His humanity. The Jewish sects avoided the error of an inferior creator, but asserted that the Lord was no more than man. All the Doceto denied the resurrection of the body. This is a necessary consequence of their denial of the reality of Christ's body ; and it is perhaps correct to infer that those of whom St. Paul speaks [1 Cor. xv. 12] were Docetae whose existence somewhat later is proved by St. John's words.

Cassian and Tatian gave a new impulse to Docetism. They are placed by Cave in A.d. 173-4. Of the former nothing more is known than has been mentioned, except that his exegetical works are referred to by Clement of Alexandria [Strum, i. 21], where Tatian's works are also referred to. Tatian was an Assyrian, founder of a sect of Encratite Gnostics, which lasted till after the fourth century. The congruity of Docetic and Hyperascetic notions la too manifest to be dwelt upon ; and the expression of their union is fitly the practice of using -water alone in the Holy Eucharist.