Docetism comes from the Greek word dokeō for ‘seems to be’ or ‘supposedly’ as docetists claimed that Jesus’s body only seemed to be real and was, at some point or other, incorporeal, spiritual, or morphed into a different state ... in the ancient world it was a compelling option for those with a particular view of God, who cherished the concept of impassibility, and avoidance of shame.[1]
To begin with, some might deny that God or the Christ could take on a crude physical form, so that Jesus was merely a phantasm in his appearance, not truly physical. A certain Saturninus is attributed the view that Jesus was ‘without birth, without body, and without figure, but was, by supposition, a visible man.’[2] Similarly, in a Gnostic document called Trimorphic Protennoia, Jesus says: ‘I revealed myself to them in their tents as Word, and I revealed myself in the likeness of their shape.’[3] So Jesus was a bit of a shape-shifter who morphed into human-like appearance but without being actually human. While we might raise eyebrows at this, remember that Paul said that God sent Jesus ‘in the likeness of sinful flesh’ (Gk. en homoiōmati sarkos hamartias), probably meaning that Jesus had a human body without a sinful nature, but such wording gave inspiration and impetus to docetic associations.[4]
Alternatively, others accepted that Jesus did have a physical body, but the ‘Christ’ departed from Jesus prior to the crucifixion, or else Jesus changed form and some other person was crucified in his place, so that Jesus’s divinity was safeguarded from suffering ...
Cerinthus' teachings that "Jesus was not born of a virgin conception ... that the Christ descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove at his baptism, but later the ‘Christ departed from Jesus, and that then Jesus suffered and rose again, while Christ remained impassible, inasmuch as he was a spiritual being'.[7]"
Basilides' ‘trading places’ "theory of the atonement" he "is alleged to have taught that Simon of Cyrene was transformed into Jesus while Jesus transformed into Simon",
the Second Treatise of the Great Seth,
the 3rd century Gnostic Coptic Apocalypse of Peter,
the docetic Islamic tradition "denying that Allah would allow Jesus to be killed or crucified, it only appeared so, since Allah took Jesus up into heaven." Sura 4.157-158.
