Docetism

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The docetism (Greek δοκεῖν dokein "seem") is a doctrine that is based on the view that the matter is low and evil is, and the Christ confers only a phantom body. From a docetic point of view, Jesus remained God because his physical existence did not affect his being, i.e. he only suffered and died in appearance . The humanity and the historicity of Christ are thus given up or at least restricted in docetism.

history

The view of various early Christian groups that all matter is impure , which is why Christ could not assume any material form, was already opposed in the letters of Ignatius of Antioch (approx. 110 AD), and he also accuses his opponents of teaching that Christ has suffered only in appearance. Later, Irenaeus to also counteract the docetism that apologetic Logos - Christology with a stressed incarnation theology connected. It is often assumed that docetism was already given as an opponent's position in the first letter of John (which is dated between the middle of the first century and the first decade of the second century) ( 1. Joh. 1,1-3  EU ; 1. Joh . 4,2-3  EU ), the positions of Weigandt and Uebele. Both Hellenistic conceptions, such as Plato's theory of ideas , which viewed matter as inferior, and Jewish Christian monotheism , which took offense at the incarnation and suffering of God , are seen as sources .

Docetism later merged with Gnosticism and Manichaeism . Since many Gnostic teachings are also docetic, it was long assumed that docetism arose from Gnosis or was even identical with it.

The Roman Church, along with Tertullian, condemned docetism because it saw suffering and death on the cross as a central component of its belief in redemption .

Examples of docetism

  • The Gnostic Addru Cerdo ( Κέρδων Kerdōn ) takes the view that Christ was only in the world as a mirage (in phantasmate) , was not born and only allegedly suffered (quasi passum) .
  • Marcion thinks that Christ appeared as a human being, although he was not human, and that he did not really take birth or suffering upon himself, but only in appearance. Jesus had revealed himself in "the form of a human" and Markion had eliminated the passages about the (human) birth of Jesus from his Bible. The docetistic Christology of Markion thus implies a devaluation of the body and the salvation of the soul alone.
  • Irenaeus of Lyons reports from Basilides (around 133) the idea that Simon of Cyrene assumed the form of Jesus and died in his place on the cross, while the latter made himself invisible and rose to the Father as an "incorporeal force" ( virtus incorporalis ) .
  • Valentinus , who had taught a psychic body of Christ, wrote: “And Valentinus says in his letter to Agathopus: Jesus endured everything and was abstinent; he sought to acquire godliness; he ate and drank in a way unique to himself, in that he did not give up the food again; so great was the power of his abstinence that the food in him did not perish; for he himself was not subject to perdition. '"
  • In another form of docetism, according to Cerinthus, the divine Christ used an ordinary person (Jesus) as a medium, to whom he descended at the baptism in the Jordan (“You are my beloved son, I have begotten you today.” Lk 3:22  EU ), and which he left again before he died on the cross (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” Mk 15.34  EU ; Matt 27.46  EU ).
  • Mani , founder of Manichaeism , indicated that it was not the Redeemer ( soteriology ) but another, the devil , who was crucified. Original sources, however, show a very differentiated docetical conception of Jesus, who was in the world as an apostle of light, suffered there in the Passion and was crucified, but only his outer form (a ⲥⲭⲏⲙⲁ ) died on the cross, while the divine in him remained intact .
  • In the Koran a documentary view of the death of Jesus can be recognized in sura 4 verse 157f.

"157 and (because they) said: 'We killed Christ Jesus, the Son of Mary and Messenger of Allah.' - But they (in reality) did not kill him and (also) did not crucify him. Rather, (someone else) appeared similar to them (so that they mistook him for Jesus and killed him). And those who disagree about him (or: about it) are in doubt about him (or: about it). They have no knowledge about him (or: about it), rather they make assumptions. And they did not kill him with certainty (that is, they cannot say with certainty that they killed him).

158 No, God raised him to himself (into heaven). God is mighty and wise. "

- Rudi Paret : Koran, Sura 4

literature

  • Norbert Brox : Docetism - a problem report ; in: Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte 95 (1984), pp. 301–314 (W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart Berlin Cologne Mainz, ISSN  0044-2925 )
  • Wichard v. Heyden: docetism and incarnation. The emergence of two opposing models of Christology. Francke-Verlag, Tübingen 2014, ISBN 978-3-7720-8524-6 .
  • Adolf Jülicher : Δοκηταί . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume V, 1, Stuttgart 1903, Sp. 1268.
  • Winrich Löhr , Josef van Ess: Art. Docetism I. Christianity II. Islam . In: RGG , 4th ed., Vol. 2.
  • Ulrich B. Müller: The Incarnation of the Son of God. Early Christian ideas of incarnation and the beginnings of docetism ; Stuttgart Bible Studies 140; Verl. Kath. Bibelwerk, Stuttgart 1990; ISBN 3-460-04401-2
  • Wolfram Uebele: "Many seducers have gone out into the world". The opponents in the letters of Ignatius of Antioch and in the letters of John ; BWANT 151; Kohlhammer, Stuttgart / Berlin / Cologne 2001; ISBN 3-17-016725-1
  • Benjamin Walker: Gnosis. From the knowledge of divine secrets ; Diederichs, Munich 1992; ISBN 3-424-01126-6
  • Peter Weigandt: Docetism in early Christianity and in the theological development of the second century . 2 vol., Dissertation Heidelberg 1961

Web links

Wiktionary: Docetism  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Docetism. In: www.bibelwissenschaft.de. German Biblical Society , accessed on October 16, 2019 : "Rather, he [Jesus] - in his baptism at the Jordan - only externally and" in appearance "(" docetism "comes from the Greek word dokein = seem) connected with a human body, which he left before the Passion . "
  2. ^ A b Johannes Hanselmann, Samuel Rothenberg, Uwe Swarat (eds.): Specialized dictionary theology . SCM R. Brockhaus, Wuppertal 1987, ISBN 3-417-24083-2 , Docetism, p. 44 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h Winrich Löhr :  Docetism . In: Religion Past and Present (RGG). 4th edition. Volume 2, Mohr-Siebeck, Tübingen 1999, Sp. 925-926.
  4. ^ Susanne Hausammann: Old Church, early Christian writers . tape 1 . Neukirchener, 2001, ISBN 3-7887-1806-4 , p. 64 : “Docetimus is called this denial of the body of Christ. His birth, his cross and his resurrection. Paul already had to deal with it ( 1. Cor. 15  EU ) "
  5. ↑ Ignatius : The Seven Letters of Ignatius of Antioch - Chapter 2 - Christ suffered for us truly, not apparently. - Ignatius to the Smyrneans. In: Library of the Church Fathers. Greek patristic and oriental languages, accessed on October 16, 2019 : “For he suffered all this because of us, so that we might be saved; and indeed he really suffered just as he really did rise from the dead, not as some unbelievers claim that he suffered only apparently because they only seem to live; and according to their notions, they will fare when they are disembodied and ghostly (at the resurrection). "
  6. ^ Wolfhart Pannenberg :  Christology II. Dogmengeschicht . In: Religion Past and Present (RGG). 3. Edition. Volume 1, Mohr-Siebeck, Tübingen 1957, Sp. 1763. “In the fight against the Christology of Gnosis (especially Valentine's ) and Marcion , who the Redeemer for the duration of his earthly work with a person who remains alien to his true essence and at the same time of carnality letting a bare body only be clothed ("docetism"), Irenaeus combined the apologetic Logos Christology with an emphatic incarnation theology. "
  7. ^ A b Franz Lau : Christology - 2. The first beginnings of a doctrine of Christ . In: Evangelical Church Lexicon . tape 1 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht , Göttingen 1961, p. 755-756 : "A so-called docetical Christology (Christ has only a pseudo-body ) is Gnostic and is mostly (cf. 1Joh 1,1ff), but not always rejected."
  8. ↑ Tertullian : About the body of Christ. (De carne Christi) - Chapter 9 - The human body comes from the earth. Likewise, the body of Christ was not made of heavenly matter. In: Library of the Church Fathers. Greek Patristic and Oriental Languages, 220, accessed on October 16, 2019 : “How can you even call a body heavenly for me, in which you cannot perceive any trace of something heavenly? How can one deny the earthly condition when one sees the clear evidence of it? He hungered - under the eyes of the devil , he was thirsty - in the presence of the Samaritan woman , he wept - over Lazarus , he hesitated - in the face of death, for the flesh, he exclaims, is weak, and in the end he shed his blood . "
  9. ↑ Irenaeus : Against the Heresies ( Contra Haereses ) - First Book - 24th Chapter: Saturninus and Basilides - 4th In: Library of the Church Fathers. Greek patristic and oriental languages, accessed on October 16, 2019 : “But as the ungenerated and unnameable Father saw their depravity, he sent his only begotten Nous , who is called Christ, to give those who would believe in him from the rule of those free those who made the world. He also appeared to their peoples on earth as a man and perfected their powers. But he did not suffer, it was a certain Simon of Cyrene, who was forced to carry the cross for him. He was mistakenly and unknowingly crucified after he was changed by him so that he was mistaken for Jesus. But Jesus took the form of Simon and laughed at her while standing by. He was the incorporeal strength and the nous of the ungenerated father, that is why he could transform himself at will and so rose again to him who had sent him by mocking those who could not hold him and was invisible to all. "
  10. ↑ Clement of Alexandria : Carpets ( Stromateis ) - Third Book - 7th Chapter 59.3. In: Library of the Church Fathers. Greek Patristic and Oriental Languages, accessed October 27, 2019 .
  11. ^ Evodius, De fide contra Manichaeos 28
  12. ^ Siegfried G. Richter : Christology in the Coptic Manichaean Sources. In: BSAC 35 (1996) 117-128; Siegfried G. Richter : Comments on various “Jesus figures” in Manichaeism. In: J. Van Oort, O. Wermelinger, G. Wurst (Eds.): Augustine and Manichaeism in the Latin West. Proceedings of the Friborg-Utrecht Symposium of the International Association of Manichaean Studies (IAMS), Leiden etc. 2001, pp. 174-184.
  13. ^ E. Kellerhals:  Islam . In: Religion Past and Present (RGG). 3. Edition. Volume 3, Mohr-Siebeck, Tübingen 1959, Col. 922. “As a religion of work righteousness , Islam says a radical no to the vicarious redemption of Christ on the cross . Since a righteous prophet cannot die innocently, God replaced the body of Jesus with that of another person at the last minute (docetism), and since the conditions for receiving salvation are only based on belief in Allah and his prophets and in submission ("Islam") under the final revelation given to Muhammad , man does not need redemption through a mediator. "
  14. ↑ Rudi Paret: The Koran . 12th edition. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-17-026978-1 , Sura 4, Die Frauen, p. 76 .