Idea of Doscetism

[Samof94]

What is everyone’s view of the idea that Jesus existed as spirit and that his body was a divine illusion created just for the Incarnation and wasn’t really human?

[Samof94]

What is everyone’s view of the idea that Jesus never existed and that his body was a divine illusion?

Docetists believed Jesus existed, just that his existence was pure spirit and if he had a body it was a temporary vessel.

That’s my point. It was considered heresy. The Cathars saw Jesus as being human as impossible as it would be sinful for him to be of the flesh.

[Samof94]

What is everyone’s view of the idea that Jesus never existed and that his body was a divine illusion?

Docetists believed Jesus existed, just that his existence was pure spirit and if he had a body it was a temporary vessel.

That’s my point. It was considered heresy. The Cathars saw Jesus as being human as impossible as it would be sinful for him to be of the flesh.

We don't really know what the Cathars believed because the Medievals who wrote about them interpreted contemporary heresies through the lens of the heresiologies of the early Church Fathers: Cathars are rumoured to do this and it reminds me of what I read in Irenaeus, so they must be Docetists!

But yeah the general idea was a Platonist one that the body was merely a vessel for the spark of the divine, and it was ridiculous and offensive to many Greeks that a God could have suffered on the cross.  

Hellenic gods didn’t die human deaths.