Plural form of 'doceta'; members of ancient Gnostic and heretical Christian sects who believed that Christ's physical body was merely an illusion or phantom.
From Late Greek 'doketes' (appearing), derived from Greek 'dokein' (to seem or appear). The term refers to their doctrine that Christ only 'seemed' to have a physical body rather than truly possessing one.
The Docetae represented one of the earliest challenges to orthodox Christianity—they solved the theological problem of how God could suffer by claiming the suffering itself was just an illusion, which shows how creative early theologians were!
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