Docetism

An early heresy which treated Jesus Christ as a purely divine being who only had the “appearance” of being human. The term derives from the Greek verb dokeo, “I seem”. The belief is that Christ’s body only seemed to be a human body and that His flesh was composed of some heavenly substance, or perhaps was not even material but ghostly.

Docetism originates from the belief that ordinary matter is evil and therefore not fit for the embodiment of a divine being. Some ancient heresies, particularly the Gnostics, held docetists beliefs.