Docetse

Docetse (Gk. dokein, to seem), a name given to a section of the Gnostics, who believed that the body of Christ was a mere appearance, or phantom. They thus denied the reality of the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Ascension, and virtually the Atonement. The doctrine arose from the Neo-Platonist view that matter was essentially impure; hence, it was argued, a Divine Being could not have taken on Himself a material body. Saturninus, Marcion, and Tatian were among the leaders of the sect.