Christ's Laughter: Docetic Origins Reconsidered

Abstract

One of the most radical heresies of early Christianity, Docetism, maintained that Jesus did not really die on the cross but only appeared to do so. Some docetic conceptions go further, denying Jesus a physical body altogether. This article argues that a claim that Jesus' sacrifice was not really accomplished appeared among the very first followers of Jesus. For first-century Jews Isaac provided an obvious model of someone who—in his akedah ("binding") as described in Genesis 22—had almost been sacrificed, but not quite. The figure of Isaac, which soon became a typos, or figura, of Christ for the church fathers, as the Akedah was understood as a sacramentum futuri, must have been the source of this docetic interpretation of the crucifixion. Various gnostic texts and traditions describe Christ laughing in heaven while Simon of Cyrene is being crucified in his place. This laughter of Christ has not so far been properly understood. This article proposes to see in it a reference to the etymology of Isaac's name, yzhaq ("he will laugh"). This etymology was widely known among first-century Jews. Philo, for instance, discusses it on various occasions, even claiming that Isaac was actually the son of God, not of Abraham, and that his mother Sarah was a virgin when she conceived him.