The shape-shifter heresy

This is something as rare as a super-scholarly, narrow book mentioned in the “main stream media”, sometimes slightly sensationalized. “On the Life and the Passion of Christ” is an early medieval apocryphon from Egypt. Only one well preserved manuscript has been found. The language is Coptic, still used as a liturgical language by the Coptic Orthodox Church (a “Monophysite” church in Egypt not related to Eastern Orthodoxy). The apocryphon, here presented in both Coptic and English, is a homily falsely attributed to the 4th century Church leader Cyril of Jerusalem, hence “Pseudo-Cyril”. The editor of this volume also discusses a number of other Pseudo-Cyrillian homilies, summarizing their contents. As already noted, this is a heavy scholarly text (a working knowledge of Old Greek and Coptic might help you considerably in digesting it). Yet, news media and the inevitable conspiracy-mongers on the web have latched on to it. Why?

The primary reason is that Pseudo-Cyril claims that Jesus was, wait for it, a shape-shifter! This is actually an older claim, mostly associated with Gnostics, to whom it proved that Jesus wasn't an ordinary mortal but wholly divine or spiritual (or perhaps wholly allegorical). Origen also believed that Jesus had the supernatural ability to change his appearance at will. While Origen's view sounds literalist, it's probably meant as a spiritual allegory. By contrast, the Muslims (who picked up the story from Christian apocrypha) interpret the shape-shifting story quite literally. Pseudo-Cyril's version also sound strongly literal, with the scheming Jews telling Judas that they can't arrest Jesus due to his constant changes of appearance. This explains why Judas had to kiss Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane to point him out for those coming to arrest him.

The homily also contains a number of other details not found in the Gospel stories: a long list of the occupations of the apostles (yes, most were fishermen), the inclusion of Paul in the original college of the apostles, and several additional meetings between Jesus and Pilate. The Coptic Church apparently venerates Pontius Pilate as a saint, and he is therefore depicted in a positive light, even eating dinner with Jesus! Pilate then offers to crucify his own son so Jesus can escape, but Jesus changes appearance to a light-being, convincing Pilate that he really is the Son of God and has decided to die voluntarily. It's also interesting to note that Jesus appears before Pilate in full royal garb. The passion is said to have lasted a whole week, with Jesus being arrested on Tuesday. This is apparently in keeping with Coptic Easter liturgy. In a dream, Pilate is informed that the light of the world will depart from the Jews and be given to the Egyptians. In another homily, only summarized by the editor, we learn that Mary Magdalene was the Virgin Mary's aunt, and that she was appointed leader of the apostles after the Virgin's death! The Magdalene is further said to have been initiated in all the mysteries of Christ...

Pseudo-Cyril claims to have gotten his additional information about the passion from a mysterious old manuscript found in Jerusalem – the notion of “sensational manuscript finds” is apparently an old one. In reality, he draws from a wide variety of sources, including Byzantine notions of how Jesus looked like, various apocryphal traditions about Pilate, and near-heretical ideas about the Savior's shape-shifting abilities. As a Monophysite, Pseudo-Cyril apparently didn't see any problems with the “aphthartodocetist” idea that the body of Jesus had supernatural qualities already before the resurrection (and hence wasn't fully human to begin with).While the Monophysites didn't deny that Christ was both true God and fully man, they held (simply put!) that the human nature had been subsumed under the divine, whereas the “official” Christian position emphasized that the two natures where wholly separate (while still being conjoined in a single individual). The stronger emphasis on the divine attributes of Jesus made Pseudo-Cyril embrace traditions which other Christians would have regarded as problematic, even heretical. At the same time, Pseudo-Cyril does insist that Jesus really suffered at the cross. It wasn't some kind of weird illusion (as in Gnostic Docetism).

With that, I conclude this little discussion.