to ehrman, "proto-orthodox christians argued that jesus christ was both divine and human, that he was one being instead of two, and that he had taught his disciples the truth." this view that he is "a unity of both divine and human" (the hypostatic union) is opposed to both adoptionism (that jesus was only human and "adopted" by god, as the ebionites believed), and docetism (that christ was only divine and merely "seemed" to be human, as the marcionists believed), as well as separationism (that an aeon had entered jesus' body, which "separated" again from him during his death on the cross, as most gnostics believed).