reply to post by 1nOne
In the Apocryphon of John circa 120-180 AD, the Demiurge arrogantly declares that he has made the world by himself:
Now the archon (ruler) who is weak has three names. The first name is Yaltabaoth, the second is Saklas (“fool”), and the third is Samael. And he
is impious in his arrogance which is in him. For he said, "I am God and there is no other God beside me," for he is ignorant of his strength, the
place from which he had come.[23]
He is Demiurge and maker of man, but as a ray of light from above enters the body of man and gives him a soul, Yaldabaoth is filled with envy; he
tries to limit man's knowledge by forbidding him the fruit of knowledge in paradise. The Demiurge, fearing lest Jesus, whom he had intended as his
Messiah, should spread the knowledge of the Supreme God, had him crucified by the Romans. At the consummation of all things all light will return to
the Pleroma. But Yaldabaoth, the Demiurge, with the material world, will be cast into the lower depths.
In Pistis Sophia Yaldabaoth has already sunk from his high estate and resides in Chaos, where, with his forty-nine demons, he tortures wicked souls in
boiling rivers of pitch, and with other punishments (pp. 257, 382). He is an archon with the face of a lion, half flame and half darkness.
Yaldabaoth is frequently called "the Lion-faced", leontoeides, with the body of a serpent. We are told also,[24] that the Demiurge is of a fiery
nature, the words of Moses being applied to him, “the Lord our God is a burning and consuming fire,” a text used also by Simon.[25]
Under the name of Nebro (rebel), Yaldabaoth is called an angel in the apocryphal Gospel of Judas. He is first mentioned in “The Cosmos, Chaos, and
the Underworld” as one of the twelve angels to come “into being [to] rule over chaos and the [underworld]”. He comes from heaven, his “face
flashed with fire and whose appearance was defiled with blood”. Nebro creates six angels in addition to the angel Saklas to be his assistants. These
six in turn create another twelve angels “with each one receiving a portion in the heavens.”
[edit] NamesThe most probable derivation of the name “Yaldabaoth” is that given by Johann Karl Ludwig Gieseler, “Son of Chaos,” from Hebrew
yalda bahut,ילדא בהות.
“Samael” literally means “Blind God” or “God of the Blind” in Aramaic (Syriac sæmʻa-ʼel). This being is considered not only blind, or
ignorant of its own origins, but may in addition be evil; its name is also found in Judaica as the Angel of Death and in Christian demonology. This
leads to a further comparison with Satan. Another alternative title for the Demiurge, “Saklas,” is Aramaic for “fool” (Syriac sækla “the
foolish one”).
The name has also been inscribed as "Ariel Ialdabaoth"[26][27], and the figure of the archon inscribed with "Aariel"[28]. The angelic name
"Ariel" has also been used to refer to the demiurge and is called his "perfect" name[29], and in some Gnostic lore, Ariel has been called an
ancient or original name for Ialdabaoth[30].
[edit] MarcionAccording to Marcion, the title God was given to the Demiurge, who was to be sharply distinguished from the higher Good God. The former
was díkaios, severely just, the latter agathós, or loving-kind; the former was the "god of this world" (2 Corinthians 4:4), the God of the Old
Testament, the latter the true God of the New Testament. Christ, though in reality the Son of the Good God, pretended to be the Messiah of the
Demiurge, the better to spread the truth concerning His heavenly Father. The true believer in Christ entered into God's kingdom, the unbeliever
remained forever the slave of the Demiurge.
[edit] ValentinusIt is in the system of Valentinus that the name Dēmiourgos is used, which occurs nowhere in Irenaeus except in connexion with the
Valentinian system; and we may reasonably conclude that it was Valentinus who adopted from Platonism the use of this word. When it is employed by
other Gnostics it may be held either that it is not used in a technical sense, or that its use has been borrowed from Valentinus. But it is only the
name that can be said to be specially Valentinian; the personage intended by it corresponds more or less closely with the Yaldabaoth of the Ophites,
the great Archon of Basilides, the Elohim of Justinus, etc.
The Valentinian theory elaborates that from Achamoth (he káta sophía or lower wisdom) three kinds of substance take their origin, the spiritual
(pneumatikoí), the animal (psychikoí) and the material (hylikoí). The Demiurge belongs to the second kind, as he was the offspring of a union of
Achamoth with matter.[31] And as Achamoth herself was only the daughter of Sophía the last of the thirty Aeons, the Demiurge was distant by many
emanations from the Propatôr, or Supreme God.
The Demiurge in creating this world out of Chaos was unconsciously influenced for good by Jesus Soter; and the universe, to the surprise even of its
Maker, became almost perfect. The Demiurge regretted even its slight imperfection, and as he thought himself the Supreme God, he attempted to remedy
this by sending a Messiah. To this Messiah, however, was actually united Jesus the Saviour, Who redeemed men. These are either hylikoí, or
pneumatikoí.
The first, or material men, will return to the grossness of matter and finally be consumed by fire; the second, or animal men, together with the
Demiurge as their master, will enter a middle state, neither Pleroma nor hyle; the purely spiritual men will be completely freed from the influence of
the Demiurge and together with the Saviour and Achamoth, his spouse, will enter the Pleroma divested of body (hyle) and soul (psyché).[32] In this
most common form of Gnosticism the Demiurge had an inferior though not intrinsically evil function in the universe as the head of the animal, or
psychic world.
[edit] The devilOpinions on the devil, and his relationship to the Demiurge, varied. The Ophites held that he and his demons constantly oppose and
thwart the human race, as it was on their account the devil was cast down into this world.[33] According to one variant of the Valentinian system, the
Demiurge is besides the maker, out of the appropriate substance, of an order of spiritual beings, the devil, the prince of this world, and his angels.
But the devil, as being a spirit of wickedness, is able to recognise the higher spiritual world, of which his maker the Demiurge, who is only animal,
has no knowledge. The devil resides in this lower world, of which he is the prince, the Demiurge in the heavens; his mother Sophia in the middle
region, above the heavens and below the Pleroma.[34]
The Valentinian Heracleon[35] interpreted the devil as the principle of evil, that of hyle (matter). As he writes in his commentary on John 4:21,
The mountain represents the Devil, or his world, since the Devil was one part of the whole of matter, but the world is the total mountain of evil, a
deserted dwelling place of beasts, to which all who lived before the law and all Gentiles render worship. But Jerusalem represents the creation or the
Creator whom the Jews worship. . . . You then who are spiritual should worship neither the creation nor the Craftsman, but the Father of Truth.
This vilification of the Creator was held to be inimical to Christianity by the early fathers of the church. In refuting the views of the Gnostics,
Irenaeus observed that "Plato is proved to be more religious than these men, for he allowed that the same God was both just and good, having power
over all things, and Himself executing judgment."[36]
[edit] CatharsCatharism apparently inherited their idea of Satan as the creator of the evil world from Gnosticism. Gilles Quispel writes,
There is a direct link between ancient Gnosticism and Catharism. The Cathars held that the creator of the world, Satanael, had usurped the name of
God, but that he had subsequently been unmasked and told that he was not really God.[37]