But Jerusalem represents the creation or the Creator whom the Jews worship. His hieratic attitude indicates Egyptian origin. 4–5). Demiurge, Greek Dēmiourgos (“public worker”), plural Demiourgoi, in philosophy, a subordinate god who fashions and arranges the physical world to make it conform to a rational and eternal ideal. In the various branches of the Neoplatonic school (third century onwards), the demiurge is the fashioner of the real, perceptible world after the model of the Ideas, but (in most Neoplatonic systems) is still not itself "the One". The Demiurge, having received a portion of power from his mother, sets about a work of creation in unconscious imitation of the superior Pleromatic realm: He frames the seven heavens, as well as all material and animal things, according to forms furnished by his mother; working, however, blindly and ignorant even of the existence of the mother who is the source of all his energy. So in a way, he could be seen as Hebraic religious idea of a "Demiurge" who fashioned the world for God. The story begins with the boast of the demiurge, the supreme archon, in words attributed to the God of the Bible: “I am who I am, God is nothing separated from me.” The Reality of the Rulers is presented … In other word, whether the Demiurge is a god or not, it is not God or "THE One True Deity.". The lowest emanation was an evil god (the Demiurge) who created the material world as a prison for the divine sparks that dwell in human bodies. It is a subordinate deity to the supreme deity. The Gnostic Nature of Jesus or The None Docetic Gnostic Nature of Jesus The gnosics had different views on the nature of Jesus one of those ... Why Gnostic Christians Should Not Use the Rosary! The "One" is further separated into spheres of intelligence; the first and superior sphere is objects of thought, while the latter sphere is the domain of thought. The false other-worldliness of the Gnostics leads to immorality (ch. To Plotinus, the second emanation represents an uncreated second cause (see Pythagoras' Dyad). Some Gnostics identified the God of the Old Testament as the Demiurge and pit him against the God of the New Testament. "The entirety was made through it, and without it was not anything made." In the Ophite and Sethian systems, which have many affinities with the teachings of Valentinus, the making of the world is ascribed to a company of seven archons, whose names are given, but still more prominent is their chief, "Yaldabaoth" (also known as "Yaltabaoth" or "Ialdabaoth"). The volcanic personality of the Demiurge in the Old Testament is no secret, and we cover much of it. A. H. Armstrong identified the so-called "Gnostics" that Plotinus was attacking as Jewish and Pagan, in his introduction to the tract in his translation of the Enneads. The Demiurge was the ‘craftsman’ who gave shape to the material universe by moulding the matter (which Plato believed to be eternal, which the Bible rejects) after the pattern of the forms. Evangeliou, "Plotinus's Anti-Gnostic Polemic and Porphyry's Against the Christians", in Wallis & Bregman, From "Introduction to Against the Gnostics", Plotinus', Armstrong, pp. [25], 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, 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). The blasphemous falsity of the Gnostic claim to control the higher powers by magic and the absurdity of their claim to cure diseases by casting out demons (ch. The word dēmiurgos properly describes his relation to the material; he is the father of that which is animal like himself.[13]. Gnostic Doctrine is a research websites about Gnostic theology. Why Gnostic Christians Should Not Use the Rosary! They assisted their … also Against Heresies 1:5:1, Valentinian Exposition 38). The demiurge is also[26] described as having a fiery nature, applying the words of Moses to him: "the Lord our God is a burning and consuming fire". The language here applied to God as the "architect" or framer of the universe is often used in the classic writers. As he writes in his commentary on John 4:21. 6). Of the archons Kakia, Zelos, Phthonos, Errinnys, Epithymia, … 257, 382). Michael is the only one said to be “the archangel,” meaning “chief angel,” or “principal angel.” The term occurs in the Bible only in the singular. [31] The name has also been inscribed on amulets as "Ariel Ialdabaoth",[32][33] and the figure of the archon inscribed with "Aariel". Here, at the summit of this system, the Source and Demiurge (material realm) coexist via the process of henosis. And as Achamoth herself was only the daughter of Sophía the last of the thirty … [24], 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. In the Gnostic Gospels of Nag Hammadi, written in the 1 st Century, the writers warn us about the god of the Bible. The main character refers to the Demiurge as the entity who "fashioned and shaped" the material world. Later, the Neoplatonist Iamblichus changed the role of the "One", effectively altering the role of the Demiurge as second cause or dyad, which was one of the reasons that Iamblichus and his teacher Porphyry came into conflict. The Demiurge is simply the craftsman of the universe, but is not the Supreme Intelligence of the universe the Uncreated and Eternal Spirit. In the report of the system of Basilides,[20] we are told that our world was made by the angels who occupy the lowest heaven; but special mention is made of their chief, who is said to have been the God of the Jews, to have led that people out of the land of Egypt, and to have given them their law. According to some strains of Gnosticism, the demiurge is malevolent, as it is linked to the material world. The Valentinian Heracleon[39] interpreted the devil as the principle of evil, that of hyle (matter). They represent the Demiurge as being the son of that mother of theirs (Achamoth), and Cosmocrator as the creature of the Demiurge. John 1:14. For the beginning was in the Father and from the Father; and the Word was in the beginning and from the beginning. These are either hylikoí or pneumatikoí. The word demiurge is an English word derived from demiurgus, a Latinised form of the Greek δημιουργός or dēmiurgós. But Yaldabaoth, the Demiurge, with the material world, will be cast into the lower depths. Turner, "Gnosticism and Platonism", in Wallis & Bregman. Several systems of Gnostic thought present the Demiurge as antagonistic to the will of the Supreme Being: his act of creation occurs in an unconscious semblance of the divine model, and thus is fundamentally flawed, or else is formed with the malevolent intention of entrapping aspects of the divine in materiality. 14). The dyad is energeia emanated by the one that is then the work, process or activity called nous, Demiurge, mind, consciousness that organizes the indeterminate vitality into the experience called the material world, universe, cosmos. In this act of separate creation, she gave birth to the monstrous Demiurge and, being ashamed of her deed, wrapped him in a cloud and created a throne for him within it. The Valentinian theory elaborates that from Achamoth (he kátō sophía or lower wisdom) three kinds of substance take their origin, the spiritual (pneumatikoí), the animal (psychikoí) and the material (hylikoí). The Gnostics adopted the term demiurge. Another alternative title for the demiurge is "Saklas", Aramaic for "fool". And as Achamoth herself was only the daughter of Sophía the last of the thirty … Also, considering the evidence from the time, Evangeliou thought the definition of the term "Gnostics" was unclear. In the arch-dualist ideology of the various Gnostic systems, the material universe is evil, while the non-material world is good. "All things were made through Him," means that it was the Word who caused the Craftsman (Demiurge) to make the world, that is it was not the Word “from whom” or “by whom,” but the one “through whom (all things were made).”. Because he is seem as the image of the true God and Father, Valentinians have no problem using the terms "Father" and "God" to describe him (cf. Posted on June 28, 2016 by John Oakes wrote in Apocrypha, Archaeology and the Bible, Church History, General, Other Religions, Q & A. In refuting the beliefs of the gnostics, Irenaeus stated 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."[40]. The Demiurge, isolated, did not behold his mother, nor anyone else, and concluded that only he existed, ignorant of the superior levels of reality. Hence the title of Plotinus' refutation: "Against Those That Affirm the Creator of the Kosmos and the Kosmos Itself to be Evil" (generally quoted as "Against the Gnostics"). Sophia, however, in birthing the Demiurge, did so without a partner. [8] This self-reflection of the indeterminate vitality was referred to by Plotinus as the "Demiurge" or creator. One key difference ... What is the Syzygy in Gnostic theology? The idea of Demiurge was, however, addressed before Plotinus in the works of Christian writer Justin Martyr who built his understanding of the Demiurge on the works of Numenius. You see some can argue that he means beginning as in God forever and eternal past. The archons are basically imposing their dominance over another person or group of people and are violating your own personal … Gnostic Doctrine is dedicated to promoting Gnostic Teachings by pre-recorded videos and commentaries on Gnostic Documents. To this Messiah, however, was actually united with Jesus the Saviour, Who redeemed men. Classical Gnostic Doctrines and Practices. Plotinus' form of Platonic idealism is to treat the Demiurge, nous as the contemplative faculty (ergon) within man which orders the force (dynamis) into conscious reality. Plotinus, "Against the Gnostics". Ptolemy's Commentary on The Gospel of John Prologue: of the latter two, i.e. Their reinterpretation of Old Testament texts reflected the view that Yahweh (the God of the Jews) was not merely an inferior demiurge, as many Gnostics believed, but that he was positively evil because his … AV-beginning 40, principality 8, corner 2, first 2, misc 6; 58. pantheism). “Without him, nothing was made” of what is in the world and the creation. It was originally a common noun meaning "craftsman" or "artisan", but gradually came to mean "producer", and eventually "creator". The entire Devil’s Bible … It was not the Word who made all things, as if he were energized by another, for "through whom" means that another made them and the Word provided the energy (. Iamblichus describes the One as a monad whose first principle or emanation is intellect (nous), while among "the many" that follow it there is a second, super-existent "One" that is the producer of intellect or soul (psyche). 2 The same, was originally (746 ἀρχή), with God. It is in the system of Valentinus that the name Dēmiurgos is used, which occurs nowhere in Irenaeus except in connection with the Valentinian system; we may reasonably conclude that it was Valentinus who adopted from Platonism the use of this word. [7] This is the God above the Demiurge, and manifests through the actions of the Demiurge. Plato, as the speaker Timaeus, refers to the Demiurge frequently in the Socratic dialogue Timaeus (28a ff. Gospel of Thoma... Christian Gnostic Understanding of the Soul, Gnosis is to Know Thyself Gospel of Thomas Saying 3, Their Taking in Knowledge of You John 17:3. A similar description occurs in the Tripartite Tractate: "He is the lord of all of them, that is, the countenance which the logos brought forth in his thought as a representation of the Father of the Totalities. For example, in the Christian, Egyptian and Scandinavian religions, Ra, God and Odin are demiurges. The Hierarchy of the Pleroma There are many parallels between Gnosticism and Christianity, including a belief in angels. The Deity manifests himself through his angels, these angels are ever present, embodiment of the qualities of the Father, and thus manifesting the Father's will and presence in this world, without being the Father Deity themselves. Thus Sophia's power becomes enclosed within the material forms of humanity, themselves entrapped within the material universe: the goal of Gnostic movements was typically the awakening of this spark, which permitted a return by the subject to the superior, non-material realities which were its primal source. The most probable derivation of the name "Yaldabaoth" was that given by Johann Karl Ludwig Gieseler. the Son and the Word, and their union with one another, and simultaneously with the Father. Quispel, Gilles and Van Oort, Johannes (2008), p. 143. The Demiurge is a real god, not a "false god". For he too is called 'father' and 'god' and 'demiurge' and 'king' and 'judge' and 'place' and 'dwelling' and 'law'" (Tripartite Tractate 100:21-30). John is teaching that in the very beginning, God's purpose, wisdom or On the other hand, Zeus is not a demiurge … 2). . Demiurge The word demiurge … 16–18).". The Demiurge regretted even its slight imperfection, and as he thought himself the Supreme God, he attempted to remedy this by sending a Messiah. Theodoret,[22] who here copies Irenaeus, turns this into the plural number "powers", and so Epiphanius of Salamis[23] represents Cerinthus as agreeing with Carpocrates in the doctrine that the world was made by angels. John D. 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