sign in sign up
<<
Home , Bruce Codex, Carpocrates, Cerinthus, Codex Tchacos, Demiurge, Dyad (philosophy)

Demiurge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demiurge

Demiurge

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The demiurge is a concept from the Platonic, Middle Platonic, and Neoplatonic schools of for an Part of a series on artisan-like figure responsible for the fashioning and maintenance of the physical . The term was subsequently adopted by the Gnostics, albeit with a different meaning. Athough a fashioner, the demiurge is not quite the creator figure in the familiar monistic ; both the demiurge itself and the material from which the demiurge fashions the universe are the product of some other . General conceptions The word 'demiurge' is a Latinized form of Greek δημιουργός, dēmiourgos, literally "public worker", and which · · · Monolatrism was originally a common noun meaning "craftsman" or "artisan". The philosophical usage and the proper noun · · derives from 's , written circa 360 BCE, in which the demiurge is the organizer of the universe, rather than the physical creator of its parts. This is accordingly the definition of the demiurge in the Platonic (ca. Specific conceptions 310 BCE-90 BCE) and Middle Platonic (ca. 90 BCE-300 CE) philosophical traditions. In the various branches of Creator · Architect · Demiurge · the Neoplatonic school (third century onwards), the demiurge is the fashioner of , perceptible world, and Sustainer · · Father · of the , but (in most neoplatonic systems) is still not itself "the One"; the demiurge is not God. In the Oneness · Supreme Being · The All arch-dualist of the various Gnostic systems, the material universe is while the non-material world Personal · · Ditheism · is . Accordingly, in these systems the fashioner of the material universe is, in effect, malevolent. in Abrahamic (Bahá'í , , , ) in Ayyavazhi · in · in Hinduism in Jainism · in · in Contents Attributes 1 and Eternalness · · Gender 1.1 Names ("God") · · · 2 2.1 Mythos 2.2 and practices 2.3 Yaldabaoth Faith · · · 2.4 Names · · 2.5 Marcion · · Esotericism 2.6 2.7 The devil Related 3 Neoplatonism and Gnosticism Philosophy · · 4 References God complex · Neurotheology 5 External links dilemma · Portrayal in popular media List of religious texts Platonism and Neoplatonism

Plato has the speaker Timaeus refer to the demiurge frequently in the Timaeus circa 360 BCE. The title character refers to the demiurge as the entity who “fashioned and shaped” the material world. Timaeus describes the Demiurge as unreservedly benevolent and hence desirous of a world as good as possible. The world remains allegedly imperfect, however, because the demiurge created the world out of chaotic, indeterminate non-being.

Plato's Timaeus is a philosophical reconciliation of 's , from Hesiod's work syncretically reconcilling Hesiod to [1][2][3]. Plato does this reconciliation in the dialectical discourse between Timaeus and the Part of a series on other guests at the gathering, in the dialog of Timaeus (see also Plato's ). The concept of artist or creator and Plato even the Platonist conflict between the poet as cultural historian and (see Plato's The ) has a link in Plato's expression of the demiurge in his works. Early · Works · Platonism · · / Realism · of Forms · Form Later Neoplatonists like , worked to more clarify the demiurge. To Plotinus the second emanation represents an of the Good · Third man uncreated second cause (see ' ). Plotinus sought to reconcile 's energeia with Plato's argument · · [4] demiurge. Which as Demiurge and () is a critical component in the ontological of of the · Five consciousness used to explain . The first and highest aspect of God is the One, the source or the regimes · · Monad. Plato describes this concept (the monad or the one) as the Good above the demiurge, the good that is manifest (Callipolis) through the demiurge and the work of the demiurge. The Monad emanated the Nous (consciousness) from its Subjects "indeterminate" vitality due to the monad being so abundant that it overflowed back onto itself causing self reflection.[5] Philosophy · Moderation · This self reflection of the indeterminate vitality Plotinus referred to as the demiurge or creator. The second is · Piety · Beauty · organization in its reflection of the nonsentient force or dunamis, also called the one or the Monad. The dyad is energy Dishonesty · Art · Courage · emanated by the one that is then the work, process or activity called nous, demiurge, mind, consciousness that organizes Friendship · Language · Argumentation · · the indeterminate vitality into the experience called the material world, universe, . Plotinus also elucidates the · · Education · [6] equation of with nothing or non-being in his Enneads which more correctly is to express the concept of idealism · · Passion · or that there is not anything or anywhere outside of the "mind" or "nous" (see pantheism). · · · · Sophistry · · Plotinus' form of is to treat the Demiurge, nous as the contemplative faculty (ergon) within man which · & Humanity orders the force (dunamis) into conscious .[7] In this he claimed to reveal Plato's true meaning, a doctrine he learned from Platonic tradition that did not appear outside the academy or in Plato's text. This tradition of creator God as · of the nous (the manifestation of consciousness), can be validated in the works of pre-Plotinus such as Cave · Analogy of the divided Numenius. As well as a connection between Hebrew cosmology and the Hellenic Platoistic one (see also ).[8] line · Metaphor of the sun · · of Er · Chariot The Demiurge of Neoplatonism is the Nous (mind of God), and is one of the three ordering : Allegory

1 of 5 03/12/2010 07:28 PM Demiurge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demiurge

(Gr. "beginning") - the source of all things, (Gr. "word") - the underlying order that is hidden beneath appearances, Influences and Followers (Gr. "harmony") - numerical ratios in . · · · · Aristotle · Before and Plotinus' Enneads, no Platonic works ontologically clarified the Demiurge from the Plotinus · Iamblichus · · allegory in Plato's Timaeus. The of Demiurge was, however, addressed before Plotinus in the works of Christian St. Augustine · Al-Farabi writer Martyr who built his of the demiurge on the works of Numenius.[citation needed] Later, Related Iamblichus, a Neoplatonist, changed the role of the "One", which changed (by proxy) the role of the demiurge. Effectively Academy in Athens · Socratic altering the demiurge, as second case or dyad, hence one of the that Iamblichus and his teacher Porphryr were problem · Commentaries on in conflict with one another. Plato · · Neoplatonism · Platonic Christianity Iamblichus

The figure of the Demiurge emerges in the theoretic of Iamblichus, a Neoplatonist, which conjoins the transcendent, incommunicable “One”, or Source. Here, at the summit of this system, the Source and demiurge (material realm) coexist via the process of (see , Iamblichus and henosis (http://www.theandros.com/iamblichus.html) ). Iamblichus describes the One, a monad whose or emanation is (nous), while among "the many" that follow it a second, super-existent "One" that is the producer of intellect or soul ("").

The "One" is further separated into spheres of ; the first and superior sphere is objects of , while the latter sphere is the domain of thought. Thus, a triad is formed of the intelligible nous, the intellective nous, and the psyche in order to reconcile further the various Hellenistic philosophical schools of Aristotle's actus and potentia of the and Plato's demiurge.

Then within this intellectual triad Iamblichus assigns the third rank to the Demiurge, identifying it with the perfect or Divine nous with the intellectual triad being promoted to a hebdomad.

In the theoretic of Plotinus, nous produces nature through intellectual mediation, thus the intelluatalizing are followed with a triad of psychic gods.

Gnosticism

Gnosticism also presents a distinction between the highest, unknowable God and the demiurgic “creator” of the material. In contrast to Plato, several systems of Gnostic thought present the Demiurge as antagonistic to the of Gnosticism the Supreme Being: his act of creation occurs in unconscious semblance of the divine model, and thus is fundamentally flawed, or else is formed with the malevolent of entrapping aspects of the divine in materiality. Thus, in such systems, the Demiurge acts as a solution to the problem of evil. This article is part of a series on Gnosticism Mythos History of Gnosticism Gnostic myth recounts that (Greek, literally meaning “”), the Demiurge’s mother and a partial aspect of the divine or “Fullness,” desired to create something apart from the divine totality, and without the receipt of Early Gnosticism divine assent. In this abortive act of separate creation, she gave birth to the monstrous Demiurge and, being Syrian-Egyptic Gnosticism ashamed of her deed, she wrapped him in a cloud and created a throne for him within it. The Demiurge, isolated, did Gnosticism in modern not behold his mother, nor anyone else, and thus concluded that only he himself existed, being ignorant of the Proto-Gnostics superior levels of reality that were his birth-place. Philo The Gnostic mythos describes the declination of aspects of the divine into human form. This process occurs through the agency of the Demiurge who, having stolen a portion of power from his mother, sets about a work of creation in Valentinus unconscious imitation of the superior Pleromatic realm: He frames the seven , 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. He is blind to all that is spiritual, but he is king over the other two provinces. The word dēmiourgos properly describes his relation to the material; he is the father of that which Gnostic is animal like himself.[9] Tchacos 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 to the superior, non-material which were its primal source. Gnosticism and the Related articles Angels Gnosis Neoplatonism and Gnosticism

Gnosticism Portal

2 of 5 03/12/2010 07:28 PM Demiurge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demiurge

Psalms 82:1 (http://bibref.hebtools.com/?book=Psalms%20&verse=82:1&src=!) describes a plurality of gods (ʔelōhim), which an older version in the calls the “assembly of the gods,” although it does not indicate that these gods were co-actors in creation. Philo had inferred from the expression, "Let us make man," of Genesis that God had used other as assistants in the creation of man, and he explains in this way why man is capable of as well as virtue, ascribing the origin of the latter to God, of the former to His helpers in the work of creation.[10]

The earliest Gnostic sects ascribe the work of creation to angels, some of them using the same passage in Genesis.[11] So tells[12] of the system of Simon Magus,[13] of the system of ,[14] of the system of Saturninus, in which the number of these angels is reckoned as seven, and[15] of the system of . Again, in his report of the system of Basilides,[16] we are told that our world was made by the angels who occupy the lowest ; 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 , and to have given them A lion-faced their law. The are ascribed not to the chief but to the other world-making angels. found on a Gnostic gem in Bernard de [17] Montfaucon’s The translation, confirmed by Hippolytus, makes Irenaeus state that according to Cerinthus (who shows Ebionite L’antiquité expliquée [18] influence), creation was made by a power quite separate from the Supreme God and ignorant of Him. , who here et représentée en copies Irenaeus, turns this into the plural number “powers,” and so Epiphanius[19] represents Cerinthus as agreeing with figures may be a Carpocrates in the doctrine that the world was made by angels. depiction of the Demiurge. Yaldabaoth

In the Ophite and Sethian systems, which have many affinities with that last mentioned, the making of the world is ascribed to a company of seven , whose names are given, but their chief, “Yaldabaoth,” comes into still greater prominence.

In the of John circa 120-180 AD, the Demiurge arrogantly declares that he has made the world by himself:

“Now the (ruler) w ho is w eak has three names. The first name is Yaltabaoth, the second is Saklas (“fool”), and the third is . And he is impious in his arrogance w hich 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 w hich he had come.”[20]

He is Demiurge and maker of man, but as a ray of 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 . The Demiurge, fearing lest , whom he had intended as his , should spread the knowledge of the Supreme God, had him crucified by the Jews. 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 Yaldabaoth has already sunk from his high estate and resides in , where, with his forty-nine , he tortures wicked 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,[21] 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.[22]

Under the name of “Nebro” (rebel), Yaldabaoth is called an in the apocryphal of Judas. He is first mentioned in “The Cosmos, Chaos, and the ” 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.”

Names

אדלי ,The most probable derivation of the name “Yaldabaoth” is that given by Johann Karl Ludwig Gieseler, “Son of Chaos,” from Hebrew yalda bahut . תוהב “Samael” literally means “Blind God” or “God of the Blind” in (Syriac sæmʕa-ʔel). 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 . Another alternative title for the Demiurge, “Saklas,” is Aramaic for “fool” (Syriac sækla “the foolish one”).

Marcion

According 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 (http://bibref.hebtools.com /?book=2%20Corinthians&verse=4:4&src=!) ), the God of the , 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 concerning His heavenly Father. The true believer in Christ entered into God's kingdom, the unbeliever remained forever the slave of the Demiurge.

Valentinus

It 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 , 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.[23] 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

3 of 5 03/12/2010 07:28 PM Demiurge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demiurge

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).[24] 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.

The devil

Opinions 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.[25] 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.[26]

The Valentinian [27] interpreted the devil as the principle of evil, that of hyle (matter). As he writes in his commentary on John 4:21 (http://bibref.hebtools.com/?book=%20John&verse=4:21&src=!) ,

The mountain represents the Devil, or his w orld, since the Devil w as one part of the w hole of matter, but the w orld is the total mountain of evil, a deserted dw elling place of beasts, to w hich all w ho lived before the law and all Gentiles render w orship. But Jerusalem represents the creation or the Creator w hom the Jew s w orship. . . . You then w ho are spiritual should w orship neither the creation nor the Craftsman, but the Father of Truth.

Catharism apparently inherited their idea of Satan as the creator of the evil world directly or indirectly from Gnosticism.

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."[28]

Neoplatonism and Gnosticism

See also: Neoplatonism and Gnosticism

Gnosticism attributed falsehood, fallen or evil, to the concept of Demiurge or Creator (see and ), though sometimes the creator is from a fallen, ignorant or lesser rather than evil perspective (in some Gnosticism traditions) such as that of Valentinius. The Neoplatonic philosopher Plotinus addressed within his works what he saw as un-Hellenic and blasphemous to the demiurge or creator of Plato.

Gnosticism's conception of the Demiurge was criticised by the Neoplatonist philosopher Plotinus. Plotinus is noted as the founder of Neoplatonism (along with his teacher ),[29] His criticism is contained in the ninth tractate of the second of . Therein, Plotinus criticizes his opponents for their appropriation of ideas from Plato:

From Plato come their punishments, their rivers of the underw orld and the changing from body to body; as for the plurality they assert in the Intellectual Realm—the Authentic Existent, the Intellectual-Principle, the Second Creator and the Soul—all this is taken over f rom the Timaeus. (Ennead 2.9.vi; emphasis added from A. H. Armstrong's introduction to Ennead 2.9)

Of note here is the remark concerning the second hypostasis or Creator and third hypostasis or World Soul within Plotnius. Plotinus criticizes his opponents for “all the novelties through which they seek to establish a philosophy of their own” which, he declares, “have been picked up outside of the truth”; they attempt to conceal rather than admit their indebtedness to , which they have corrupted by their extraneous and misguided embellishments. Thus their understanding of the Demiurge is similarly flawed in comparison to Plato’s original .

Whereas Plato's demiurge is good wishing good on his creation, gnosticism contends that the demiurge is not only the originator of evil but is evil as well. Hence the title of Plotinus' refutation "Enneads" The Second Ennead, Ninth Tractate - Against Those That Affirm the Creator of the Kosmos and the Kosmos Itself to be Evil: [Generally Quoted as "Against the Gnostics"]. Plotinus marks his arguments with the disconnect or great barrier that is created between the nous or mind's (see Heraclitus) and the material world (phenomenon) by believing the material world is evil.

The majority view tends to understand Plotinus’ opponents as being a Gnostic sect—certainly, (specifically Sethian) several such groups were present in and elsewhere about the Mediterranean during Plotinus’ lifetime, and several of his criticisms bear specific similarity to Gnostic doctrine (Plotinus pointing to the gnostic doctrine of Sophia and her emission of the Demiurge is most notable among these similarities).

However, Christos Evangeliou has contended that Plotinus’ opponents might be better described as simply “Christian Gnostics”, arguing that several of Plotinus’ criticisms are as applicable to orthodox Christian doctrine as well. Also, considering the evidence from the , Evangeliou felt the definition of the term “Gnostics” was unclear. Thus, though the former understanding certainly enjoys the greatest popularity, the identification of Plotinus’ opponents as Gnostic is not without some contention. Of note here is that while Plotinus' student names Christianity specifically in Porphyry's own works, and Plotinus is to have been a known associate of the Christian , none of Plotinus' works mention Christ or Christianity. Whereas Plotinus specifically addresses his target in the Enneads as the gnostics.

A. H. Armstrong identified the “Gnostics” that Plotinus was attacking as Jewish and Pagan in his introduction to the tract in his translation of the Enneads. Armstrong alluding to Gnosticism being a Hellenic philosophical heresy of sorts, which later engaged Christianity and Neoplatonism.

John D. Turner, professor of religious studies at the University of Nebraska and famed translator and editor of the Nag Hammadi library, stated that the text Plotinus and his students read was Sethian gnosticism which predates Christianity. It appears that Plotinus attempted to clarify how the philosophers of the academy had not arrived at the same conclusions (such as Dystheism or for the creator God as an answer to the problem of evil) as the targets of his criticism.

References

4 of 5 03/12/2010 07:28 PM Demiurge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demiurge

1. ^ Fontenrose, Joseph (1974). Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origin (http://books.google.com/books?id=h56ansk4SyQC&pg=PA226) . p. 226. http://books.google.com/books?id=h56ansk4SyQC&pg=PA226. 2. ^ Sallis, John (1999). Chorology: On Beginning in Plato's Timaeus (http://books.google.com/books?id=gS_9aQ5mYKgC&pg=PA86) . p. 86. ISBN 0253213088. http://books.google.com/books?id=gS_9aQ5mYKgC&pg=PA86. 3. ^ Keightley, Thomas (1838). The mythology of and Italy (http://books.google.com/books?id=lWAEAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA42&lpg=PA42& dq=theogony+timaeus&source=w eb&ots=Ky1QUcicnt&sig=h-hUAq6p24pQmBXRsfSw V71asgI) . Oxford University. p. 44. http://books.google.com /books?id=lWAEAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA42&lpg=PA42&dq=theogony+timaeus&source=w eb&ots=Ky1QUcicnt&sig=h-hUAq6p24pQmBXRsfSw V71asgI. 4. ^ Karamanolis, George (2006). Plato and Aristotle in Agreement?: Platonists on Aristotle from Antiochus to Porphyry. . p. 240. ISBN 0199264562. 5. ^ Richard T. Wallis, Jay Bregman, International Society for Neoplatonic Studies (1992). Neoplatonism and Gnosticism (http://books.google.com /books?id=WSbrLPup7w YC&pg=PA55&lpg=PA55&dq=Anti- Gnostic+Polemic+Francisco+Garcia+Bazan+translated+from+Spanish+by+Winifred+T.+Slater+Nous+as+a+%22Second+God%22+According+to+Plotinus+In+Enneads& source=bl&ots=rSxQIFc5YE&sig=EgX8IOF26MK-n7CoWUpDONI1sFI&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA55,M1) . http://books.google.com /books?id=WSbrLPup7w YC&pg=PA55&lpg=PA55&dq=Anti- Gnostic+Polemic+Francisco+Garcia+Bazan+translated+from+Spanish+by+Winifred+T.+Slater+Nous+as+a+%22Second+God%22+According+to+Plotinus+In+Enneads& source=bl&ots=rSxQIFc5YE&sig=EgX8IOF26MK-n7CoWUpDONI1sFI&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA55,M1. 6. ^ "Matter is therefore a non-existent"; Plotinus, Ennead 2, Tractate 4 Section 16. 7. ^ Schopenhauer w rote of this Neoplatonist philosopher: "With Plotinus there even appears, probably for the first time in , idealism that had long been current in the East even at that time, for it taught (Enneads, iii, lib. vii, c.10) that the soul has made the w orld by stepping from into time, w ith the explanation: 'For there is for this universe no other place than the soul or mind' (neque est alter hujus universi locus quam anima), indeed the ideality of time is expressed in the w ords: 'We should not accept time outside the soul or mind' (oportet autem nequaquam extra animam tempus accipere)." (Parerga and Paralipomena, Volume I, "Fragments for the History of Philosophy," § 7) Similarly, professor Ludw ig Noiré w rote: "For the first time in Western philosophy w e find idealism proper in Plotinus (Enneads, iii, 7, 10), w here he says, "The only space or place of the w orld is the soul," and "Time must not be assumed to exist outside the soul." [5] It is w orth noting, how ever, that like Plato but unlike Schopenhauer and other modern philosophers, Plotinus does not w orry about w hether or how w e can get beyond our ideas in order to know external objects. 8. ^ Numenius of Apamea w as reported to have asked, “What else is Plato than Moses speaking Greek?” Fr. 8 Des Places. 9. ^ Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, i. 5, 1. (http://w w w .new advent.org/fathers/0103105.htm) 10. ^ "It is on this account that Moses says, at the creation of man alone that God said, 'Let us make man,' w hich expression show s an assumption of other beings to himself as assistants, in order that God, the governor of all things, might have all the blameless intentions and actions of man, w hen he does right attributed to him; and that his other assistants might bear the imputation of his contrary actions." Philo, On the Creation, XXIV. (http://w w w .earlyjew ishw ritings.com/text/philo/book1.html) 11. ^ Justin, Dial. cum Tryph. c. 67. 12. ^ Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, i. 23, 1. 13. ^ Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, i. 23, 5. ^ Irenaeus, i. 24, 1.14. 15. ^ Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, i. 25. 16. ^ Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, i. 24, 4. ^ Hippolytus, Ref. vii. 33.17. 18. ^ Theodoret, Haer. Fab. ii. 3. 19. ^ Epiphanius, , 28. 20. ^ “,” translation by Frederik Wisse in the The Nag Hammadi Library. Accessed online at gnosis.org (http://w w w .gnosis.org/naghamm/apocjn.html) ^ Hipp. Ref. vi. 32, p. 191.21. ^ Hipp. Ref. vi. 9.22. 23. ^ Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, i. 5. (http://w w w .new advent.org/fathers/0103105.htm) 24. ^ Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, i. 6. (http://w w w .new advent.org/fathers/0103106.htm) 25. ^ Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, i. 30, 8. (http://w w w .new advent.org/fathers/0103130.htm) 26. ^ Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, i. 5, 4. (http://w w w .new advent.org/fathers/0103105.htm) 27. ^ Heracleon, Frag. 20. (http://w w w .gnosis.org/library/fragh.htm) 28. ^ Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, iii. 25. (http://w w w .new advent.org/fathers/0103325.htm) 29. ^ Neoplatonism (http://w w w .unl.edu/classics/faculty/turner/triadaft.htm)

This article incorporates text from the entry Demiurge in the public-domain Encyclopedia of 1913.

This article incorporates text from the entry Demiurgus (http://books.google.com/books?id=Lf8ZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA804) in A Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects and Doctrines by William Smith and Henry Wace (1877), a publication now in the public domain.

External links

Dark Mirrors of Heaven: Gnostic (http://www.timelessmyths.com/mirrors/gnostic.php) "Demiurge". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911. Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demiurge" : Greek loanwords | Creator | Demons in Gnosticism | Gnostic deities | Platonic deities | Dualistic gods | | Anti-Gnosticism | Philosophical terminology | | Social classes of ancient Athens

This page was last modified on 12 March 2010 at 06:31. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

5 of 5 03/12/2010 07:28 PM