Demiurge

In the Platonic, Neopythagorean, Middle Platonic, and Neoplatonic schools of philosophy, the demiurge () (sometimes spelled as demiurg) is an artisan-like figure responsible for fashioning and maintaining the physical universe. The Gnostics adopted the term demiurge. Although a fashioner, the demiurge is not necessarily the same as the creator figure in the monotheistic sense, because the demiurge itself and the material from which the demiurge fashions the universe are both considered consequen…

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Jump to content Main menu Main menu move to sidebar hide Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Special pages Search Search Appearance Donate Create account Log in Personal tools Donate Create account Log in Contents move to sidebar hide (Top) 1 Platonism and Neoplatonism Toggle Platonism and Neoplatonism subsection 1.1 Plato and the Timaeus 1.2 Middle Platonism 1.3 Neoplatonism 1.3.1 Henology 1.3.2 Iamblichus 2 Gnosticism Toggle Gnosticism subsection 2.1 Angels 2.2 Yaldabaoth 2.2.1 Names 2.3 Marcion 2.4 Valentinus 2.5 The devil 2.6 Cathars 3 Neoplatonism and Gnosticism Toggle Neoplatonism and Gnosticism subsection 3.1 Plotinus 4 See also 5 References Toggle References subsection 5.1 Notes 5.2 Sources 6 External links Toggle the table of contents Demiurge 52 languages Afrikaans العربية Asturianu Azərbaycanca Беларуская (тарашкевіца) Беларуская Български Bosanski Català Čeština Чӑвашла Dansk Deutsch Esperanto Español Eesti Euskara فارسی Suomi Français Galego עברית Hrvatski Magyar Bahasa Indonesia Ido Italiano 日本語 ქართული Қазақша 한국어 Кыргызча Latina Lietuvių Malagasy Nederlands Norsk bokmål Occitan Polski پښتو Português Română Русский Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Slovenčina Српски / srpski Svenska Türkçe Українська Oʻzbekcha / ўзбекча 粵語 中文 Edit links Article Talk English Read Edit View history Tools Tools move to sidebar hide Actions Read Edit View history General What links here Related changes Upload file Permanent link Page information Cite this page Get shortened URL Switch to legacy parser Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item Appearance move to sidebar hide From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Maximajorian Viridio ( talk | contribs ) at 14:25, 22 September 2023 (Undid revision 1176558488 by Maximajorian Viridio ( talk )) . The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision . Revision as of 14:25, 22 September 2023 by Maximajorian Viridio ( talk | contribs ) (Undid revision 1176558488 by Maximajorian Viridio ( talk )) ( diff ) ← Previous revision | Latest revision ( diff ) | Newer revision → ( diff ) Creation spirit in some schools of philosophy This article is about philosophical concept of a Universal Fashioner. For other uses, see Demiurge (disambiguation) . Part of a series on God Attributes Eternalness Existence Gender Names ( "God" ) Omnibenevolence Omnipotence Omnipresence Omniscience Aseity Transcendence Conceptions Brahman Creator Demiurge Deus Father False Form of the Good Great Architect Monad Mother Summum bonum The Lord Trinity Tawhid Ditheism Monism Personal Unitarianism In particular religions Abrahamic Judaism Christianity Islam Baháʼí Faith Mormonism Mandaeism Samaritanism Indo-Iranian Hinduism Buddhism Jainism Sikhism Yungdrung Bon Zoroastrianism Chinese Tian Shangdi Hongjun Laozu Experiences Practices Belief Esotericism Faith Fideism Gnosis Hermeticism Metaphysics Mysticism Prayer Revelation Worship Related topics Euthyphro dilemma God complex God gene Theology Ontology Problem of evil ( theodicy ) Religion philosophy texts Portrayals of God in popular media Religion portal v t e Part of a series on Platonism Life Works Theory of forms Intelligible form Hyperuranion Theory of soul Nous Thumos Phren Epistemology Anamnesis Peritrope Dianoia Cardinal virtues Moral rationalism Political philosophy Mimesis Orthotes onomaton Euthyphro dilemma The Republic Allegory of the cave Analogy of the Sun Analogy of the divided line Form of the Good Noble lie Philosopher king Plato's number Ship of State Ring of Gyges Myth of Er Timaeus Atlantis Demiurge World soul Organicism Classical element Platonic solid Tertium quid Khôra Related articles Commentaries The Academy in Athens Middle Platonism Neoplatonism Neoplatonism and Gnosticism Neoplatonism and Christianity Platonism in Islamic philosophy Platonism in the Renaissance Allegorical interpretations of Plato Plato's unwritten doctrines Pseudo-Platonica Related categories Plato Philosophy portal v t e In the Platonic , Neopythagorean , Middle Platonic , and Neoplatonic schools of philosophy , the demiurge ( / ˈ d ɛ m i . ɜːr dʒ / ) (sometimes spelled as demiurg ) is an artisan -like figure responsible for fashioning and maintaining the physical universe . The Gnostics adopted the term demiurge . Although a fashioner, the demiurge is not necessarily the same as the creator figure in the monotheistic sense, because the demiurge itself and the material from which the demiurge fashions the universe are both considered consequences of something else. Depending on the system, they may be considered either uncreated and eternal or the product of some other entity. The word demiurge is an English word derived from demiurgus , a Latinised form of the Greek δημιουργός or dēmiurgós . It was originally a common noun meaning "craftsman" or "artisan", but gradually came to mean "producer", and eventually "creator". The philosophical usage and the proper noun derive from Plato's Timaeus , written c. 360 BC, where the demiurge is presented as the creator of the universe. The demiurge is also described as a creator in the Platonic ( c. 310–90 BC) and Middle Platonic ( c. 90 BC–AD 300) philosophical traditions. 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 ". In the arch- dualist ideology of the various Gnostic systems, the material universe is evil, while the non-material world is good. According to some strains of Gnosticism, the demiurge is malevolent , as it is linked to the material world. In others, including the teaching of Valentinus , the demiurge is simply ignorant or misguided. Platonism and Neoplatonism Plato and the Timaeus Plato , as the speaker Timaeus, refers to the Demiurge frequently in the Socratic dialogue Timaeus (28a ff. ), c. 360 BC. The main character refers to the Demiurge as the entity who "fashioned and shaped" the material world. Timaeus describes the Demiurge as unreservedly benevolent , and so it desires a world as good as possible. The result of his work is a universe as a living god with lesser gods, such as the stars, planets, and gods of traditional religion, inside it. Timaeus is a philosophical reconciliation of Hesiod 's cosmology in his Theogony , syncretically reconciling Hesiod to Homer , 1 2 3 though other scholars have argued that Plato's theology 'invokes a broad cultural horizon without committing to any specific poetic or religious tradition'. 4 Middle Platonism In Middle Platonist and Numenius 's Neo-Pythagorean cosmogenies , the Demiurge is second God as the nous or thought of intelligibles and sensibles 5 ( Middle Platonism and Neo-Pythagoreanism overlapped: both originating in the early 1st century BC and extending through to the end of the 2nd century AD or even into the 3rd century). Neoplatonism The work of Plotinus and other later Platonists in the 3rd century AD to further clarify the Demiurge is known as Neoplatonism . To Plotinus, the second emanation represents an uncreated second cause (see Pythagoras ' Dyad ). Plotinus sought to reconcile Aristotle's energeia with Plato's Demiurge, 6 which, as Demiurge and mind ( nous ), is a critical component in the ontological construct of human consciousness used to explain and clarify substance theory within Platonic realism (also called idealism ). In order to reconcile Aristotelian with Platonian philosophy, 6 Plotinus metaphorically identified the demiurge (or nous ) within the pantheon of the Greek Gods as Zeus . 7 Henology The first and highest aspect of God is described by Plato as the One (Τὸ Ἕν, 'To Hen'), the source, or the Monad . 8 This is the God above the Demiurge, and manifests through the actions of the Demiurge. The Monad emanated the demiurge or Nous (consciousness) from its "indeterminate" vitality due to the monad being so abundant that it overflowed back onto itself, causing self-reflection. 9 This self-reflection of the indeterminate vitality was referred to by Plotinus as the "Demiurge" or creator. The second principle is organization in its reflection of the nonsentient force or dynamis , also called the one or the Monad. 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. Plotinus also elucidates the equation of matter with nothing or non-being in The Enneads 10 which more correctly is to express the concept of idealism or that there is not anything or anywhere outside of the "mind" or nous (c.f. pantheism ). 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. 11 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 nous (the manifestation of consciousness), can be validated in the works of pre-Plotinus philosophers such as Numenius , as well as a connection between Hebrew and Platonic cosmology (see also Philo ). 12 The Demiurge of Neoplatonism is the Nous (mind of God), and is one of the three ordering principles: Arche (Gr. 'beginning') – the source of all things, Logos (Gr. 'reason/cause') – the underlying order that is hidden beneath appearances, Harmonia (Gr. 'harmony') – numerical ratios in mathematics . Before Numenius of Apamea and Plotinus' Enneads , no Platonic works ontologically clarified the Demiurge from the allegory in Plato's Timaeus . 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. 13 Iamblichus See also: Panentheism 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 figure of the Demiurge emerges in the theoretic of Iamblichus, 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 henosis . 14 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 ). 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. 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 (actuality and potentiality) of the unmoved mover 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 (pure intellect). In the theoretic of Plotinus, nous produces nature through intellectual mediation, thus the intellectualizing gods are followed by a triad of psychic gods. Gnosticism Part of a series on Gnosticism Gnostic concepts Abraxas Adam kasia Adam pagria Aeon Anima mundi Archon Barbelo Demiurge Divine spark Five Seals Gnosis Kenoma Luminary Manda Monad Ogdoad Pleroma Sophia Uthra World of Light World of Darkness Yaldabaoth Gnostic sects and founders List of Gnostic sects Proto-Gnosticism Maghāriya Thomasines Judean / Israelite Elkasai Elcesaites Kentaeans Mandaeism Samaritan Baptist Dositheos Simon Magus Simonians Menander Quqites Christian Gnosticism Apelles Bardaisan Basilides Basilidians Bogomil Bogomilism Borborites Carpocratians Cerdo Cerinthus Florinus Justin Marcion Marcionism Marcus Marcosians Naassenes Nicolaism Ophites Perates Saturninus Sethianism Valentinus Valentinianism Pseudo-Christian Gnosticism Paulicianism Catharism Thomasines Persian Gnosticism Mani Manichaeism Chinese Gnosticism Chinese Manichaeism Islamic Gnosticism Druze Nusayrism Modern Modern schools Scriptures List of Gnostic texts Texts Clementine literature Gnosticism and the New Testament Mandaean scriptures Nag Hammadi library Pseudo-Abdias Codices Askew Codex Berlin Codex Bruce Codex Codex Tchacos Cologne Mani-Codex Codex Nasaraeus Influenced by Apocalyptic literature Early Christianity Christology Docetism Paul and Gnosticism Merkabah mysticism Middle Platonism Philo Personification of wisdom Influence on Carl Jung Esoteric Christianity Christian theosophy Gnosticism and Neoplatonism Gnosticism in modern times Perennial philosophy Thelema Theosophy (Blavatskian) Western esotericism René Guénon Rudolf Steiner v t e Gnosticism presents a distinction between the highest, unknowable God or Supreme Being and the demiurgic "creator" of the material, commonly identified as Yahweh , the God of the Hebrew Bible . 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. Thus, in such systems, the Demiurge acts as a solution to (or, at least possibly, the problem or cause that gives rise to) the problem of evil . 15 Angels Psalm 82 begins, "God stands in the assembly of El LXX : assembly of gods , in the midst of the gods he renders judgment", 16 indicating a plurality of 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 the Book of Genesis that God had used other beings as assistants in the creation of man, and he explains in this way why man is capable of vice as well as virtue, ascribing the origin of the latter to God, of the former to his helpers in the work of creation. 17 The earliest Gnostic sects ascribe the work of creation to angels, some of them using the same passage in Genesis. 18 So Irenaeus tells 19 of the system of Simon Magus , 20 of the system of Menander , 21 of the system of Saturninus , in which the number of these angels is reckoned as seven, and 22 of the system of Carpocrates . In the report of the system of Basilides , 23 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. The prophecies are ascribed not to the chief but to the other world-making angels. The Latin translation, confirmed by Hippolytus of Rome , 24 makes Irenaeus state that according to Cerinthus (who shows Ebionite influence), creation was made by a power quite separate from the Supreme God and ignorant of him. Theodoret , 25 who here copies Irenaeus, turns this into the plural number "powers", and so Epiphanius of Salamis 26 represents Cerinthus as agreeing with Carpocrates in the doctrine that the world was made by angels. Yaldabaoth Main article: Yaldabaoth A lion-faced, serpentine deity found on a Gnostic gem in Bernard de Montfaucon 's L'antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures may be a depiction of the Demiurge. In the Archontic , Sethian , and Ophite systems, which have many affinities with the doctrine 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"). In the Apocryphon of John c. AD 120–180, the demiurge 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 "blind god". 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. 27 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. 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. 28 Yaldabaoth is frequently called "the Lion-faced", leontoeides , and is said to have the body of a serpent. The demiurge is also 29 described as having a fiery nature, applying the words of Moses to him: "the Lord our God is a burning and consuming fire". Hippolytus claims that Simon used a similar description. 30 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. In the Nag Hammadi text On the Origin of the World , the three sons of Yaldabaoth are listed as Yao , Eloai, and Astaphaios . 31 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, and it is said his "face flashed with fire and his 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 Main article: Yaldabaoth § Etymology Drawing of the lion-headed figure found at the Mithraeum of C. Valerius Heracles and sons, dedicated 190 CE at Ostia Antica , Italy (CIMRM 312). The etymology of the name Yaldabaoth has been subject to many speculative theories. Until 1974, etymologies deriving from the unattested Aramaic : בהותא, romanized: bāhūthā , supposedly meaning " chaos ", represented the majority view. Following an analysis by the Jewish historian of religion Gershom Scholem published in 1974, 32 this etymology no longer enjoyed any notable support. His analysis showed the unattested Aramaic term to have been fabulated and attested only in a single corrupted text from 1859, with its claimed translation having been transposed from the reading of an earlier etymology, whose explanation seemingly equated " darkness " and "chaos" when translating an unattested supposed plural form of Template:Lang-he . 32 33 " Samael " literally means "Blind God" or "God of the Blind" in Hebrew ( סמאל ‎ ). 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 Judaism as the Angel of Death and in Christian demonology . This link to Judeo-Christian tradition leads to a further comparison with Satan . Another alternative title for the demiurge is "Saklas", Aramaic for "fool". In the Apocryphon of John , Yaldabaoth is also known as both Sakla and Samael. 34 The angelic name " Ariel " (Hebrew: 'the lion of God') 35 has also been used to refer