Demiurge

deity intermediate Gnosticism single tradition · 5

The Demiurge is portrayed in the Gnostic Gospel of Judas as the Old Testament God, distinguishable from the true, unknowable God of the New Testament. Judas understood this distinction, recognizing the Demiurge as a lesser deity whose domain Jesus transcends.

↻ synthesized from 5 sources

When

First attested
360 BCE
Attested period
-360 – 2020
Historical notes
Concept appears in Gnostic Gospel of Judas, denounced as heresy in 180 CE by Irenaeus.

Relationships

parent of
the devil
syncretized with
Yahweh, Samael
child of
Sophia
manifested by
Second Intellect
served by
Archons

Expand to full subgraph →

Sources

Source passages

“Judas understood the Old Testament God (the Demiurge) as distinguishable from the true, unknowable God of the New Testament, the Monad or the One.”

#1161 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5

“the Demiurge is also 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”

#25515 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5

“In some versions of Christian gnosticism, especially those deriving from Valentinius, a lesser deity known as the Demiurge (see also Neoplatonism, Plotinus) had a role in the creation of the material world separate from the Monad.”

#25542 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“Demiurge – Creation spirit in some schools of philosophy”

#25578 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“The creation of the Demiurge, also known as Yaldabaoth, is also a mistake made during this exile. The Demiurge proceeds to create the physical world in which we live, ignorant of Sophia, who nevertheless manages to infuse some spiritual spark or pneuma into his creation.”

#25627 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001