Talk:Demiurge/Archive 2

This is an archive of past discussions about Demiurge. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Archive 1

Archive 2

Greek Creation Myth Version 2

In the beginning there was chaos. Then, out of a "black hole" came Mother Earth, out of her came Father sky. Mother Earth then had children, the Olympians and the Titans. Father sky saw an evil in the Titans, and he pushed them back into Mother Earth. Mother Earth was mad, and moved from Father sky. She released the Titans. Then Zeus created the heavens and land, and Earth emerged from the heavens. -Ariel Mordoch —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.104.203.89 (talk) 16:14, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Huh? MPA 02:47, 12 April 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by MPA (talk • contribs)

This kind of religious philosophy is by nature, very thick and difficult to understand. It makes sense to me, and I hope anyone who is involved with this particular article will take that [appreciation] into account. What one person might not immediately understand, may well be of great significance to another. Desolvent (talk) 16:43, 13 August 2009 (UTC)

I think not. I believe the article is just messy, since it confuses the Demiurge, an imagined handiworker creator of all in Platonism, with Ialdabaoth, an imagined evil creator of this universe in Gnostic world views. Rursus dixit. (^mbork³!) 07:06, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

BTW, I think the article should be split. Rursus dixit. (^mbork³!) 07:06, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

But as Plotinus pointed out, the Gnostic Demiurge is an elaboration of the Platonic Demiurge. And Plotinus' identification of the Demiurge as the conscious Self is entirely in line with the identification (if you wish to subscribe to Jung's theories) of the Demiurge as Ego, which can be seen as foreshadowed in the psychological interpretation given to the Old Testament by Philo. So I believe they should be kept together and the relationship between the two be clarified. Kramden (talk) 06:55, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

For what it's worth, I agree completely with Kramden. It seems like use of the term "demiurge" is a means to an end, in describing the concept of a creator entity that is dissimilar from a unified godhead. BTW/FYI - Ialdabaoth directs to this page Desolvent (talk) 00:32, 2 April 2010 (UTC)

Note, also, Valentinus' assertion that the Demiurge rules the psychic (animal) realm, and compare this to Paul's distinction between the soma psychikon, which was the soul breathed into Adam, and the soma pneumatikon, which is the spiritual body of incorruption generated in the resurrection. Kramden (talk) 21:27, 5 April 2010 (UTC)

Recent edit warring by anonymous editor

Anonymous editor removed sourced material and replaced with un-sourced material.[1] Anonymous editor not providing sourcing and instead is deleting material and engaging in ad hominem attacks.LoveMonkey (talk) 00:00, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

without concerning myself about the quality of the edits, the edit summaries are not acceptable, and the ed. has been warned. DGG ( talk ) 02:37, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

Recent sourcing request for Numenius and Justin statement.. [2] I am digging to find my old copy of Dillon's Middle Platonists which appears to be what this page is using as sourcing.LoveMonkey (talk) 20:34, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

Well, that source is probably sufficient, as long as it gets cited properly. I even went and checked the Guthrie book and couldn't find any mention of it, so it seems obvious that the original reference was misplaced from above. But the real problem is that this entire section on Platonism is difficult to follow and does not read like it was written by a native English speaker. The subject matter is extremely technical, and it is not helped by the haphazard writing. The material is difficult to edit without knowing exactly what was in the mind of the person who wrote it. Kramden (talk)

The Guthrie[3] was missing the passage on what is Mose from his translation of Numenius. pg2[4] I have it electronically I can email it to you. I still can't find my copy of Middle Platonism by Dillon. Have you read through the Bazan? [5] it is indespensible to this.LoveMonkey (talk) 04:25, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Recent revert by editor Yworo

The removal of the request for primary sourcing is a step in the right direction shame that Yworo did not caught that policy before I pointed it out. And I really did not write the section or sections in the article on gnosticism so, I really don't care there. Now the Neoplatonism section. This was one that went to Jimbo. If this editor could be more specific on what they find wrong with the section so that it can be addressed, fixed or explained this would be helpful. Right now their merely reverting and making excuses. I will copy this to the editors talkpage.LoveMonkey (talk) 18:53, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

Revert request for more sourcing

Is it that time of year again where this whole Neoplatonism and Gnosticism thing starts over again? Why is the International Society for Neoplatonic Studies still not enough?[6] I used Bazen, Armstrong, Dillon. Why is this not acceptable? As far as I know these are the best in the world, are they not? I used the conference on this very subject. It was wikipedia's decision to remove, delete, the article I created on the two conferences I had information on. And it is quite obvious I was right to create the article and Wikipedia was wrong to delete it as non-notable. How many more times is this kind nonsense going to occur? Heres the original that Me and Professor Morton worked on.. [7] How can I get it restore? Yworo could just avert this whole thing and follow policy by telling me what in the section you needs addressed. LoveMonkey (talk) 19:03, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

Yes, you named dropped your alleged sources. But where are the complete citations? You know, name of book or article, publication data, page numbers. Remember our verifiability policy? These claims can't be verified without proper citation. Feel free to choose to remove either the section tag, or the individual tags, but not both. I used a section tag because the problem is systemic in the section and multiple individual tags are frequently considered more disruptive, but have it your way... Yworo (talk) 19:28, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

It doesn't matter how good the sources are if article needs more work—Machine Elf 1735 (talk) 19:52, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

So you did not go and look at the main article that this section is based on? Neoplatonism and Gnosticism? But I can source those requests. Its a shame that you are so difficult to motive to do something so simple.LoveMonkey (talk) 20:12, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia does not use itself as a reference. Articles are continually changing. The text and sources there now are not necessarily the text and sources that were there when this section of this article was written. And it's the responsibility of the person who wrote the text to source it. Tagging these issues is of benefit to Wikipedia, so please don't criticize what I do vs. what I don't do, and I won't criticise you in that manner either. Cheers. Yworo (talk) 20:15, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

Stumbled across this as I was assessing new copyedit tags in prep for the copyedit drive. FWIW, you're spending too much time here arguing. If you know about philosophy and gnosticism please add sources rather than tagging, otherwise find someone who can help. The main article has plenty of reliable sources, and indeed this is a daughter article. It doesn't reference the main article, but sources there can be used here. That said, expecting a single editor to add sources to a difficult subject such as this quickly is unrealistic. Better would be to find a wikiproject that supports this article and from there find editors to help. Truthkeeper88 (talk) 20:29, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

Nonsense this is edit warring if you don't specify where and what then you are wasting time. And edit warring. As for "truthkeeper" glad to know Jim Jones is your hero. Will you include him with all your knowledge of Gnosticism? Since he is pretty much what is seen in the East as a gnostic.LoveMonkey (talk) 20:33, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

That was pretty rude. I know quite a lot about the Cathars and was sad to see the paragraph taken out. My comment was targeted at the tagger, in case that wasn't clear. Anyway, I'll leave you all to it. Truthkeeper88 (talk) 20:40, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

Sure. Religious conmen, cult leaders are what they are. That's not my fault. As for Cathars thats for the Roman Catholics to atone for. That should not have been done.LoveMonkey (talk) 21:41, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

Chaos

I removed the wikilink to the Chaos since that is a disambiguation page and this link does not help the user. If the Chaos in this article is a fictional place with no current article it should not wikilink to the disambiguation page. If there is an article on this place please link directly to it. § Music Sorter § (talk) 22:43, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Fixed now. I missed it the first time I looked for it. § Music Sorter § (talk) 04:17, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

Yahweh

I wonder why there is so much hesitation to say it right-out: As is well known from Gnostic Christianity, the Demiurge is the “God” of the Old Testament, i.e., Yahweh! That explains much of the extreme cruelty ascribed to him in the OT. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Allesok (talk • contribs) 11:14, 20 July 2011 (UTC)

Demiurge and Creator

"...the demiurge is not quite the creator figure in the familiar monotheistic sense;[dubious – discuss] both the demiurge itself and the material from which the demiurge fashions the universe are considered either uncreated and eternal, or the product of some other being, depending on the system."

This keeps popping up everywhere on the internet and I think it originates in an attempt to distinguish modern highly developed concept of God from that of Plato's in the Timaeus. I think it's mostly for rhetorical impact, is in an unfair comparison and in point of fact false. The Demiurge in the Timaeus fashions matter but he (Plato) nowhere states that the matter is pre-existent. In fact Plato lays out his thinking in a Cosmological Argument which neccessarily precludes pre-exitent matter. "Was the world, I say, always in existence and without beginning? or created, and had it a beginning? Created, I reply." Plato: Timaeus

People who state that Plato's Demiurge is not a creator, clearly have not read what Plato wrote concerning creation.

The section requires editing. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.137.36.230 (talk) 08:38, 9 November 2011 (UTC)

The demiurge does not create the Forms. It merely makes copies of the Forms. Forms are eternal, unchanging, indestructible, etc. Regardless of whether matter is eternal for Plato, the Forms (the most fundamental reality) are eternal and not created by the demiurge. This is completely different to Classical theism which holds that everything apart from God is contingent and it's existence depends on God.~~ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.149.119.150 (talk) 22:03, 13 November 2011 (UTC)

I changed "...the demiurge is not quite the creator figure in the familiar monotheistic sense" to "...the demiurge is not necessarily thought of as being the same as the creator figure in the familiar monotheistic sense", in order to try and avoid some of the debate, and just put it out there that some people might not view it the same way, while others may, whereas before it was pretty much in the former. Somnum (talk) 20:24, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

folk etymology ?

Is there a legitimate etymological connection, from the Greek Demi-ourgos, to the words "Dominance", "Domination", "Domestication" ? Could the term Demi-ourgos imply, even in Hebrew-style kenning or suggestive innuendo, "Work of Domination", "Work of Domestication", connoting a hostile Power working to dominate & domesticate "common" (demos) people? Inexpertly, similarity seemingly exists, to the Sumerian Annunaki, who sought to fashion humans into "bipedal worker animals" (for lack of better words). If so, then the Demiurge in Greek & Gnostic traditions, might represent a continuation of the earlier Sumerian notion, of hostile Gods seeking to "tame" humans into "domesticated" animal peons. 66.235.38.214 (talk) 13:08, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

Of course not. The demi- of Demiurge is Greek demos, the people, hence means of the public, as the demiourgos is a public worker; although ourgos is etymologically related to the English words work and worker. Whereas, dominance is from Latin dominus, master; and domestication from domus, a house. Your explanation is rather lucum per lucerna.

Nuttyskin (talk) 16:27, 31 January 2013 (UTC)

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Demiurge = Half-Maker?

I have often seen the Demiurge referred to as "half-maker", in addition to "craftsman." I don't know Greek, so I don't know if calling saying Demiurge = half-maker is an etymological canard. Can someone help me out here? 74.141.69.51 (talk) 19:28, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

    I had the same question. "Demi" meant "half" in Old French, but "demiurge" is of Greek origin, where "demi-" apparently came
    from "demios" ("of the people"), and  "demiurge" meant "public worker" (see the Oxford English Dictionary). Perhaps "half-maker"
    is correct in the sense that that's what later Gnostic thinkers meant (?). lifeform (talk) 00:01, 23 March 2014 (UTC)

The dearth of proper scholarship has equalled the death of coherent reasoning. Use an etymological dictionary website, and look up the derivations of Greek words. You will thus build up a list of Greek words or prefixes and suffixes of Greek derivation. Please commit these to memory. Then, when you are faced with a relatively simple task such as this, you will be equal to the task.

Nuttyskin (talk) 15:25, 15 September 2017 (UTC)

Split-suggestion

Hello, I thought about splitting the Gnostic demiurge section and Yaldabaoth. Although they are often compared or identified with each other, the term "demiurge" can also refer to a just incompetent deity, while Yaldaboath is associated with "Chaos" and "Evil" and much more demonic. I thought, that a short reference to Yaldaboath in Sethianism and Catharism, would be enough here, with a link to a main-article (Yaldabaoth), making this section only demiurge based without the archons, names of yaldabaoth and the demonization (apart from a short reference), and given the demiurge here in this article a more neutral and less demonized tone. I think "Yaldabaoth" and "Demiruge" are two different ideas, but the first applied to the latter, thus suggesting this split. What do you think about it?--VenusFeuerFalle (talk) 19:32, 26 November 2018 (UTC)

I disagree with the proposed split. Both the idea of demiurge being incompentent and the idea of demiourge, aka Yaldabaoth, being malevolent are both theological expressions of dissatisfaction with the created world as we find it. (Sorry, I do not have a reference for this assertion.) Hence, it is appropriate to cover both ideas in the same article.-- Bmeacham (talk) 02:14, 7 September 2020 (UTC)

@@Bmeacham: Greetings, sorry haven't seen your response yet. I think there should be a reference to Yaldabaoth though. But more as a sub-section with a short overview. About how the Demiruge was demonized in some Gnostic thoughts but for Yaldabaoth an article on it's own, since it seems to be, the idea of Yaldabaoth is a mixture of a demirug and a demonic "overlord", while the demiruge itself was first a philosophical concept. if this does not convince you otherwise, I would remove the split-suggetion tag I plaed here years ago.--VenusFeuerFalle (talk) 17:59, 18 April 2021 (UTC)

It’s the guy from persona 5 strikers

. 2601:189:380:C0F0:482B:9587:731F:DBEF (talk) 06:08, 17 August 2022 (UTC)

GLYCON

From the article: "Yaldabaoth is frequently called "the Lion-faced", leontoeides, and is said to have the body of a serpent." This aspect is rather similar to that of Glycon, who is believed to be a snake with a puppet head sporting a blond mane. Has any connection between them ever been made? 170.51.176.196 (talk) 03:40, 6 April 2023 (UTC)

I think we need to add the Sant Mat (as in the teachings of Ishwar Puri Ji viewable on YouTube) concept of Kal or Time. A complete perspective just seems like good journalism to me, and that is my current best interpretation of the "demiurge." EricaLaureli (talk) 12:31, 24 April 2023 (UTC)

Revert in the etymology section

@GenoV84

It wasn't well cited. Gieseler's text wasn't cited and the claims about the probability of his definition or even the language from which he derives it aren't either. I went looking for it for the Yaldabaoth article and found it in his Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte p. 157, it doesn't credit a language, the transcription in the article is incorrect and moreover it's just Matter's etymology but uncited so if anything derived from Hebrew and not even supported by the people who like Matter's "Chaos" translation. The short summary of the controversy together with the link to the full etymology section in the Yaldabaoth article should be enough because the Quispel quote makes no sense without context. Bari' bin Farangi (talk) 10:50, 4 May 2023 (UTC)

Christian Bible

@GreatLeader1945

Since this seems to be a rather extensive discussion, I don't think it should be discussed on edit summaries.

I am replying to "The God in Judaism and Christianity IS the same god, that's basic theology 101. In Christianity he's Triune, where the 'godhead' is 'God the Father', which is the same 'person' (cf. Trinity#One God in three persons) as Yahweh in the OT. It's absolutely untrue that "the Christian version of the Bible was made later, after the gnostic movements disappeared". The article on Gnosticism explicitly says the opposite - Gnosticism flourished AFTER Christianity emerged - in the 1st-4th c. CE "

I am really not an expert on matters of Christianity, only visited some lectures on early Christianity for the sake of History of Religion a few years ago, and read some Docetic literature, such as the Nag Hamadi libary. So, maybe I am prone to some misconceptions. Nontheless, I want to note my confusion about certain assertions here.

1) That the Jewish and the Christian God are the same. This hold true for the idea of Judeo-Christian and Abrahamic religion. Please be aware, I am talking about the concept, not the religions themselves. I don't want to go into ontology, since I don't believe either god truely exists, I just "determine" these deities as concepts by what people ascribed to them at a certain time period (genealogy of ideas). But before adressing this point, I would like to adress the second one, because I think my objection towards 1) relies on 2)

2) I wouldn't say that "Christianity" existed prior to Gnosticism. When we speak about Christianity, we usually refer to a theological framework which relies on the canonical Bible. According to the article, and it is well cited, "The canon of the Catholic Church was affirmed by the Council of Rome (AD 382), the Synod of Hippo (AD 393), the Council of Carthage (AD 397), the Council of Carthage (AD 419), the Council of Florence (AD 1431–1449) and finally, as an article of faith, by the Council of Trent (AD 1545–1563). Those established the Catholic biblical canon consisting of 46 books in the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament for a total of 73 books"

There are also disagreements in the first centuries about what the Biblical canon consists of: "Marcion of Sinope was the first Christian leader in recorded history (though later considered heretical) to propose and delineate a uniquely Christian canon (c. 140). This included 10 epistles from Paul, as well as an edited version of the Gospel of Luke, which today is known as the Gospel of Marcion. By doing this, he established a particular way of looking at religious texts that persists in Christian thought today. After Marcion, Christians began to divide texts into those that aligned well with the "canon" (meaning a measuring line, rule, or principle) of accepted theological thought and those that promoted heresy. This played a major role in finalizing the structure of the collection of works called the Bible. It has been proposed that the initial impetus for the proto-orthodox Christian project of canonization flowed from opposition to the list produced by Marcion."

With that in mind, I would like to add, that "Gnosticism" as opposed to "Christianity" is a later phenomena. Thus, not Gnosticism is a later development, but designating heretized/unwanted Christian groups are. Origen called the "Gnostic Sethians/Ophites" Christians back then. "According to all other authorities the Ophites claimed to be Christians. Elsewhere Origen classes the Ophites as heretics of the graver sort with the followers of Marcion, Valentinus, Basilides, and Apelles (Commentary on Matthew 3:852)" (Ophites). Probably, Valentinism, Marcionism, Pauline Christianity, Sethianism, Ebionites, were all competing religious sects claiming to derive from Jesus, resulting in one victor who denounced every other sect as "Gnotic".

As stated by 1), since Christianity was not monolithic in the early years, and where was no "Christian Bible", the Gnostics couldn't refer to the God of the Christian Bible as Demiurge, because such a Christian Bible didn't exist. The Christian Bible only formed later, and with that, the Christian God only formed after Gnostics critizied the deity of the Hebrew Bible.

If this doesn't convince you, I would like to at least merge "Hebrew Bible" and "Christian Bible" into simply "the Bible". Because both that the distinction is unnecessary then, as well as this is playing save, as we don't need to find an agreement on at which time the Christian Bible came into existence. VenusFeuerFalle (talk) 14:18, 8 November 2023 (UTC)

This is exactly what the Gnostics disputed. The term Demiurge was created to distinguish the Gnostic Christian God from the Hebrew God: Gnosticism did not agree they were the same. Only later Christian doctrine makes this claim and it is misleading to suggest otherwise. The Gnostics believed that the Hebrew god was evil, and that Christ represented the true god and came to liberate the Jews from their evil god. That later Christians rejected this view is not relevant here and confuses the issue. Skyerise (talk) 17:31, 14 December 2023 (UTC)