Path: typhoon.sonic.net!feed.news.sonic.net!sfo2-feed1.news.digex.net!intermedia!newsfeed.direct.ca!look.ca!feed2.news.rcn.net!rcn!chnws02.mediaone.net!chnws06.ne.mediaone.net!24.91.0.34!typhoon.ne.mediaone.net.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Moggin Goldberg Newsgroups: alt.religion.gnostic,alt.magick.tyagi,alt.satanism,talk.religion.misc,alt.mythology,alt.religion.all-worlds Followup-To: alt.religion.gnostic Subject: Re: Satanic Mythology and Gnosticism Organization: Legitimate Swing References: <00nN7.7871$DD2.88920@typhoon.sonic.net> User-Agent: MT-NewsWatcher/3.0 (PPC) Message-ID: Lines: 36 Date: Sat, 01 Dec 2001 06:31:19 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.60.185.42 X-Complaints-To: abuse@mediaone.net X-Trace: typhoon.ne.mediaone.net 1007188279 24.60.185.42 (Sat, 01 Dec 2001 01:31:19 EST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 01 Dec 2001 01:31:19 EST Xref: typhoon.sonic.net alt.religion.gnostic:40095 alt.magick.tyagi:30144 alt.satanism:193809 talk.religion.misc:367347 alt.mythology:67762 alt.religion.all-worlds:22399 [follow-ups set] boboroshi@satanservice.org (SOD of the CoE): > cf. authors of repute on the subject of Gnosticism such as > Elaine Pagels ("The Gnostic Gospels" goes into the nature of > the 'demiourgos' somewhat, if memory serves). Pagels barely touches on the subject. Jonas' _The Gnostic Religion_ and Rudolph's _Gnosis_ both have much more info. You could also go to the sources: i.e., the gnostics' writings and the reports of their contemporaries. > basically > we're talking about a constructor of limited portions of the > cosmos whose relation to the rest of the 'heavenly court' > ('elohim' in Jewish scripture) or the 'other archons' > (world-constructors) was not as their overseer or supreme > chief. No. The demiurge is the Creator of the cosmos, comparable to the Old Testament god (although the term is from Plato). Certain gnostic texts even give him Yahweh's lines, for example "I am a jealous god" (in _The Apocryphon of John_, _The 2nd Treatise of the Great Seth_, _The Testimony of Truth_, and _The Gospel of the Egyptians_). He _is_ called the "chief archon" (e.g. in _The Apocryphon of John_, _On the Origin of the World_, and _The Hypostasis of the Archons_). But the gnostics denied that he was the true God. In other words, they distinguished between God and the Creator, who they viewed as evil, ignorant, arrogant, disgusting, etc. (the details varied) in keeping with the world he made. -- Moggin