Plato's demiurge is good, whereas the Apocryphon of John recasts the creator as the ignorant Yaldabaoth.
Imported citation, not independently checked: Plato, Timaeus; Apocryphon of John
religion · Shared topic · Revision 0
What Is the Demiurge in Gnosticism?
What Is the Demiurge in Gnosticism?
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Plato's good craftsman, demoted: how a handful of ancient myths made the world's builder a blind pretender and put the real God out of reach.
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The demotion scandalized the Platonists themselves: Plotinus attacked those who "despise the cosmos and its maker" (Enneads II.9).
Imported citation, not independently checked: Plotinus, Enneads II.9
In Harnack's classic reconstruction, Marcion's creator is "just" rather than evil: a rigorous judge, not a monster (Harnack, Marcion: The Gospel of the Alien God, 1921, English trans. 1990).
Imported citation, not independently checked: A. von Harnack, Marcion: The Gospel of the Alien God (1921)
David Brakke steers a middle course, reserving "the Gnostics" for the specific school behind the Apocryphon of John, often called Sethian, not a sprawling movement (Brakke, The Gnostics, 2010).
Imported citation, not independently checked: D. Brakke, The Gnostics (2010)
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