Demiurge

The word means literally a public worker, demioerg�s, demiourg�s,
and was originally used to designate any craftsman plying his
craft or trade for the use of the public. Soon, however, techn�tes
and other words began to be used to designate the common artisan
while demiurge was set aside for the Great Artificer or
Fabricator, the Architect of the universe. At first the words to�
k�smou were added to distinguish the great Workman from others,
but gradually demiourg�s became the technical term for the Maker
of heaven and earth. In this sense it is used frequently by Plato
in his "Tim�us". Although often loosely employed by the Fathers
and others to indicate the Creator, the word never strictly meant
"one who produces out of nothing" (for this the Greeks used
kt�stes), but only "one who fashions, shapes, and models". A
creator in the sense of Christian theology has no place in heathen
philosophy, which always presupposes the existence of matter.
Moreover, according to Greek philosophy the world-maker is not
necessarily identical with God, as first and supreme source of all
things; he may be distinct from and inferior to the supreme
spirit, though he may also be the practical expression of the
reason of God, the Logos as operative in the harmony of the
universe. In this sense, i.e. that of a world-maker distinct from
the Supreme God, Demiurge became a common term in Gnosticism. The
Gnostics, however, were not satisfied merely to emphasize the
distinction between the Supreme God, or God the Father, and the
Demiurge, but in many of their systems they conceived the relation
of the Demiurge to the Supreme God as one of actual antagonism,
and the Demiurge became the personification of the power of evil,
the Satan of Gnosticism, with whom the faithful had to wage war to
the end that they might be pleasing to the Good God. The Gnostic
Demiurge then assumes a surprising likeness to Ahriman, the evil
counter-creator of Ormuzd in Mazdean philosophy. The character of
the Gnostic Demiurge became still more complicated when in some
systems he was identified with Jehovah, the God of the Jews or of
the Old Testament, and was brought in opposition to Christ of the
New Testament, the Only-Begotten Son of the Supreme and Good God.
The purpose of Christ's coming as Saviour and Redeemer was to
rescue us from the power of the Demiurge, the lord of the world of
this darkness, and bring us to the light of the Good God, His
Father in heaven. The last development in the character of the
Demiurge was due to Jehovah being primarily considered as he who
gave the Law on Sinai, and hence as the originator of all
restraint on the human will. As the Demiurge was essentially evil,
all his work was such; in consequence all law was intrinsically
evil and the duty of the children of the Good God was to
transgress this law and to trample upon its precepts. This led to
the wildest orgies of Antinomian Gnosticism.

According to Valentinus the Demiurge was the offspring of a union
of Achamoth (he k�ta soph�a or lower wisdom) with matter. And as
Achamoth herself was only the daughter of Soph�a the last of the
thirty �ons, the Demiurge was distant by many emanations from the
Propat�r, or Supreme God. The Demiurge in creating this world out
of Chaos was unconsciously influenced for good by Jesus Soter; and
the universe, to the surprise even of its Maker, became almost
perfect. The Demiurge regretted even its slight imperfection, and
as he thought himself the Supreme God, he attempted to remedy this
by sending a Messias. To this Messias, however, was actually
united Jesus the Saviour, Who redeemed men. These are either
huliko�, or pneumatiko�. The first, or carnal men, will return to
the grossness of matter and finally be consumed by fire; the
second, or psychic men, together with the Demiurge as their
master, will enter a middle state, neither heaven (pleroma) nor
hell (hyle); the purely spiritual men will be completely freed
from the influence of the Demiurge and together with the Saviour
and Achamoth, his spouse, will enter the pleroma divested of body
(h�le) and soul (psuche). In this most common form of Gnosticism
the Demiurge had an inferior though not intrinsically evil
function in the universe as the head of the psychic world.
According to Marcion, the Demiurge was to be sharply distinguished
from the Good God; the former was d�kaios, severely just, the
latter agath�s, or loving-kind; the former was the God of the
Jews, the latter the true God of the Christians. Christ, though in
reality the Son of the Good God, pretended to be the Messias of
the Demiurge, the better to spread the truth concerning His
heavenly Father. The true believer in Christ entered into God's
kingdom, the unbeliever remained forever the slave of the
Demiurge. To this form of Gnosticism, the Demiurge has assumed
already a more evil aspect. According to the Naassenes the God of
the Jews is not merely d�kaios, but he is the great tyrant
Jaldabaoth, or Son of Chaos. He is Demiurge and maker of man, but
as a ray of light from above enters the body of mall and gives him
a soul; Jaldabaoth is filled with envy; he tries to limit man's
knowledge by forbidding him the fruit of knowledge in paradise.
The Demiurge, fearing lest Jesus, whom he had intended as his
Messias, should spread the knowledge of the Supreme Cod, had him
crucified by the Jews. At the consummation of all things all light
will return to the pleroma; but Jaldabaoth, the Demiurge, with the
material world, will be cast into the lower depths. Some of the
Ophites or Naassenes venerated all persons reprobated in the Old
Testament, such as Cain, or the people of Sodom, as valiant
resisters of the Demiurge. In these weird systems the idea of the
world-maker was degraded to the uttermost. Amongst the Gnostics,
however, who as a rule set some difference between the Demiurge
and the Supreme God, there was one exception; for according to the
Ebionites, whose opinions have come down to us in the Pseudo-
Clementine literature, there is no difference between the Highest
God and the Demiurge. They are identical, and the God Who made
heaven and earth is worthy of the adoration of men. On the other
hand the Gnostic system is tainted with pantheism, and its
Demiurge is not a creator but only a world-builder. (See
GNOSTICISM; VALENTINUS; MARCION.)

J. P. ARENDZEN
Transcribed by Rick McCarty


From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright � 1913 by the
Encyclopedia Press, Inc. Electronic version copyright � 1996 by
New Advent, Inc.

Taken from the New Advent Web Page (www.knight.org/advent).

This article is part of the Catholic Encyclopedia Project, an
effort aimed at placing the  entire Catholic Encyclopedia 1913
edition on the World Wide Web. The coordinator is Kevin Knight,
editor of the New Advent Catholic Website. If you would like to
contribute to this  worthwhile project, you can contact him by e-
mail at (knight.org/advent). For  more information please download
the file cathen.txt/.zip.

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