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Bible Encyclopedias
Demiurge
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or (Greek, δημιουργός, from δῆμος, people, and ἔργω, obs. I work; a worker for the people; hence, a workman, craftsman) was the name given by the Gnostics to the mysterious being by whom God is supposed to have created the universe. The Gnostics believed that the Supreme Being dwelt in a fullness (a pleroma) of inaccessible light; that he had created other beings, called neons, or emanations; that from these other neons were descended; and from these an inferior order of spirits were derived, among whom one called the Demiurge had created the world, and had rebelled against the Supreme Being. He makes out of matter the visible world, and rules over it. He was considered as the God of the Jews. "In the further development of the idea the Gnostic systems differ; the anti-Jewish Gnostics, Marcion and the Ophites, represent the Demiurge as an insolent being, resisting the purposes of God, while the Judaizing Gnostics, Basilides and Valentine, make him a restricted, unconscious instrument of God to prepare the way of redemption." — Schaff, Hist. of Christian Church, 1, § 71; Mosheim, Commentaries (Murdock's translation, 1:45, 461; 2:331). (See GNOSTICISM).
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McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Demiurge'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/d/demiurge.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
