Yaldabaoth

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Yaldabaoth (or Ildabaoth ) is in some directions of the Gnosis of the creator , the physical world illustrated in part as a lion-headed deity . He or she was considered a demiurge who keeps people prisoner in this world. The name is probably derived from the Hebrew jalda bahôt (ילדא בהות), "daughter of chaos".

swell

Yaldabaoth is mentioned in the Setian and Ophite writings of Gnosis. In John's Apocryphon , “Jaldabaoth” is the first of three names of the domineering archon , next to Saklas and Samael . In Pistis Sophia he has lost his claim to rulership and, in the depths of the chaos, tortures wicked souls together with 49 demons in a glowing torrent of bad luck. Here he is an archon with a lion face, half flame, half darkness. In the apocryphal Gospel of Judas he appears as a rebellious angel and appears in the hypostasis of the archons .

description

He is the son of Sophia , the personification of wisdom in Gnosis, with whom he argues. By turning creatively to matter in goodness and simplicity, Sophia created the imperfect Yaldabaoth, the son of chaos, without the knowledge of the other aeons. He received the powers of light from his mother, but he used them for evil. Sophia rules over the Ogdoas, the Demiurge over the Hebdomas. Yaldabaoth produced six other archons and other associates. The angels he created rebelled against Yaldabaoth. In order to keep the angels in submission, Yaldabaoth created the world.

In the act of creation, however, Yaldabaoth gave up his highest power. When Jaldabaoth breathed the soul into man, Sophia instilled in him the divine spark of the spirit.

After matter, Yaldabaoth created the snake spirit ( Ophiomorphos ), which is the origin of all evil . The light being Sophia caused the fall of man through the serpent. By enjoying the forbidden fruit, they became enlightened and turned away from Yaldabaoth. This expelled them as punishment from the ethereal region, paradise.

Yaldabaoth tried to deprive people of the gift of the spark of light that he had unknowingly lost to them, or to keep them in bondage. He tried to punish people to recognize him as God. Because of their lack of veneration, he brought the flood on the people from which Sophia saved Noah. Yaldabaoth made a covenant with Abraham . He should serve him with his descendants. The prophets were supposed to proclaim Yaldabaoth's glory, but at the same time, through Sophia's influence, they admonished the people of their higher origins and prepared the coming of Christ . At Sophia's instigation, Jaldabaoth initiated the generation of Jesus in the virgin. For its preaching he used John the Baptist . At the moment of the baptism organized by Jaldabaoth , Sophia obtained the body of Jesus and through it taught people that their destiny is the kingdom of light. Only after baptism did Jesus have divine powers and perform miracles. But since Jesus destroyed his kingdom instead of promoting it, Jaldabaoth had him crucified. Before his martyrdom, Christ escaped from the bodily shell.

Yaldabaoth is identified with the god Saturnus .

literature

  • Matthew Black: An Aramaic Etymology for Jaldabaoth? In: Alastair H. Logan, Alexander JM Wedderburn (Eds.): The New Testament and Gnosis. T&T Clark International, New York 1983, ISBN 0-567-09344-1 , pp. 69-72. (Paperback edition 2004, ISBN 0-567-08228-8 )
  • Attilio Mastrocinque: From Jewish Magic to Gnosticism. (Studies and texts on antiquity and Christianity 24). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2005, ISBN 3-16-148555-6 .
  • Karen L. King: The Secret Revelation of John. Harvard, 2006, ISBN 0-674-01903-2 , pp. 89-105.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ So Johann Karl Ludwig Gieseler : 1819.