While ancient philosophy disagreed on many things, there was broad agreement that the gods were good and the universe a beautiful, divinely made home. However, by the 2nd century CE a scandalous, renegade position emerged that argued that physical reality was created as a cosmic prison by a demonic Crafter - The Demiurge. Variously known as Ialdabaoth, Samael and Saklas, the malevolent Demiurge was one of the core components of what we know call "Gnosticism." But how did this shift happen, how did the Demiurge become evil. In this first episode in a series on the Demiurge, we explore the earliest movement in this direction: (1) the origins of the Demiurge in Plato and (2) How the Israelite god Yahweh came to be demonized and associated with the Egyptian demonic deity Seth in the anti-Judaic polemics of the ancient world. Future episodes will cover the rise of Marcion and this Theology and finally a comparison of the various manifestations of the Demiurge in Sethian and Valentinian literature. This episode is collaboration with scholar and friend @m.davidlitwa - check out his companion video and subscribe to his channel for deep dives on Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Ancient Mystery Religions and early Christianity .

Dr. Litwa's Episode -    • The Evil Creator: A Reading  

Where is the music for the opening? I had to mute it because "DANCE ALL DAY Musicvertriebs GmbH" - https://www.dance-all-day.com/#contact - is fraudulently claiming that my use of 18 seconds of a public domain version of Chopin's Nocturne is under their copyright and @YouTube is doing nothing about it. So, I had to remove the music opening sequence and have to have the music re-recorded at my own expense. It isn't fair that a large corporation can falsely claim music as their property in an attempt to hijack the funds I use to support this educational channel. If you can please support the channel:

Patreon -   / esotericachannel  
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Thumbnail based on Zdzisław Beksiński