Yaldabaoth, Saklas, Nebro, Samael or Yahweh is both a malevolent and ignorant Demiurge from various Gnostic schools, he is the god of materia but not of spirit, Yaldabaoth is represented as a Lion head serpent, he is considere the false god of hebrews that keep the souls in physical bodies, imprisoned in the material universe.
Mythology[]
Role[]
The Yaldabaoth´s role is variable depending from the sources, so in some those sources Yaldabaoth is a malevolent deity who enslaved for via physical bodies and created the material world, he is also the God of old testamen, however in other sources the material world has not been created by Yaldabaoth but it already existed, and that him was not evil but a being that can not differentiate between the good and evil. Other case of contradictory sources is Jesus, because in some versions Jesus is portrait as the Messiah sent by Yaldabaoth to the world, Jesus told a diferent message and Yaldabaoth crucify him, but in other versions Jesus was not the messiah sent by Yaldabaoth but an impostor with the purpose of free the souls from the material world. Besides in some Gnostic moves Yaldabaoth is other name for Satanael, who was an angel that become into the god of materia world, however in others sources Satanael and Yaldabaoth are both brothers and enemies.
The only one that is not contradictory with Yaldabaoth is the next: Yaldabaoth was emanated by Sophia, he is the god of materia, he always portrait an ignorant deity which does not see beyond the materia and normally is represented as a lion head serpent and therefore the only clear thing about the Yaldabaoth´s role is be the god of materia.
Historical origins[]
In the 7th century BCE during the Assyrian conquest of Egypt, Set was seen as a evil god that he should not be worshiped due be his role as the god of foreigners. From at least 200 BCE onward, appears a tradition developed in the Graeco-Egyptian Ptolemaic Kingdom, where Set was identified with Yahweh the god of hebrews, this caused in many appearances of Set with a donkey head during the Hellenistic period. The Egyptians adopted the interpretatio graeca after of their Hellenisation, was in this time where Set was identificated with Typhon a snake monster that roar like a lion.
Ezekiel the Tragedian adopted the book of Exodus for translated into ancient greek and was presented in egyptian Alexandria and seen by Egyptians and Jews. The Egyptian receotion was very negative because it insulted their gods and praised their suffering. so the Egyptians made a reintrapetation of the Exodus where the winners were the them.
Was in this context in where some Egyptians saw similarities between Yahweh's role in the book of Exodus with attributes and those of Seth, curiously phonetic resemblance between Koinē Greek: Ἰαω, romanized: Iaō (Yahweh in greek) with Coptic: ⲓⲱ, romanized: Iō, lit. 'donkey', the sacre animal of Seth in those times, and this provoked that the Jews themselves worshipped a beast, donkey head-man call Seth.
Accusations againts the jews were vey popular in middle Egyt with the idea of Seth as a donkey man, this was very important in the Greco-Roman world, which was largely ignorant of this context, Antiochus IV Epiphanes say that "the temple contained a donkey idol". After the emergence of Christianity, the romans used again the concept of donkey god as propagranda againts the Christians, the best example of a propagranda anti-christian was a depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus view in Alexamenos graffito, that was a roman graffito where it is mentioned a Christian call Alexamenos who shown worshipping a donkey-headed crucified god.
Litwa theorize from this traditions evolves until Gnostic beliefs about Yaldabaoth.
Yaldabaoth and Saturn[]
Yaldabaoth is usually related with the planet saturn, so Yaldabaoth is in theory a demonized verison of Yhaweh whose sacre day was Saturday, a day related with it planet, besides in the Ophian cosmogony the planet where Yaldabaoth rules is Saturn. Celsus who was a 2nd-century Greek Philosopher identified Ialdabaoth with Cronus, the Greek equivalent of Saturn, therefore Yaldabaoth alwasys related with planet Saturn.
Influence[]
the influence of Yaldabaoth over time is outstanding, so Yaldabaoth Appears in Books, comics, videogames and series of all kinds, but exists subtle references to the Gnostic Demiurge in different media.
Videosgames[]
- In the videogame series Megami Tensei by Atlus Yaldabaoth is a recurring characte.
- Yaldabaoth is an enemy in Strange Journey and its remake Strange Journey Redux.
- Both in Shin Megami Tensei Nine and Persona 5 Yaldabaoth is the final boss of the game.
- In the Persoan 5 Strike Yaldabaoth back as the final boss and has two musical themes, the second theme is call "Exodus" possibly as areference to the Book of Exudus, which works as the origin of Yaldabaoth.
- In the Videogame Shin Megami Tensei IV Final/Apocalypse YHVH has a second form. whose design resembles to the classical image of Yaldabaoth.
- In Xenoblades Yaldabaoth is the final boss
Literature[]
- Yaldabaoth is mentioned in a book of H.P Lovecraft as one of many old ones.
- The charater of Azathoth has many similitues with Yaldabaoth, because both are described as "blinds", "idiots" and even as the creator of universe. May be the Gnostic concept of Yaldabaoth was one of may inspirations for create Azathoth.
- In the Book of His Dark Materia exist an angel call the Authority who was both impostor and fraud, besides be the biblical god, the Authority´s role as and impostor could be could have been taken from Gnostic concept of the Demiurge.
- In the Mythology of William Blake exist a character call Urizen who is know by the tiltle "Ancient of Days" and "Demiurge", he has the same role that Yaldabaoth in some Gnostic sources.