Editing Demiurge (section)

===Angels===
[[Psalm 82]] begins, "God stands in the assembly of [[El (deity)|El]] {{bracket|[[Septuagint|LXX]]: assembly of gods}}, in the midst of the gods he renders judgment",<ref>{{bibleverse|Psalms|82:1|NET|verse 1}}</ref> indicating a plurality of gods, although it does not indicate that these gods were co-actors in creation. [[Philo]] had inferred from the expression "Let us make man" of the [[Book of Genesis]] that God had used other beings as assistants in the creation of man, and he explains in this way why man is capable of vice as well as virtue, ascribing the origin of the latter to God, of the former to his helpers in the work of creation.<ref>{{blockquote|It is on this account that Moses says, at the creation of man alone that God said, "Let us make man," which expression shows an assumption of other beings to himself as assistants, in order that God, the governor of all things, might have all the blameless intentions and actions of man, when he does right attributed to him; and that his other assistants might bear the imputation of his contrary actions.|{{cite web |title=Philo: On the Creation, XXIV |url=http://www.earlyjewishwritings.com/text/philo/book1.html |website=www.earlyjewishwritings.com}}}}</ref>

The earliest Gnostic sects ascribe the work of creation to angels, some of them using the same passage in Genesis.<ref>[[Justin Martyr]], ''[[Dialogue with Trypho]]''. c. 67.</ref> So [[Irenaeus]] tells<ref>Irenaeus, ''Adversus Haereses'', i. 23, 1.</ref> of the system of [[Simon Magus]],<ref>Irenaeus, ''Adversus Haereses'', i. 23, 5.</ref> of the system of [[Menander (gnostic)|Menander]],<ref>Irenaeus, i. 24, 1.</ref> of the system of [[Saturninus of Antioch|Saturninus]], in which the number of these angels is reckoned as seven, and<ref>Irenaeus, ''Adversus Haereses'', i. 25.</ref> of the system of [[Carpocrates]]. In [[Basilides]]'s system, he reports,<ref>Irenaeus, ''Adversus Haereses'', i. 24, 4.</ref> the world was made by the angels who occupy the lowest heaven; but special mention is made of their chief, who is said to have been the [[God in Judaism|God of the Jews]], to have led that people out of the land of [[Egypt]], and to have given them their law. The prophecies are ascribed not to the chief but to the other world-making angels.

The Latin translation, confirmed by [[Hippolytus of Rome]],<ref>Hippolytus, ''[[Refutation of All Heresies]]''. vii. 33.</ref> makes [[Irenaeus]] state that according to [[Cerinthus]] (who shows [[Ebionites|Ebionite]] influence), creation was made by a power quite separate from the Supreme God and ignorant of him. [[Theodoret]],<ref>Theodoret, ''Haer. Fab''. ii. 3.</ref> who here copies Irenaeus, turns this into the plural number "powers", and so [[Epiphanius of Salamis]]<ref>Epiphanius, ''[[Panarion]]'', 28.</ref> represents Cerinthus as agreeing with Carpocrates in the doctrine that the world was made by angels.