Editing Demiurge (section)

====Names====
{{Main|Yaldabaoth#Etymology}}
The etymology of the name ''Yaldabaoth'' has been subject to many speculative theories. Until 1974, etymologies deriving from the unattested [[Aramaic]]: בהותא, <small>romanized:</small> ''bāhūthā'', supposedly meaning "[[Chaos (cosmogony)|chaos]]", represented the majority view. Following an analysis by the Jewish historian of religion [[Gershom Scholem]] published in 1974,<ref name="Scholem 1974">{{cite journal |author-last=Scholem |author-first=Gershom |author-link=Gershom Scholem |year=1974 |title=Jaldabaoth Reconsidered |url=https://www.academia.edu/44508763 |journal=Mélanges d'histoire des religions offerts à Henri-Charles Puech |location=[[Paris]] |publisher=[[Collège de France]]/Presses Universitaires de France |pages=405–421 |via=[[Academia.edu]]}}</ref> this etymology no longer enjoyed any notable support. His analysis showed the unattested Aramaic term to have been fabulated and attested only in a single corrupted text from 1859, with its claimed translation having been transposed from the reading of an earlier etymology, whose explanation seemingly equated "[[darkness]]" and "chaos" when translating an unattested supposed plural form of {{Langx|he|בוהו|translit=bōhu|lit=}}.<ref name="Scholem 1974"/><ref name=":0">{{cite book |author-last=Black |author-first=Matthew |title=The New Testament and Gnosis : Essays in honour of RobertMcL.Wilson |year=1983 |chapter=An Aramaic Etymology for Jaldabaoth? |chapter-url=http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781474266277.ch-005 |work=The New Testament and Gnosis: Essays in honour of Robert McL. Wilson |location=[[London]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Academic]] |pages=69–72 |doi=10.5040/9781474266277.ch-005 |isbn=978-1-4742-6627-7}}</ref>

"[[Samael]]" literally means "Blind God" or "God of the Blind" in Hebrew ({{Script/Hebrew|סמאל}}). This being is considered not only blind, or ignorant of its own origins, but may, in addition, be evil; its name is also found in [[Judaism]] as the [[Personifications of death#Death (angels) in religion|Angel of Death]] and in [[Christian demonology]]. This link to Judeo-Christian tradition leads to a further comparison with [[Satan]]. Another alternative title for the demiurge is "Saklas", Aramaic for "fool". In the ''[[Apocryphon of John]]'', Yaldabaoth is also known as both Sakla and Samael.<ref name="Meyer international">[[Marvin Meyer]] and [[James M. Robinson]], ''The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The International Edition''. HarperOne, 2007. {{ISBN|0-06-052378-6}}</ref>

The angelic name "[[Ariel (angel)|Ariel]]" (Hebrew: 'the lion of God')<ref>{{cite book |title=Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism, and Talmudic Tradition |first=Gershom |last=Scholem |publisher=Jewish Theological Seminary of America |year=1965 |page=72}}</ref> has also been used to refer to the Demiurge and is called his "perfect" name;<ref>{{cite book |author=Robert McLachlan Wilson |title=Nag Hammadi and gnosis: Papers read at the First International Congress of Coptology |year=1976 |publisher=BRILL |pages=21–23 |quote=''Therefore his esoteric name is Jaldabaoth, whereas the perfect call him Ariel, because he has the appearance of a lion.''}}</ref> in some Gnostic lore, Ariel has been called an ancient or original name for Ialdabaoth.<ref>{{cite book|author=Gustav Davidson|title=A dictionary of angels: including the fallen angels |year=1994 |publisher=Scrollhouse |page=54}}</ref> The name has also been inscribed on amulets as "Ariel Ialdabaoth",<ref>{{cite book|author=David M Gwynn|title=Religious Diversity in Late Antiquity |year=2010 |publisher=BRILL |page=448}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=[[Campbell Bonner]] |title=An Amulet of the Ophite Gnostics |year=1949 |publisher=The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Hesperia Supplements, Vol. 8|pages=43–46}}</ref> and the figure of the archon inscribed with "Aariel".<ref>{{cite book |author1=Gilles Quispel |author2=R. van den Broek |author-link2=Roel van den Broek |author3=Maarten Jozef Vermaseren |title=Studies in gnosticism and hellenistic religions |year=1981 |publisher=BRILL |pages=40–41}}</ref>