Editing Samael (section)

== Gnosticism ==
<!-- This section is linked from [[The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch]]  -->
[[File:Lion-faced deity.jpg|thumb|right|upright|A lion-faced deity found on a Gnostic gem in [[Bernard de Montfaucon]]'s ''L'antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures'' may be a depiction of the Demiurge, Samael.]]
In the ''[[Apocryphon of John]]'', ''[[On the Origin of the World]]'', and ''[[Hypostasis of the Archons]]'', found in the [[Nag Hammadi library]], ''Samael'' is one of three names of the [[demiurge]], whose other names are ''[[Yaldabaoth]]'' and ''[[Saklas]]''.

After Yaldabaoth claims sole divinity for himself, the voice of [[Sophia (Gnosticism)|Sophia]] comes forth calling him ''Samael'', due to his ignorance.<ref>Gilhus, Ingvild Sælid. 1985. ''The Nature of the Archons: A Study in the Soteriology of a Gnostic Treatise from Nag Hammadi (CGII, 4)''. [[Otto Harrassowitz Verlag]]. {{ISBN|978-3447025188}}. p. 44</ref><ref>Fischer-Mueller, E. Aydeet. 1990. "Yaldabaoth: The Gnostic Female Principle in Its Fallenness." ''[[Novum Testamentum]]'' 32(1):79–95. {{JSTOR|1560677}}.</ref> In ''On the Origin of the World'', his name is explained as "blind god" and his fellow [[Archon (Gnosticism)|Archons]] are said to be blind, too. This reflecting the characteristics of the Christian devil, making people blind, as does the devil in [[2 Corinthians 4]]. Also Samael is the first sinner in the ''Hypostasis of the Archons'' and the [[First Epistle of John]] calls the devil as sinner from the beginning. These characteristics combined with his boasting conflates the Jewish god with the devil.<ref>M. David Litwa ''esiring Divinity: Self-deification in Early Jewish and Christian Mythmaking'' Oxford University Press, 2016  {{ISBN|978-0190467173}} p. 55</ref> His appearance is that of a lion-faced serpent.<ref>Fischer-Mueller, E. Aydeet. “Yaldabaoth: The Gnostic Female Principle in Its Fallenness.” Novum Testamentum, vol. 32, no. 1, 1990, pp. 79–95. {{JSTOR|1560677}}</ref> Although the Gnostics and Jewish originally used the same source, both depictions of Samael developed independently.<ref name=":0">Ivry, Elliot R. Wolfson. [1998] 2013. ''Perspectives on Jewish Thought''. Routledge. {{ISBN|978-1136650123}}.</ref>{{Rp|266}}

Samael is sometimes confused in some books with [[Camael]], who appears in the [[Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit|Coptic Gospel of the Egyptian]]s also as an evil power, whose name is similar to words meaning "like God" (but Camael with a [[waw (letter)|waw]] missing). The name might be explained, because in Jewish traditions, the snake had the form of a camel, before it was banished by God.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|259}}