Editing Demiurge (section)

===The devil===
Opinions on [[the devil]], and his relationship to the Demiurge, vary. The Ophites held that he and his demons constantly oppose and thwart the human race, as it was on their account the devil was cast down into this world.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103130.htm| title = Irenaeus, ''Adversus Haereses'', i. 30, 8.}}</ref> According to one variant of the Valentinian system, the Demiurge is also the maker, out of the appropriate substance, of an order of ''spiritual'' beings, the devil, the prince of this world, and his angels. But the devil, as being a ''spirit'' of wickedness, is able to recognise the higher spiritual world, of which his maker the Demiurge, who is only animal, has no real knowledge. The devil resides in this lower world, of which he is the prince, the Demiurge in the heavens; his mother Sophia in the middle region, above the heavens and below the Pleroma.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103105.htm| title = Irenaeus, ''Adversus Haereses'', i. 5, 4.}}</ref>

The Valentinian [[Heracleon]]<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.gnosis.org/library/fragh.htm| title = Heracleon, Frag. 20.}}</ref> interpreted the devil as the ''principle'' of evil, that of ''hyle'' (matter). As he writes in his commentary on John 4:21,
<blockquote>The mountain represents the Devil, or his world, since the Devil was one part of the whole of matter, but the world is the total mountain of evil, a deserted dwelling place of beasts, to which all who lived before the law and all Gentiles render worship. But Jerusalem represents the creation or the Creator whom the Jews worship. ... You then who are spiritual should worship neither the creation nor the Craftsman, but the Father of Truth. </blockquote>

This vilification of the creator was held to be inimical to Christianity by the early fathers of the church. In refuting the beliefs of the gnostics, [[Irenaeus]] stated that "Plato is proved to be more religious than these men, for he allowed that the same God was both just and good, having power over all things, and himself executing judgment."<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103325.htm| title = Irenaeus, ''Adversus Haereses'', iii. 25.}}</ref>