In some Gnostic writings, Sabaoth is one of the sons of Ialdabaoth. According to ''

Hypostasis of the Archons The ''Hypostasis of the Archons'' or ''The Reality of the Rulers'' is an exegesis on the ''Book of Genesis'' 1–6 and expresses Gnostic mythology of the divine creators of the cosmos and humanity. Text's origin and content The text was found ...

'' and ''

On the Origin of the World ''On the Origin of the World'' is a Gnostic work dealing with creation and the end time. It was found among the texts in what is known as the Nag Hammadi library, in Codex II and Codex XIII, immediately following the ''Reality of the Rulers'' ...

'', Sabaoth dethrones his father Yaldabaoth. In both accounts, Sabaoth repents, when he hears the voice of Sophia, condemns his father and his mother (matter) and after that is enthroned by Sophia in the seventh heaven. Some Church Fathers report on the other hand, that Gnostics identified Sabaoth with Ialdaboath himself.

Name

The name ''Sabaoth'' appears in the

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

in reference to an army. In the

First Book of Samuel The Book of Samuel (, ''Sefer Shmuel'') is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Samuel) in the Old Testament. The book is part of the narrative history of Ancient Israel called the Deuteronomistic history, a series of books (Josh ...

, the name is used as a name of

God In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...

. In Gnostic texts, the name should evidently rendered as "over all the forces (of chaos)".

In Gnostic sources

Jan Zandee Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Numbe ...

interprets Sabaoth's role as the opposite of Ialdabaoth. The psychics can choose between both; Ialdabaoth representing evil and Sabaoth representing good. Sabaoth becomes the current ruler of the world and thus fulfills the role of the God of Israel.Rasimus, T. (2009). Paradise Reconsidered in Gnostic Mythmaking: Rethinking Sethianism in Light of the Ophite Evidence. Niederlande: Brill. pp. 116 - 117 Thrown into

Tartarus In Greek mythology, Tartarus (; grc, , }) is the deep abyss that is used as a dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked and as the prison for the Titans. Tartarus is the place where, according to Plato's ''Gorgias'' (), souls are judg ...

, Ialdabaoth envies his son, whereupon his envy takes on shape and becomes

death Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

. From death, envy, wrath, weeping, roar, loud shouting, sobber and grief emerge. Many of these emotions seem to be related to lament during funerals. As mourning was controversial among early Christians, associated with

Satan Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an entity in the Abrahamic religions that seduces humans into sin or falsehoo ...

, they might intentionally display disapproval about lamenting the dead and advocated control of emotions. However, this is not explicitly spelled out and some emotions, such as anger for the

rulers of darkness A ruler, sometimes called a rule, line gauge, or scale, is a device used in geometry and technical drawing, as well as the engineering and construction industries, to measure distances or draw straight lines. Variants Rulers have lon ...

, are approved, thus differing from

Stoicism Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens in the early 3rd century BCE. It is a philosophy of personal virtue ethics informed by its system of logic and its views on the natural world, asserting that ...

. After Ialdabaoth brought death into the world, Sabaoth creates a host of

cherubim A cherub (; plural cherubim; he, כְּרוּב ''kərūḇ'', pl. ''kərūḇīm'', likely borrowed from a derived form of akk, 𒅗𒊏𒁍 ''karabu'' "to bless" such as ''karibu'', "one who blesses", a name for the lamassu) is one of the u ...

, a notion also appearing in Jewish Merkabah mysticism.

Non-Gnostic sources

Epiphanius of Salamis Epiphanius of Salamis ( grc-gre, Ἐπιφάνιος; c. 310–320 – 403) was the bishop of Salamis, Cyprus, at the end of the 4th century. He is considered a saint and a Church Father by both the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Churches. He ...

, the

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ...

Salamis, Cyprus Salamis ( grc, Σαλαμίς, el, Σαλαμίνα, tr, Salamis) is an ancient Greek city-state on the east coast of Cyprus, at the mouth of the river Pedieos, 6 km north of modern Famagusta. According to tradition, the founder of Salamis ...

at the end of the

4th century The 4th century (per the Julian calendar and Anno Domini/Common era) was the time period which lasted from 301 ( CCCI) through 400 ( CD). In the West, the early part of the century was shaped by Constantine the Great, who became the first Roman ...

, reports that

Severian Encratites The Severians were a sect of gnostic Encratites. Epiphanius supposes their leader Severus to have preceded Tatian (founder of Encratites) but Eusebius, Theodoret, and Jerome make him Tatian's successor. These latter authorities are followed ...

(also associated with

Sethians The Sethians were one of the main currents of Gnosticism during the 2nd and 3rd century CE, along with Valentinianism and Basilideanism. According to John D. Turner, it originated in the 2nd century CE as a fusion of two distinct Hellenistic ...

) believed Sabaoth and Ialdabaoth to be one and the same, the God of law, and therefore evil.

Celsus Celsus (; grc-x-hellen, Κέλσος, ''Kélsos''; ) was a 2nd-century Greek philosopher and opponent of early Christianity. His literary work, '' The True Word'' (also ''Account'', ''Doctrine'' or ''Discourse''; Greek: grc-x-hellen, Λό� ...

, a 2nd-century

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

philosopher, identified Ialdabaoth with Cronus and Sabaoth and Adonai with

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label=genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label=genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion, ...

Origen Origen of Alexandria, ''Ōrigénēs''; Origen's Greek name ''Ōrigénēs'' () probably means "child of Horus" (from , "Horus", and , "born"). ( 185 – 253), also known as Origen Adamantius, was an early Christian scholar, ascetic, and the ...

(c. 184 – c. 253) denies the equation. That such identifications appears within Gnostic documents themselves, has not been proven.

References

Sources

* Roger A. Bullard "The Hypostasis of the Archons: The Coptic Text with Translation and Commentary" Walter de Gruyter 2012 pp. 110-112 * Francis T. Fallon "The Enthronement of Sabaoth" Brill Archive, 1978 pp. 80-83 * Ismo Dunderberg "Gnostic Morality Revisited" Mohr Siebeck 2015 {{ISBN, 9783161525674 pp. 35-37 Gnostic deities

Name

In Gnostic sources

Non-Gnostic sources

See also

References

Sources