Yaldabaoth (; , ) is an evil deity and creator of the material world in various Gnostic sects and movements, sometimes represented as a theriomorphic, lion-headed serpent. He is identified as the Demiurge and false god who keeps the souls trapped in physical bodies, imprisoned in the material universe. Etymology The etymology of the name Yaldabaoth has been subject to many speculative theories. The first was advanced in 1575 by Feuardentius, supposedly translating it from Hebrew to mean . A theory proposed by in 1828 claimed to have identified the name as descending from and from , a supposed plural form of . Matter however interpreted it to mean 'chaos', thus translating Yaldaboath as "child of darkness [...] an element of chaos". This etymology was popular due to its perceived literary merits. It inspired Hilgenfeld to keep Matter's proposed 'chaos' translation, while fabulating a more plausible sounding, but unattested second noun: Aramaic: בהותא, romanized: bāhūthā. Claiming the name to derive from Aramaic: ילדא בהותא, romanized: yaldā bāhūthā supposedly meaning 'child of chaos'. This became the late 19th, early 20th century majority view, which was supported by Schenke, Böhlig, and Labib. The latter two also cited a supposed attestation for Aramaic: בהותא, romanized: bāhūthā, lit. 'chaos'. This supposed attestation stemmed from a Targum and was merely a corrupted reading of Aramaic: כהותא, romanized: kāhūthā, lit. 'strife' published in a 1859 Bible. This pseudo-variant was translated in Jastrow's popular Aramaic dictionary as 'confusion'. Helped by these events, Hilgenfeld's etymology remained the majority view until a 1974 analysis by Scholem explained its origin. Consequently most scholars retracted their support. Additionally, Scholem argued that based on the earliest textual data, which termed Yaldabaoth "the King of Chaos", he was claimed to be the progenitor of chaos, not its progeny. Scholem's own theory rendered the name as Yald' Abaoth. Yald''' being Aramaic: ילדא, romanized: yaldā but translated as 'begetter', not 'child' and Abaoth being a term attested in magic texts, descending from . Thus he rendered Yald' Abaoth as 'begetter of Sabaoth'. Black objects to this, because Sabaoth is the name of one of Yaldaboth's sons in some Gnostic texts. Instead he suggests the second noun to be Jewish Aramaic: בהתייה, romanized: behūṯā, lit. 'shame'. Which is cognate with , a term used to replace the name Ba'al in the Hebrew Bible. Thus Blacks' proposal renders Aramaic: ילדא בהתייה, romanized: yaldā behūṯā, lit. 'son of