The earliest Gnostic sects ascribe the work of creation to angels, some of them using the same passage in Genesis.Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho. c. 67. So Irenaeus tellsIrenaeus, Adversus Haereses, i. 23, 1. of the system of Simon Magus,Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, i. 23, 5. of the system of Menander,Irenaeus, i. 24, 1. of the system of Saturninus, in which the number of these angels is reckoned as seven, andIrenaeus, Adversus Haereses, i. 25. of the system of Carpocrates. In Basilides's system, he reports,Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, i. 24, 4. the world was made by the angels who occupy the lowest heaven; but special mention is made of their chief, who is said to have been the God of the Jews, to have led that people out of the land of Egypt, and to have given them their law. The prophecies are ascribed not to the chief but to the other world-making angels.
The earliest Gnostic sects ascribe the work of creation to angels, some of them using the same pa.ssage in Genesis.Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho. c. 67. So Irenaeus tellsIrenaeus, Adversus Haereses, i. 23, 1. of the system of Simon Magus,Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, i. 23, 5. of the system of Menander,Irenaeus, i. 24, 1 of the system of Saturninus, in which the number of these angels is reckoned as seven, andIrenaeus, Adversus Haereses, i. 25. of the system of Carpocrates. In Basilides's system, he reports,Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, i. 24, 4. the world was made by the angels who occupy the lowest heaven; but special mention is made of their chief, who is said to have been the God of the Jews, to have led that people out of the land of Egypt, and to have given them their law. The prophecies are ascribed not to the chief but to the other world-making angels.