The Evil Creator

This book examines the origins of the evil creator idea chiefly in light of early Christian biblical interpretation. It is divided into two main parts. In Part I, the focus is on the interpretation of a variety of alternative Christian groups (e.g., “Phibionite,” “Sethian,” “Ophite”). First, the pre-Christian Egyptian assimilation of the Jewish god to the evil deity Seth-Typhon is studied to understand its reapplication by alternative Christians to the Judeo-catholic creator. Second, an alternative Christian reception of John 8:44 (understood to refer to the devil’s father) is shown to implicate the Judeo-catholic creator in murdering Christ. Part II focuses on Marcionite Christian biblical interpretations. It begins with Marcionite interpretations of the creator’s character in Jewish scripture(Chapter 3), analyzes the reception of 2 Corinthians 4:4 (in which “the god of this world” blinds people, Chapter 4), examines Christ’s so-called destruction of the Law (Eph 2:15) and the Lawgiver (Chapters 5–6), and shows how Christ finally succumbs to the curse of the Law (Gal 3:13) inflicted by the creator (Chapter 7). A concluding chapter sums up the findings and shows how still today many readers of the Bible conclude that the creator is evil.