Ophites

Information about Ophites

Part of a series on Gnosticism

History of Gnosticism
Gnosticism History of Gnosticism Mandaeism Manichaeism
Syrian-Egyptic Gnosticism Sethians Thomasines Valentinians Basilideans Bardaisanites
Proto-Gnostics Philo Simon Magus Cerinthus Basilides
Fathers of Christian Gnosticism Theudas Valentinus Marcion of Sinope
Early Gnosticism Ophites Cainites Carpocratians Borborites Marcionism Thomasines
Medieval Gnosticism Paulicianism Tondrakians Bogomilism Bosnian Church Catharism
Gnosticism in modern times Gnosticism in popular culture
Gnostic texts Nag Hammadi library Codex Tchacos Gnosticism and the New Testament Gnostic Gospels
Related articles Gnosis Pythagoreanism Neoplatonism and Gnosticism Esoteric Christianity Theosophy This box: • • [ edit]

The Ophites or Ophians (from Greek ὄφιανοι > ὄφις = snake): any of numerous Gnostic sects in Syria and Egypt about A.D. 100. The common trait was that these sects would give great importance to the serpent of the biblical tale of Adam and Eve, connecting the Tree of Knowledge (of Good and Evil) to gnosis. In contrast to Christian interpretations of the Serpent as Satan, Ophites viewed the serpent as the hero, and regarded the figure that the Bible identifies as God instead as being the evil demiurge.

Since the Bible says that the serpent is a wild animal (hayah ha'sadeh), the Ophites felt perfectly justified in their position, pointing to the serpent's trying to cause Adam and Eve to gain knowledge, and the forbidding of this knowledge by the figure which Christianity and Judaism identify as God. Christians who supported the church orthodoxy viewed Gnosticism as their archenemy, and took particular offense at the Ophites turning their view of the serpent on its head.

Most information about the ophitic sects must be gleaned from what their enemies said of them: Hippolytus (Philosoph. v.), Irenaeus (Against Heresies, i), Origen (Contra Celsum vi. 25 seq.) and Epiphanius of Salamis (Panarion. xxvi.). A few Ophite texts have been recovered from discoveries such as the Nag Hammadi find.

Ophite sects

The Naasseners (from Hebrew na'asch = snake)
The Sethians.
The Mandaeans are considered an Ophite religion that has survived (up to and including the present day).
The Perates (from the Greek language peras, "to penetrate")
The Borborites

References

Francis Legge, Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity, From 330 B.C. to 330 A.D. (1914), reprinted in two volumes bound as one, University Books New York, 1964. LC Catalog 64-24125.
The Ophite Diagrams, briefly by the christian Origen and Pagan Celsus. Emanations and angels reveal Persian influence.

Syrian-Egyptian Gnostic Schools

Sethians

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Sethians were a group of ancient Gnostics, that date their existence before Christianity. [1] Their influence spread throughout the Mediterranean into the later systems of the Thomasines, the Basilideans and the Valentinians.
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Valentinianism is a Gnostic movement that was founded by Valentinus in the second century CE. Valentinianism was one of the major Gnostic movements. Its influence was extremely widespread, not just within Rome, but also from Egypt through Asia Minor and Syria in the east, and
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The Basilideans were a Gnostic sect founded by Basilides of Alexandria in the 2nd century.

Doctrine

Basilides claimed to have been taught his doctrines by Glaucus, a disciple of St Peter.
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Bardaisan (Syriac: ܒܪܕܝܨܢ, Bardaiṣān; 154–222; also Latinized as Bardesanes) was a Syriac gnostic, founder of the Bardaisanites
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Philo (20 BC - 50 AD), known also as Philo of Alexandria and as Philo Judaeus And as Yedidia, was a Hellenized Jewish philosopher born in Alexandria, Egypt.

Philo used allegory to fuse and harmonize Greek philosophy and Judaism.
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Simon Magus, also known as Simon the Sorcerer and Simon of Gitta, is the name used by the ancient Christian Orthodoxy to refer to a person identified as a Samaritan proto-Gnostic.
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Cerinthus (c 100) was an early Christian originator of a heretical sect, a "heresiarch" in the view of the Church Fathers. Contrary to proto-orthodox Christianity, Cerinthus's school followed the Jewish law, denied that the Supreme God had made the physical world, and
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Basilides (early 2nd century) was an early Christian religious teacher in Alexandria, Egypt. He apparently wrote twenty-four books on the Gospel and promoted a dualism influenced by Zoroastrianism. His followers formed a Gnostic sect, the Basilideans.
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The Church Fathers or Fathers of the Church is a term used in Catholic and Orthodox forms of Christianity to refer to the early and influential theologians and writers in the Christian Church. The study of the Fathers is known as Patristics.
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Theudas was allegedly the name of a Christian Gnostic thinker, who was a follower of Paul of Tarsus. He went on to teach the Gnostic Valentinius. The only evidence of this connection is the testimony of Valentinius' followers.
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Valentinus (c.100 - c.160 CE ) was the best known and for a time most successful early Christian Gnostic theologian. He founded his school in Rome. Tertullian, in Adversus Valentinianos
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Marcion of Sinope (ca. 110-160), was a major 2nd century Early Christian theologian, founder of what would later be called Marcionism, and one of the first to be strongly denounced by other Christians (later the organized Church) as heretical for promoting gnostic ideology in the
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Early Gnosticism refers to a point in Gnosticism that occurred following the Fathers of Christian Gnosticism and related groups but prior to the shift to Medieval Gnosticism.
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The Cainites, or Cainians, were a Gnostic and Antinomian sect who were known to worship Cain as the first victim of the Demiurge Jehovah, the Old Testament God, who was identified by many groups of gnostics as evil.
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Carpocrates of Alexandria was the founder of an early Gnostic sect from the first half of the second century. As with many Gnostic sects we know of the Carpocratians only through the writings of the Church Fathers, in the case of Carpocrates, principally Irenaeus of Lyons and
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borborites (or barbelos, barbelites, phibionites, stratiotici, coddians etc) were a libertine Gnostic ophite sect. The word "borborite" comes from the Greek word borboros which means "mud"; thus "borborites" could be translated as "filthy ones.
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Marcionism is the dualist belief system that originates in the teachings of Marcion of Sinope at Rome around the year 144.^[1] Marcion affirmed Jesus Christ as the savior sent by God and Paul as his chief apostle, but he rejected the Hebrew Bible and Yahweh.
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Tondrakians were members of an anti-feudal, heretical Christian sect that flourished in medieval Armenia between the early 9th century and 11th century and centered around the city of Tondrak, north of Lake Van.
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For the Slavic name Bogomil - see here

Bogomilism (Bulgarian: Богомилство
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The Bosnian Church (crkva bosanska, ecclesia bosniensis) is historically thought to be an indigenous branch of the Bogomils that existed in Bosnia during the Middle Ages. Adherents of the church called themselves simply Krstjani ("Christians").
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Catharism was a name given to a religious sect with gnostic elements that appeared in the Languedoc region of France in the 11th Century and flourished in the 12th and 13th Centuries.
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Ophites

Information about Ophites

Ophite sects

References

See Also

Syrian-Egyptian Gnostic Schools

Doctrine