The Ophites is a blanket term for numerous gnostic sects in Syria and Egypt about 100 A.D. 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. This article is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... -1... Serpent is a word of Latin origin (serpens, serpentis) that is normally substituted for snake in a specifically mythic or religious context, in order to distinguish such creatures from the field of biology. ... It has been suggested that portions of this article be split into a new article entitled Adam. ... Look up gnosis in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The term Demiurge refers in some belief systems to a deity responsible for the creation of the physical universe and the physical aspect of humanity. ...

As the Bible doesn't actually identify the serpent more than being a serpent, 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 supporting the church orthodoxy viewed Gnosticism as their arch enemy, and took particular offence at the Ophites turning their view of the serpent on its head, eventually persecuting them out of existence.

Due to the church orthodoxy destroying (in the 4th century) the Ophite's own manuscripts and texts, 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. Hippolytus, was a writer of the early Church. ... An engraving of Saint Irenaeus (ca. ... Origen (ca. ... Epiphanius (ca 310–20 – 403) was a Church Father, a heresiologist who was a strong defender of orthodoxy, known for tracking down deviant teachings (heresies) wherever they could be traced, during the troubled era in the Christian Church following the Council of Nicaea. ... The town of Nag Hammadi in Egypt Nag Hammâdi (Arabic نجع حمادي; transliterated: Naj Hammādi) (26°03′N 32°15′E), is a town in the middle of Egypt, called Chenoboskion in classical antiquity, about 80 kilometres north-west of Luxor with some 30,000 citizens. ...

Ophite sects

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

The Ophites is a blanket term for numerous gnostic sects in Syria and Egypt about 100 A.D. The Naasseners, the Sethians, the Mandaeans, the Perates and the Borborites are the known gnostic sects known as The Ophites. ... Hebrew (עִבְרִית ‘Ivrit) is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken by more than seven million people in Israel with the West Bank, the United States, and Jewish communities around the world. ... Superfamilies and Families Henophidia Aniliidae Anomochilidae Boidae Bolyeriidae Cylindrophiidae Loxocemidae Pythonidae Tropidophiidae Uropeltidae Xenopeltidae Typhlopoidea Anomalepididae Leptotyphlopidae Typhlopidae Xenophidia Acrochordidae Atractaspididae Colubridae Elapidae Hydrophiidae Viperidae Snakes (from Old English snaca, and ultimately from PIE base *snag- or *sneg-, to crawl), also known as ophidians, are cold blooded legless reptiles closely... The sethians were a group of gnostics, originally independant from christianity. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Mandaeism. ... Greek (, IPA — Hellenic) is an Indo-European language with a documented history of 3,500 years. ... According to Epiphanius of Salamis book Panarion/Adversus Haereses chapter xxv, xxvi and Theodorets Haereticarum Fabularum Compendium the borborites (or barbelos, barbelites, phibionites, stratiotici, coddians etc) were a extraordinarily filthy and evil Gnostic ophite sect. ...

See also

• The Church of God with Signs Following is a group of American Pentecostal churches that engage in the practice of snake handling in their religious worship services.

The Church of God with Signs Following is the name applied to Pentecostal holiness churches that engage in the practice of snake handling and drinking poison in their religious worship services, based on Mark 16:17-18. ... Snake handling is a religious ritual in some Christian churches in the U.S., usually characterized as rural and Pentecostal. ...

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 and distainfully described by Heretical Christian writer Origen and the Pagan Celsus. Emanations and angels reveal Persian influence.