The Ophites or Ophians (from Greek ὄφιανοι > ὄφις = snake): any of numerous Gnostic sects in Syria and Egypt about 100 AD. The Ophite sects revered the serpent of Genesis as a symbol of gnosis, which the tyrant Yaldabaoth tried to hide from Adam and Eve. As John 3:14 tells that "as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up," the Ophites felt perfectly justified in their position, and Christian heresiologists took particular offense at turning their view of the serpent on its head.
Irenæus wrote a history of heresy toward the end of the second century and knew of Gnostics under the name of "Ophites"; Clement of Alexandria[1] mentions beside the "Cainists" the "Ophians" (Οφιανοί), saying that their name is derived from the object of their worship. Philaster, an author of the fourth century, places the Ophites, the Cainites, and the Sethians at the head of all heresies (ch. 1-3), because he holds that they owed their origin to the serpent (the Devil).
Beliefs
The Ophites envisioned creation as a series of emanations:
The True and Holy Church:
- Bythos (Depth):
- Father of All (the First Man):
- Ennoia, the Son of Man (the Second Man):
- The Holy Spirit, the First Woman:
- Water
- Darkness
- The Abyss
- Chaos
- The Holy Spirit, the First Woman:
- Ennoia, the Son of Man (the Second Man):
- Father of All (the First Man):
From the Holy Spirit, the Third Man (Christ) was begotten by the First and Second. Christ flew upward with his mother, and in their ascent a spark of light fell on the waters as Sophia. From this contact came seven Archons, to whom the inspiration of the prophets was attributed:
- Yaldabaoth ("yalda bahut" = "son of chaos"), the Demiurge
- Iao
- Sabaoth
- Adonaios
- Elaios
- Astaphanos
- Horaios ("or" = "light")
And with them created the seven heavens, and from the dregs of matter the Nous of serpent form, from whom are spirit and soul, evil and death. Yaldabaoth then announced himself as the Supreme, but his mother, hearing him speak, cried out against him,
Do not lie, Yaldabaoth: for the father of all, the First Man (Anthropos), is above thee; and so is Man the Son of Man.[2]
And when man (created by the six powers) gave thanks for life not to Yaldabaoth but to the First Man, Yaldabaoth created a woman (Eve) to destroy him. Then Sophia or Prunikos sent the serpent (as a benefactor) to persuade Adam and Eve to eat the Tree of Knowledge and so break the commandment of Yaldabaoth, who banished them from paradise to earth. After a long war between mankind aided by Prunikos against Yaldabaoth (this is the inner story of the Old Testament), the Holy Spirit sends Christ to the earth to enter (united with his sister Prunikos) the pure vessel, the virgin-born Jesus. Jesus Christ worked miracles and declared himself the Son of the First Man. Yaldabaoth instigated the Jews to kill him, but only Jesus died on the cross, for Christ and Prunikos had departed from him. Christ then raised the spiritual body of Jesus which remained on earth for eighteen months, initiating a small circle of elect disciples. Jesus, received into heaven, sits at the right hand of Yaldabaoth, whom he deprives of glory and receives the souls that are his own. In some circles the serpent was identified with Prunikos.
There are some resemblances to the Valentinian system, but whereas the great Archon sins in ignorance, Yaldabaoth sins against knowledge; there is also less of Greek philosophy in the Ophite system.
See also
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.
- The infamous and enigmatic Ophite Diagrams
- The Naassenes (from Hebrew na'asch = snake): It is unclear if this group is the same as the Ophites; the names are often used interchangeably
- 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
- The Worship of the Serpent
- Snake worship
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.
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
- This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.
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