OPHITES

ōˈfīts [Gr.,=believers in the serpent], group of Gnostic sects notorious for extreme cultism and inverted morality. Certain of these sects were known as Naasseni. Almost all that is known of Ophitism has been gleaned from St. Irenaeus, Origen, and other writers opposed to Gnosticism. The Ophites carried to extremes the teaching of Marcion that an essential hostility exists between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament. The Ophites held that the Old Testament villains were actually heroes and revered Cain, the Sodomites, and the Egyptians. Specially worshiped was the serpent, as the creature in Eden that tried to give Adam and Eve the knowledge withheld from them by Jehovah. Much of the serpent worship and the occult ritualism was probably symbolic of certain esoteric knowledge. The Ophites acknowledged Jesus as the savior, but rejected the importance of the crucifixion; Christ came to reveal gnosis (knowledge), not to die for people's sins. One Ophitic hymn, the Hymn of the Naasenes, survives.

See E. Buonaiuti, Gnostic Fragments (1924); R. M. Grant, Gnosticism and Early Christianity (1959, rev. ed. 1966).

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The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright© 2004, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V. All rights reserved.

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Questia Books and Articles on: Ophites
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books on: Ophites  - 137 results

       More book Results: 1-10 11-20 21-30 31-40 41-50 >>  
 
1.
The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge - Vol. 8
Book by Samuel Macauley Jackson, George William Gilmore; Funk and Wagnalls, 1910
Subjects: Theology--Encyclopedias
OPHITES. Name and Classification 1 . The Naassenian...and Redemption 4 . The Mysteries 15 . Ophites Ophians is the accepted designation, in...has it the same relative prominence. Ophites, then, is a mere collective term for...
2.
The Birth of the Christian Religion
Book by Alfred Loisy, L. P. Jacks; George Allen & Unwin, 1948
Subjects: Church History--Primitive And Early Church, Ca. 30-600
...discusses a diagram made by the Ophites which Celsus, without naming the Ophites, alleges to have been an esoteric...Origen exclaims that the Ophites who curse the Creator also...diagram and not true of all the Ophite sects. A preposterous doctrine...
3.
The Birth of the Christian Religion (La Naissance Du Christianisme): And the Origins of the New Testament (Les Origines Du Nouveau Testament)
Book by Alfred Firmin Loisy; Universiy Books, 1962
Subjects: Bible--N.T--Criticism, Interpretation, Etc, Church History--Primitive And Early Church, Ca. 30-600
...discusses a diagram made by the Ophites which Celsus, without naming the Ophites, alleges to have been an esoteric...Origen exclaims that the Ophites who curse the Creator also...diagram and not true of all the Ophite sects. A preposterous doctrine...
4.
Anthology of Classical Myth: Primary Sources in Translation
Book by Stephen M. Trzaskoma, R. Scott Smith, Stephen Brunet, Thomas G. Palaima; Hackett, 2004
Subjects: Classical Literature--Translations Into English, Mythology, Classical--Literary Collections
...Creon), and his sons, Therimachus and Ophites. The river Achelous could change himself...Creon), and his sons Therimachus and Ophites. Hercules killed Eurytus because he wanted...Creon), and his sons Theri- machus and Ophites, and take control of the throne. Hercules...
5.
The Biblical Archaeologist Reader
Book by G. Ernest Wright, David Noel Freedman; Anchor Books, 1961
Subjects: Bible--Antiquities
...sect re lated to the Ophites, called Seth Allogenes...while Sethians also an Ophite sect , Barbelognostics...based on content. 7 The Ophites Greek ophis = snake or...gnostics resembled the Ophites in many ways but their...though smaller than the Ophite group. For a good discussion...
More book Results: 1-10 11-20 21-30 31-40 41-50 >>

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journal articles on: Ophites  - 5 results

 
 
1.
Abraxas: Light and Dark Sides of Divinity in Hermann Hesse's Demian
Journal article by Bettina L. Knapp; Symposium, Vol. 38, 1984
Subjects: Philology, Modern
...the Christian is a believer or theoretician . The name "Gnostic" is applied to a variety of religious sects (Manichaeans, Ophites, Marcionites, Basilidians, Cathari, Albigensians, and others) that flourished prior to and after the advent of Christianity...
2.
Environmental Antinomianism: The Moral World Turned Upside Down?
Journal article by Mick Smith; Ethics and the Environment, Vol. 5, 2000
Subjects: Ecology--Philosophy, Environmental Ethics
...example of the rejection of the authority of the moral law even when it apparently has the textual backing of scripture. The Ophites glorified the serpent, who tempted Eve to break Gods commandment not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge, as the liberator of...
3.
Irenaeus and the Baptism of Jesus
Journal article by Daniel A. Smith; Theological Studies, Vol. 58, 1997
Subjects: Baptism--Philosophy, Irenaeus--Philosophy, Jesus Christ--Divinity
...virtue of the incarnational union (Irenaeus) or by virtue of his production (the Valentinians, Adv. haer. 1.2.6; the Ophites, 1.30.12). Again, both would agree that in spite of his unique humanity Jesus required a further gift that occurred...
4.
"Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War" the Novelist as Poet: A Study in the Dramatic Poetry of Herman Melville
Journal article by Mustafa Jalal; American Studies International, Vol. 39, 2001
Subjects: Battle-Pieces (Book)--Criticism, interpretation, etc., Characters and characteristics in literature--Criticism, interpretation, etc., Civil war--Portrayals, depictions, etc., Melville, Herman--Criticism, interpretation, etc., Novelists--Criticism, interpretation, etc., War poetry--Criticism, interpretation, etc.
...Jewish theology, Raphael is the spirit of the air, divine physician and patron of pilgrims. According to the gnostic sect of Ophites he had a head resembling that of a reptile, he typified the superconsciousness, and resided in the eastern quarter of the...
5.
Melville's Ichthyphallic God
Journal article by Herbert N. Schneider, Homer B. Pettey; Studies in American Fiction, Vol. 26, 1998
Subjects: Melville, Herman--Criticism, interpretation, etc., Moby Dick (Book)--Criticism, interpretation, etc.
...demiurge, or even the devil himself (as in Ophite readings of the Old Testament).(2...identifies Moby-Dick as the Shelleyan-Ophite God, a tyrannical and demagogic "demiurge...page number. (2) Melville mentions the Ophites in chapter 41. Jorge Luis Borges arrived...


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magazine articles on: Ophites  - 1 result

 
 
1.
The Character of Captain Ahab in Melville's 'Moby Dick.'
Magazine article by James W. Tuttleton; World and I, Vol. 13, February 1998
Subjects: Captain Ahab--Criticism and interpretation, Characters and characteristics in literature--Criticism and interpretation, Literary characters--Criticism and interpretation, Moby Dick (Book)--Criticism and interpretation
...has been from the beginning; to whose dominion even the modern Christians ascribe onehalf of the worlds; which the ancient Ophites of the east reverenced in their statue devil;--Ahab did not fall down and worship it like them; but deliriously transferring...


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encyclopedia articles on: Ophites  - 2 results

 
 
1.
Ophites
Encyclopedia article; The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2009
OPHITES o fits Gr.,=believers in the serpent...other writers opposed to Gnosticism . The Ophites carried to extremes the teaching of Marcion...and the God of the New Testament. The Ophites held that the Old Testament villains were...
2.
Gnosticism
Encyclopedia article; The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2009
...inspired extreme asceticism (as in the Valentinian school) or extreme licentiousness (as in the sect of Caprocrates and the Ophites ). The influence of Gnosticism on the later development of the Jewish kabbalah and heterodox Islamic sects such as the Ismailis...


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