Ophite, n.2 Eccl. Hist.
(ˈɒfaɪt)
[a. late L. Ophītæ (Isidore Orig. viii. v.), a. Gr. Ὀϕῖται (Hippolytus, etc.), pl. of Ὀϕίτης, f. ὄϕις serpent: see -ite1 1.]
A member of a sect which arose about the 2nd century, who paid reverence to the serpent as an embodiment of divine wisdom.
| 1692 W. Wotton tr. Dupin's Eccl. Writers I. 127 [Origen] attacks the Ebionites,..the Ophites, and the Sabellians. 1727 H. Herbert tr. Fleury's Eccl. Hist. I. 194 The Ophites, who said that Wisdom had turned itself into a Serpent. 1855 Pusey Doctr. Real Presence Note S. 326 Even the Ophites, who worshipped the serpent as Christ ‘introduced him to bless their Eucharist’. 1871 Tylor Prim. Cult. II. 220 The cultus which tradition..declares the semi-Christian sect of Ophites to have rendered to their tame snake. |
| attrib. 1793 W. Holwell Mythol. Dict. 306 The Ophite priests were very learned. 1888 E. Hatch Infl. Grk. Ideas iii. (1890) 70 The Ophite writer, Justin. |
Hence
ˈOphitism = Ophism.
| 1875 Lightfoot Colossians 98 Phrygia reared the hybrid monstrosities of Ophitism. |