Ophites (Gr. ophitai, from ophis, 'a serpent'), a class of Gnostics, who, while they shared the general belief in dualism, the conflict of matter and spirit, the emanations, and the Demiurgos, were distinguished by giving a prominent place in their systems to the serpent. Some of their divisions were the Sethiani, the Naaseni (Heb. nahash, 'serpent') in Phrygia, and the Peratæ, who honoured the serpent which tempted Eve, as having introduced knowledge and revolt against the bondage of the Archon. We owe our knowledge of them mainly to Irenæus, Clement, Origen, and Hippolytus: the last also contains an account of two other Ophite systems, that of the Sethians and of Justinus. Already in his day the sect was fast dying out, although Theodoret mentions serpent-worship as still existing in the 5th century.
See Gnostics, and the books named there; also Lipsius in the Zeitschr. für Wissenschaftl. Theol. (1863) Gruber, Die Ophiten (1864); and the Rabbi Dr Adolph Hönig's monograph, Die Ophiten (1889).