"The Ophites or Ophians (Greek Ophianoi, from ophis "snake") were members of a Christian Gnostic sect depicted by Hippolytus of Rome (170–235) in a lost work, the Syntagma ('arrangement')...

"Pseudo-Tertullian (probably the Latin translation of the lost work Syntagma of Hippolytus, written c. 220) is the earliest source to mention Ophites, and the first source to discuss the connection with serpents. He claims (Haer. 2.1-4) that the Ophites taught that: 'Christ did not exist in the flesh; that they extolled the serpent and preferred it to Christ; and that Christ imitated Moses' serpent's sacred power (Num 21:6-9) saying, 'And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up (John 3:14)' (Haer. 2:1). In addition, Eve is said to have believed the serpent, as if it had been God the Son.'...

"Irenaeus (died c. 202) gives, in what seems intended for chronological order, a list of heresies, beginning with Simon Magus and ending with Tatian, and adds in a kind of appendix a description of a variety of Gnostic sects deriving their origin, as Irenaeus maintains, from the heresy of Simon Magus..."