Paradise reconsidered in Gnostic mythmaking
Subtitle: rethinking Sethianism in light of the Ophite evidence
By: by Tuomas Rasimus.
Series: Nag Hammadi and Manichaean studies -- v. 68; Nag Hammadi and Manichaean studies -- 68.
Publisher: Brill
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Leiden; Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 355
ISBN-13: 9789004173231
Subjects: Sethians; Ophites
Description: This work offers a new understanding of Sethianism and the origins of Gnosticism by examining the mythology in and social reality behind a group of texts to which certain leaders of the early church occasionally attached the label 'Ophite'.
Notes: Revision of the author's thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Helsinki and Université Laval, 2006.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [295]-312) and indexes.
Table of contents: title: Pt. I. Introduction. Rethinking Sethianism; title: Pt. II. Myth and innovation. The serpent; title: The creator and the Archons; title: Sophia, Eve and gnosis; title: Adam and Christ; title: The pillars of Seth : Sethianization of Ophite and Barbeloite myths; title: Pt. III. Ritual. Evidence for Ophite snake worship; title: Anathema Iesous : Origen on the Ophite cursing of Jesus; title: The Ophite seal, Sethian baptism and the Johannine prologue.