Note 88 — BOOK VIII THE DOCETAE, MONOIMUS, AND OTHERS

The Cainites are described by Irenæus (I, xxxi) as anterior to Valentinus. The Noachites are mentioned by no other writer. It is difficult to account for the remarks of Hippolytus about the Ophites in this passage in view of the fact that the greater part of Book V has been devoted to the doctrines of the “Naassenes”—a word which he evidently recognized as identical with “Ophites.” Unless we are to believe that Ὀφιτῶν is here a copyist’s error for the name of some other sect, we are almost compelled to accept the theory given in the Introduction, i. e. that the materials for Book V only came into Hippolytus’ hands after the rest of the book was written, and that their heresy was then suddenly pitchforked into the place in which we find it without due consideration of its accord with passages like the present. In that case the “seven Books before this” on p. 397 Cr. must originally have read “five,” unless we are to suppose that their place was occupied by the description of the Jewish sects later transferred to Book IX.