Is Irenaeus Making Reference to the 'Ophite Diagram'

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According to the Pythagoreans, the universe was built up of concentric spheres. Beginning with the outer sphere, they were: the sphere of the fixed stars; the spheres of each of the five planets; and the spheres of the sun, the moon and the earth. The sphere of the fixed stars was considered as one heavenly body. There were then altogether nine heavenly bodies. They all rotated about a common center, the central fire, where Zeus, the governing power of the universe, resided. But it was inconceivable that the number of heavenly bodies would be nine when the most important number was 10. So there must be 10 heavenly bodies. The Pythagoreans indeed assumed the existence of a tenth heavenly body, the "counterearth." But there had to be a reason why this body was not seen. Therefore, they supposed that the earth moved in such a way that the inhabited side was always turned away from the central fire and that the counterearth was diametrically placed relative to the earth or between the earth and the central fire. For these reasons the counter-earth could not be seen.

Also the distances of the heavenly bodies to the central fire were subject to the laws of number. The numerical ratios that caused harmony in music must also bring about a harmonic structure in the universe. The ratios of the distances must therefore be harmonic. The Pythagoreans went even further, for they assumed that the ratios of the dimensions of the universe brought about corresponding musical tones. https://books.google.com/books?id=4e67A ... 4Q6AEIHDAA

Clearly these ideas were incorporated into the mysticism of Clement of Alexandria but what about the community that produced the so-called Ophite diagram:

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Clement's cryptic reference to the universe as ten spheres actually derives from Philo which allows us some wiggle room. What is now preserved in Clement reads:

Now, faith being twofold—the faith of knowledge and that of opinion—nothing prevents us from calling demonstration twofold, the one resting on knowledge, the other on opinion; since also knowledge and foreknowledge are designated as twofold, that which is essentially accurate, that which is defective. And is not the demonstration, which we possess, that alone which is true, as being supplied out of the divine Scriptures, the sacred writings, and out of the “God-taught wisdom,” according to the apostle? Learning, then, is also obedience to the commandments, which is faith in God. And faith is a power of God, being the strength of the truth. For example, it is said, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard, ye shall remove the mountain.”2261 And again, “According to thy faith let it be to thee.”2262 And one is cured, receiving healing by faith; and the dead is raised up in consequence of the power of one believing that he would be raised. The demonstration, however, which rests on opinion is human, and is the result of rhetorical arguments or dialectic syllogisms. For the highest demonstration, to which we have alluded, produces intelligent faith by the adducing and opening up of the Scriptures
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to the souls of those who desire to learn; the result of which is knowledge (gnosis). For if what is adduced in order to prove the point at issue is assumed to be true, as being divine and prophetic, manifestly the conclusion arrived at by inference from it will consequently be inferred truly; and the legitimate result of the demonstration will be knowledge. When, then, the memorial of the celestial and divine food was commanded to be consecrated in the golden pot, it was said, “The omer was the tenth of the three measures.”2263 For in ourselves, by the three measures are indicated three criteria; sensation of objects of sense, speech,—of spoken names and words, and the mind,—of intellectual objects. The Gnostic, therefore, will abstain from errors in speech, and thought, and sensation, and action, having heard “that he that looks so as to lust hath committed adultery;”2264 and reflecting that “blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God;”2265 and knowing this, “that not what enters into the mouth defileth, but that it is what cometh forth by the mouth that defileth the man. For out of the heart proceed thoughts.”2266 This, as I think, is the true and just measure according to God, by which things capable of measurement are measured, the decad which is comprehensive of man; which summarily the three above-mentioned measures pointed out. There are body and soul, the five senses, speech, the power of reproduction—the intellectual or the spiritual faculty, or whatever you choose to call it. And we must, in a word, ascending above all the others, stop at the mind; as also certainly in the universe overleaping the nine divisions, the first consisting of the four elements put in one place for equal interchange: and then the seven wandering stars and the one that wanders not, the ninth, to the perfect number, which is above God, and the tenth division, we must reach to the knowledge of God, to speak briefly, desiring the Maker after the creation. (Χρὴ δὲ ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν τῶν ἄλλων πάντων ὑπεραναβαίνοντας ἐπὶ τὸν νοῦν ἵστασθαι, ὥσπερ ἀμέλει κἀν τῷ κόσμῳ τὰς ἐννέα μοίρας ὑπερπηδήσαντας, πρώτην μὲν τὴν διὰ τῶν τεσσάρων στοιχείων ἐν μιᾷ χώρᾳ τιθεμένων διὰ τὴν ἴσην τροπήν, ἔπειτα δὲ τὰς ἑπτὰ τὰς πλανωμένας τήν τε ἀπλανῆ ἐνάτην, ἐπὶ τὸν τέλειον ἀριθμὸν τὸν ὑπεράνω τῶν θεῶν, τὴν [δὲ] δεκάτην μοῖραν, ἐπὶ τὴν γνῶσιν ἀφικνεῖσθαι τοῦ θεοῦ, συνελόντι φάναι μετὰ τὴν κτίσιν τὸν ποιητὴν ἐπιποθοῦντας) Wherefore the tithes both of the ephah and of the sacrifices were presented to God; and the paschal feast began with the tenth day, being the transition from all trouble, and from all objects of sense.

The Gnostic is therefore fixed by faith; but the man who thinks himself wise touches not what pertains to the truth, moved as he is by unstable and wavering impulses. It is therefore reasonably written, “Cain went forth from the face of God, and dwelt in the land of Naid, over against Eden.” Now Naid is interpreted commotion, and Eden delight; and Faith, and Knowledge, and Peace are delight, from which he that has disobeyed is cast out. But he that is wise in his own eyes will not so much as listen to the beginning of the divine commandments; but, as if his own teacher, throwing off the reins, plunges voluntarily into a billowy commotion, sinking down to mortal and created things from the uncreated knowledge, holding various opinions at various times. “Those who have no guidance fall like leaves.”2268

Reason, the governing principle, remaining unmoved and guiding the soul, is called its pilot. For access to the Immutable is obtained by a truly immutable means. Thus Abraham was stationed before the Lord, and approaching spoke.2269 And to Moses it is said, “But do thou stand there with Me.”2270 And the followers of Simon wish be assimilated in manners to the standing form which they adore. Faith, therefore, and the knowledge of the truth, render the soul, which makes them its choice, always uniform and equable. For congenial to the man of falsehood is shifting, and change, and turning away, as to the Gnostic are calmness, and rest, and peace. As, then, philosophy has been brought into evil repute by pride and self-conceit, so also gnosis by false gnosis called by the same name; of which the apostle writing says, “O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding the profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science (gnosis) falsely so called; which some professing, have erred concerning the faith.”2271

Convicted by this utterance, the heretics reject the Epistles to Timothy.2272 Well, then, if the Lord is the truth, and wisdom, and power of God, as in truth He is, it is shown that the real Gnostic is he that knows Him, and His Father by Him. For his sentiments are the same with him who said, “The lips of the righteous know high things.”2273 [Strom. 2.11]

But Philo originally said:

For “he (Melkizedek) gave him,” it runs, “a tenth from all” (Gen. xiv. 20); from the things of sense, right use of sense; from the things of speech, good speaking; from the things of thought, good thinking. | Admirable then, and demanded by the facts, are the100 words added as a sort of side utterance, when while telling us how the memorial of the divine and heavensent food was enshrined in a golden jar he continues, “the omer was the tenth part of three measures” (Ex. xvi. 36). For we seem to contain three measures, sense, speech, mind; sense measuring the objects of sense, speech the parts of speech and what we say, and mind the things of mind. Of each of these three101 measures we must offer as it were a holy tenth, that speech, sense perception and apprehension may be judged soundly and blamelessly according to God’s standard, for this is the true and just measure, while our measures are false and unjust.

XIX. So too it102 is only natural that in the matter of sacrifices the tenths of the measure of fine flour should be brought with the victims to the altar (Ex. xxix. 40), while the numbers up to nine, what is left by the tenth, remain with ourselves. | And the recurrent oblation of the priests is in agreement with this; they103 are commanded to offer always the tenth of the ephah of fine flour (Lev. vi. 20), for they have learned to rise above the ninth, the seeming deity, the world of sense, and to worship Him who is in very truth God, who stands alone as the tenth.a For to the104 world belong nine parts, eight in heaven, one of the stars which wander not and seven of those that wander, though the order of their wandering is ever the same, while earth with water and air make the ninth, for the three form a single family, subject to changes and transformations of every kind. Now105 the mass of men pay honour to these nine parts and to the world which is formed from them, but he that has reached perfection honours Him that is above the nine, even their maker God, who is the tenth. For he continues to soar above all the artificer’s work and desirea the artificer Himself, ever eager to be His suppliant and servant (ἔμαθον γὰρ τὸν ἔνατον ὑπερβαίνοντες αἰσθητὸν δοκήσει θεὸν τὸν δέκατον καὶ μόνον ὄντα ἀψευδῶς προσκυνεῖν. ἐννέα γὰρ ὁ κόσμος ἔλαχε μοίρας, ἐν οὐρανῷ μὲν ὀκτώ, τήν τε ἀπλανῆ καὶ ἑπτὰ τὰς πεπλανημένας ἐν τάξεσι φερομένας ταῖς αὐταῖς, ἐνάτην δὲ γῆν σὺν1 ὕδατι καὶ ἀέρι· τούτων γὰρ μία συγγένεια τροπὰς καὶ 105μεταβολὰς παντοίας δεχομένων. οἱ μὲν οὖν πολλοὶ τὰς ἐννέα ταύτας μοίρας καὶ τὸν παγέντα κόσμον ἐξ αὐτῶν ἐτίμησαν, ὁ δὲ τέλειος τὸν ὑπεράνω τῶν ἐννέα, δημιουργὸν αὐτῶν, δέκατον θεὸν· ὅλον γὰρ ὑπερκύψας τὸ ἔργον ἐπόθει τὸν τεχνίτην, καὶ ἱκέτης καὶ θεραπευτὴς ἐσπούδαζεν αὐτοῦ γενέσθαι). That is why the priest offers recurrently a tenth to Him who is tenth and alone and eternal. | We find this “ten” plainly106 stated in the story of the soul’s passover, the crossing from every passion and all the realm of sense to the tenth, which is the realm of mind and of God; for we read “on the tenth day of this month let everyone take a sheep for his house” (Ex. xii. 3), and thus beginning with the tenth day we shall sanctify to Him that is tenth the offering fostered in the soul whose face has been illumined through two parts out of three, until its whole being becomes a brightness, giving light to the heaven like a full moon by its increase in the second week. And thus it will be able not only to keep safe, but to offer as innocent and spotless victims its advances on the path of progress.b We find the same in the propitiation107 which is established on the tenth day of the month (Lev. xxiii. 27), when the soul is suppliant to God the tenth, and is schooled to know the humiliation and nothingness of the creature, and also the excessive perfection and pre-eminent excellence in all good things of the uncreated God. Therefore God becomes at once propitious, and propitious too, even without any supplications being addressed to him, to those who abase and humble themselves, and who are not puffed up with vain arrogance and self-opinion. (108) This is remission and deliverance, this is complete freedom of the soul, shaking off the wanderings in which it wandered, and fleeing for a secure anchorage to the one nature which cannot wander, and which rises up to return to the lot which it formerly received when it had brilliant aspirations, and when it vigorously toiled in labours which had virtuous ends for their object. For then admiring it for its exertions, the holy scripture honoured it, giving it a most especial honour, and immortal inheritance, a place namely in the imperishable race. (109) This is what the wise Abraham supplicates for, when that which in word indeed is the land of Sodom, but in real fact is the soul made barren of all good things and blinded as to its reason, is about to be burnt up, in order that if the memorial of justice, namely the Tenth{24}{#ge 18:32.} part be found in it, it may obtain a short of amnesty. Therefore he begins his supplication with a prayer for pardon, connected with the number fifty, and terminates with the number ten, the lowest number for whose deliverance he can dare to entreat.

Side by side comparison.

First Clement:

And we must, in a word, ascending above all the others, stop at the mind; as also certainly in the universe overleaping the nine divisions, the first consisting of the four elements put in one place for equal interchange: and then the seven wandering stars and the one that wanders not, the ninth, to the perfect number, which is above God, and the tenth division, we must reach to the knowledge of God, to speak briefly, desiring the Maker after the creation.

Χρὴ δὲ ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν τῶν ἄλλων πάντων ὑπεραναβαίνοντας ἐπὶ τὸν νοῦν ἵστασθαι, ὥσπερ ἀμέλει κἀν τῷ κόσμῳ τὰς ἐννέα μοίρας ὑπερπηδήσαντας, πρώτην μὲν τὴν διὰ τῶν τεσσάρων στοιχείων ἐν μιᾷ χώρᾳ τιθεμένων διὰ τὴν ἴσην τροπήν, ἔπειτα δὲ τὰς ἑπτὰ τὰς πλανωμένας τήν τε ἀπλανῆ ἐνάτην, ἐπὶ τὸν τέλειον ἀριθμὸν τὸν ὑπεράνω τῶν θεῶν, τὴν [δὲ] δεκάτην μοῖραν, ἐπὶ τὴν γνῶσιν ἀφικνεῖσθαι τοῦ θεοῦ, συνελόντι φάναι μετὰ τὴν κτίσιν τὸν ποιητὴν ἐπιποθοῦντας

And then Philo:

for they have learned to rise above the ninth, the seeming deity, the world of sense, and to worship Him who is in very truth God, who stands alone as the tenth.a For to the104 world belong nine parts, eight in heaven, one of the stars which wander not and seven of those that wander, though the order of their wandering is ever the same, while earth with water and air make the ninth, for the three form a single family, subject to changes and transformations of every kind. Now105 the mass of men pay honour to these nine parts and to the world which is formed from them, but he that has reached perfection honours Him that is above the nine, even their maker God, who is the tenth. For he continues to soar above all the artificer’s work and desire the artificer Himself, ever eager to be His suppliant and servant

ἔμαθον γὰρ τὸν ἔνατον ὑπερβαίνοντες αἰσθητὸν δοκήσει θεὸν τὸν δέκατον καὶ μόνον ὄντα ἀψευδῶς προσκυνεῖν. ἐννέα γὰρ ὁ κόσμος ἔλαχε μοίρας, ἐν οὐρανῷ μὲν ὀκτώ, τήν τε ἀπλανῆ καὶ ἑπτὰ τὰς πεπλανημένας ἐν τάξεσι φερομένας ταῖς αὐταῖς, ἐνάτην δὲ γῆν σὺν1 ὕδατι καὶ ἀέρι· τούτων γὰρ μία συγγένεια τροπὰς καὶ 105μεταβολὰς παντοίας δεχομένων. οἱ μὲν οὖν πολλοὶ τὰς ἐννέα ταύτας μοίρας καὶ τὸν παγέντα κόσμον ἐξ αὐτῶν ἐτίμησαν, ὁ δὲ τέλειος τὸν ὑπεράνω τῶν ἐννέα, δημιουργὸν αὐτῶν, δέκατον θεὸν· ὅλον γὰρ ὑπερκύψας τὸ ἔργον ἐπόθει τὸν τεχνίτην, καὶ ἱκέτης καὶ θεραπευτὴς ἐσπούδαζεν αὐτοῦ γενέσθαι

The idea that Clement has not been tampered with by the orthodox scribes is laughable now that we have the original source at our finger tips. Note some of the gnostic sounding terminology in Philo. The juxtaposition between 'the ninth' 'the seeming deity' (δοκήσει θεὸν) and 'the tenth' 'who alone is worshiped without deceit.' Notice also the reference in Philo

ὁ δὲ τέλειος τὸν ὑπεράνω τῶν ἐννέα δημιουργὸν αὐτῶν, δέκατον θεὸν

he that has reached perfection honours Him that is above the nine their Demiurge - the tenth, God.

Has been transformed by the orthodox editors of Clement into:

ἐπὶ τὸν τέλειον ἀριθμὸν τὸν ὑπεράνω τῶν θεῶν, τὴν [δὲ] δεκάτην μοῖραν

to the perfect number, which is above God, and the tenth division

Is Philo the basis behind the gnostic idea that a god better than the demiurge existed in the highest heaven? Yes.

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And for those who doubt, it is standard in Platonic studies to recognize that the Demiurge was an intermediary being. From Wikipedia:

Philo used the term Logos to mean an intermediary divine being, or demiurge.[13] Philo followed the Platonic distinction between imperfect matter and perfect Form, and therefore intermediary beings were necessary to bridge the enormous gap between God and the material world.[14] The Logos was the highest of these intermediary beings, and was called by Philo "the first-born of God."[14]

and again:

Philo equates the Demiurge with the Logos, the hypostasis which pervades those parts of thecosmos where it is beneath God’s dignity to go. https://www.academia.edu/3798851/The_De ... Gnosticism

To this end we see at last that Clement was 'corrected' and tampered with. Philo understood a hierarchy to exist starting with

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Philo's Ten Commandments:

Philo states that the first four commands deal with relations between man and God. The fifth about honoring parents focuses on both honoring God and treating people properly. The remaining five are commands dealing with human relations. They begin with adultery (in the Septuagint and Philo order) because this is the greatest of crimes.
1. (“I am the Lord”) “opposes the polytheistic doctrine, and teaches that the world is ruled by one sole governor.”
2. "You shall not make to yourselves gods of silver and Gold;" (ex 20:20) forbidding making idols, is “in order that the only true God might be honored in truth and simplicity.” God does not need honor, but God desires to aid humans from going astray, to teach them to follow natural law.
3. The third prohibits the wrongful use of God’s name. This restrains people from making unnecessary oaths.
4. the Sabbath obligates people to work during the other six days of the week and to use the seventh day to contemplate how to improve one’s self. It requires people to give rest to servants and even animals. It teaches that people should become self-reliant and not rely on servants and animals, servants should not despair of better times that lay ahead, and people should be sensitive to the needs and feelings of animals. Contrary to the Greek society in which he lived, Philo felt that slavery is an affront to God and humanity.
5. requires honoring parents. This is both a human and divine-oriented command. People must learn how to reciprocate with service to those who have done them a service. The command teaches that we must reciprocate not only to parents, but to all people and to God and nature, to everything.
6. sixth law bars adultery. As previously noted, it is “the greatest of all violations of the law.” It has as its source the love of pleasure that enervates the body and destroys the chance for proper improvement. It affects three people and their families, the husband, the adulterer, and the wife and her children.
7. is murder, an act of sacrilege, for humans are godlike and are supposed to be civilized and act with reason. Murder robs a person of the sacred gift given by God, life.
8. is stealing. A thief is an enemy of the State and all that a State stands for. Stealing one object leads to other transgressions and develops habits that grow progressively worse.
9. against false witness. being a false witness can produce “every kind of terrible danger.” Such a person corrupts the truth, which is the most sacred treasure any of us can expect to own in life.
10 against “covetousness.” Philo understands that it bans improper desires, not deeds. Covetous desires is the original passion from which all other mischiefs emanate. People need to learn to become obedient to the laws of moderation.

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My guess would be that every commandment in the list was attached to each of the ten 'rulers' and the tenth ruler - Jesus - was explicitly associated with 'do not lust.' The tenth was not only the highest or greatest commandment, it was understood to be key to rising to the highest heaven.