"We venerate the serpent because God has made it the cause of Gnosis for mankind.
Ialdabaoth - the Mad Demiurge who was the 'god of the Jews' - did not want men to have any recollection of the Mother or of the Father on high.
It was the serpent, who by tempting them, brought them Gnosis;
who taught the man and the woman the complete knowledge of the mysteries from on high. That is why Ialdabaoth, mad with fury, cast it down from the heavens."
- St. Epiphanius, Adversus Haereses