Borborites

According to the Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis (ch. 26), and Theodoret's Haereticarum Fabularum Compendium, the Borborites or Borborians (Βορβοριανοί; in Egypt, Phibionites; in other countries, Koddians, Barbelites, Secundians, Socratites, Zacchaeans, Stratiotics) were a Christian Gnostic sect, said to be descended from the Nicolaitans. It is difficult to know for sure the practices of the group, as both Epiphanius and Theodoret were opponents of the group. According to Epiphanius, the sect were libertines who embraced the pleasures of the earthly world. The word Borborite comes from the Greek word βόρβορος, meaning "mud"; the name Borborites can therefore be translated as "filthy ones", and is unlikely to be the term the sect used for themselves. The name Koddian is claimed by Epiphanius to derive from an Aramaic term for a dish or bowl; J. J. Buckley writes that the likely root, kuda, refers in both Syriac Aramaic and Mandaic Aramaic to a haemorrhage after birth or the caul of a fetus, suggesting the reference to a "bowl" to be euphemistic. The Borborites possessed a number of sacred books, including Noria (the name they gave to Noah's wife), a Gospel of Eve, The Apocalypse of Adam, and The Gospel of Perfection. They also used a version of The Gospel of Philip, but a quotation from the Borborite Gospel of Philip found in Epiphanius' Panarion is not found anywhere in the surviving version from Nag Hammadi. Several of the Borborites' sacred scriptures revolved around the figure of Mary Magdalene, including The Questions of Mary, The Greater Questions of Mary, The Lesser Questions of Mary, and The Birth of Mary. The Borborites also used a number of sacred texts attributed to Seth, the son of Adam and Eve, including the Second Treatise of the Great Seth and the Three Steles of Seth. Although the Borborites did also use both the Old Testament and the New Testament, they renounced the God of the Old Testament as an impostor deity.