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Borborites
According to the ''Panarion'' of Epiphanius of Salamis (ch. 26), and Theodoret's ''Haereticarum Fabularum Compendium'', the Borborites or Borborians ( el, 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. Etymology The word ''Borborite'' comes from the Greek word , 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 Mandai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Semen
Semen, also known as seminal fluid, is an organic bodily fluid created to contain spermatozoa. It is secreted by the gonads (sexual glands) and other sexual organs of male or hermaphroditic animals and can fertilize the female ovum. Semen is produced and originates from the seminal vesicle, which is located in the pelvis. The process that results in the discharge of semen from the urethral orifice is called ejaculation. In humans, seminal fluid contains several components besides spermatozoa: proteolytic and other enzymes as well as fructose are elements of seminal fluid which promote the survival of spermatozoa, and provide a medium through which they can move or "swim". The fluid is designed to be discharged deep into the vagina, so the spermatozoa can pass into the uterus and form a zygote with an egg. Semen is also a form of genetic material. In animals, semen has been collected for cryoconservation. Cryoconservation of animal genetic resources is a practice that call ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christian Gnosticism
Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized personal spiritual knowledge (''gnosis'') above the orthodox teachings, traditions, and authority of religious institutions. Gnostic cosmogony generally presents a distinction between a supreme, hidden God and a malevolent lesser divinity (sometimes associated with the Yahweh of the Old Testament) who is responsible for creating the material universe. Consequently, Gnostics considered material existence flawed or evil, and held the principal element of salvation to be direct knowledge of the hidden divinity, attained via mystical or esoteric insight. Many Gnostic texts deal not in concepts of sin and repentance, but with illusion and enlightenment. Gnostic writings flourished among certain Christian groups in the Mediterranean world around ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to crucifixion of Jesus, his crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus, resurrection. She is mentioned by name twelve times in the canonical gospels, more than most of the Apostles in the New Testament, apostles and more than any other woman in the gospels, other than Jesus' family. Mary's epithet ''Magdalene'' may mean that she came from the town of Magdala, a fishing town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee in Roman Judea. The Gospel of Luke Luke 8, chapter 8 lists Mary Magdalene as one of the women who traveled with Jesus and helped support his ministry "out of their resources", indicating that she was probably wealthy. The same passage also states that seven demons Exorcism, had been driven out of her, a statement which is repeated in Mark 16. In all the four can ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norea
Norea is a figure in Gnostic cosmology. Sometimes she is said to be the syzygy of Adam, or wife of Noah, and daughter of Eve. Norea is perceived within gnostic thought as Sophia after her fall from grace. For a long time, Norea was known from a summary of a book called ''Noria'' in the ''Panarion'' (''Against Heresies'') of Epiphanius of Salamis (26.1.3-9). According to Epiphanius, the Borborites identified Norea with Pyrrha, the wife of Deucalion (a Greek figure similar to Noah), because ''nura'' means "fire" in Syriac. She burned Noah's Ark three times, then revealed the means of recovering stolen sparks through sexual emissions. Elsewhere (39.5.2) Epiphanius says that the Sethians consider Horaia to be the wife of Seth. More information has been available since the discovery of the Nag Hammadi library in 1945. In ''The Hypostasis of the Archons'' (''The Reality of the Rulers''), Norea is the daughter of Eve and the younger sister of Seth; both are members of the pure race. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gospel Of Eve
The Gospel of Eve is an almost entirely lost text from the New Testament apocrypha, which may be the same as the also lost Gospel of Perfection. The only known content from it are a few quotations by Epiphanius (''Panarion'', 26), a church father who criticised how the Borborites used it to justify free love, by practicing coitus interruptus and eating semen as a religious act. While certain libertine Gnostics held that, since the flesh is intrinsically evil, one should simply acknowledge it by freely engaging in sexual acts, the majority of the Gnostics took the opposite view of extreme asceticism. Text Gnostics typically wrote on multiple levels, imbuing texts with complicated mystical esoteric meaning, rather than intending a base interpretation. It is possible that Epiphanius failed to realise this and only read into the text a simple literal interpretation. The quotation Epiphanius claims as a reference to semen is: While this second passage from their "apocryphal writings ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barbelo
Barbēlō (Greek: Βαρβηλώ)Iren., Epiph., Philast., ''Pist. Soph''., Hier.; -ρώ Epiph. as an alternative, 92 A, and similarly the Epitome, p. 354 Dind.; -λ, Epit. ''l. c. bis;'' -λώθ Theodoret. refers to the first emanation of God in several forms of Gnostic cosmogony. Barbēlō is often depicted as a supreme female principle, the single passive antecedent of creation in its manifoldness. This figure is also variously referred to as 'Mother-Father' (hinting at her apparent androgyny), 'First Human Being', 'The Triple Androgynous Name', or 'Eternal Aeon'. So prominent was her place amongst some Gnostics that some schools were designated as ''Barbeliotae'', Barbēlō worshippers or Barbēlō gnostics. The nature of Barbēlō Nag Hammadi Library In the ''Apocryphon of John'', a tractate in the Nag Hammadi Library containing the most extensive recounting of the Sethian creation myth, the Barbēlō is described as "the first power, the glory, Barbēlō, the perfect g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicolaitans
Nicolaism (also Nicholaism, Nicolaitism, Nicolationism, or Nicolaitanism) was an early Christian sect mentioned twice in the Book of Revelation of the New Testament. The adherents were called Nicolaitans, Nicolaitanes, or Nicolaites. They were considered heretical by the mainstream early Christian church. According to Revelation 2:6 and 15, they were known in the cities of Ephesus and Pergamum. In this chapter, the church at Ephesus is endorsed for " atingthe works of the Nicolaites, which I also hate"; and the church in Pergamos is rebuked: "So thou hast also some orshiping in their midstwho hold the teaching of the Nicolaites". Several of the early Church Fathers mentioned this group, including Irenaeus, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Epiphanius, and Theodoret, stating that Nicolas the Deacon, one of the Seven, was the author of the heresy and the sect. Bible passages The New Testament mentions the Nicolaites in the second chapter of the Book of Revelation. Bishop Isidore o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sabaoth
Judaism considers some names of God so holy that, once written, they should not be erased: YHWH, Adonai, El ("God"), Elohim ("God," a plural noun), Shaddai ("Almighty"), and Tzevaot (" fHosts"); some also include Ehyeh ("I Will Be").This is the formulation of Joseph Karo (SA YD 276:9). Maimonides (MT Yesodei haTorah 6:2), Jacob b. Asher (AT YD 276), and Isaac Alfasi (HK Menachot 3b) also included Ehyeh, as do many later authorities, including Moses Isserles (SA YD 276:9). The original lists are found in y. Megillah 1:9 and b. Shavuot 35a, with some MSS agreeing with each authority. Maimonides and followers give the number of names as seven; however, manuscript inconsistency makes it difficult to judge which are included. Early authorities considered other Hebrew names mere epithets or descriptions of God and wrote that they and names in other languages may be written and erased freely. However, some moderns advise special care even in these cases, and many Orthodox Jews ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Archon (Gnosticism)
Archons are, in Gnosticism and religions closely related to it, the builders of the physical universe. Among the Archontics, Ophites, Sethians and in the writings of Nag Hammadi library, the archons are rulers, each related to one of seven planets; they prevent souls from leaving the material realm. The political connotation of their name reflects rejection of the governmental system, as flawed without chance of true salvation. In Manichaeism, the archons are the rulers of a realm within the "Kingdom of Darkness", who together make up the Prince of Darkness. In ''The Reality of the Rulers'', the physical appearance of Archons is described as hermaphroditic, with their faces being those of beasts. Hebdomad A characteristic feature of the Gnostic concept of the universe is the role played in almost all Gnostic systems by the seven world-creating archons, known as the (ἑβδομάς). These Seven are in most systems semi-hostile powers, and are reckoned as the last and lowest eman ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Three Steles Of Seth
The Three Steles of Seth is a 3rd-century Sethian Gnostic text from the New Testament apocrypha. History The main surviving copies come from the Nag Hammadi library, and were translated and explained by Paul Claude, member of the Nag Hammadi Research Group of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, Université Laval (Quebec). The text concerns a revelation to Dositheos about three steles (text written into specially created stones). Many scholars think that they are designed as liturgy. The text is thought to be from the Sethian sect of Gnostics (the sect that viewed the biblical Seth as their hero, who was reincarnated as Jesus). Their other texts include the Apocalypse of Adam, Apocryphon of John, the Trimorphic Protennoia, and the Coptic Gospel of the Egyptians. The text is thought to be a 3rd-century development of the Sethian Gnostics, as they became more separated from Christianity, and closer to Platonism. The Three Steles (or Tablets) of Seth are in essence, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second Treatise Of The Great Seth
Second Treatise of the Great Seth is an apocryphal Gnostic writing discovered in the Codex VII of the Nag Hammadi codices and dates to around the third century. The author is unknown, and the Seth referenced in the title appears nowhere in the text. Instead Seth is thought to reference the third son of Adam and Eve to whom gnosis was first revealed, according to some gnostics. Perspective and style The Treatise of the Great Seth is written from the first-person perspective of Jesus. The author appears to belong to a group of gnostics who maintain that Jesus Christ was not crucified on the cross. Instead the text says that Simon of Cyrene was mistaken for Jesus and crucified in his place. Jesus is described as standing by and "laughing at their ignorance." Those who believe Jesus to have died on the cross are said to believe in "a doctrine of a dead man." All those without gnosis - including those who had what would become orthodox beliefs, as well as the figures of Adam, Abr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seth
Seth,; el, Σήθ ''Sḗth''; ; "placed", "appointed") in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Mandaeism, and Sethianism, was the third son of Adam and Eve and brother of Cain and Abel, their only other child mentioned by name in the Hebrew Bible. According to , Seth was born after Abel's murder by Cain, and Eve believed that God had appointed him as a replacement for Abel. Genesis According to the Book of Genesis, Seth was born when Adam was 130 years old (according to the Masoretic Text), or 230 years old (according to the Septuagint), "a son in his likeness and image". The genealogy is repeated at . states that Adam fathered "sons and daughters" before his death, aged 930 years. According to Genesis, Seth died at the age of 912 (that is, 14 years before Noah's birth). (2962 BC) Jewish tradition Seth figures in the pseudepigraphical texts of the ''Life of Adam and Eve'' (the ''Apocalypse of Moses''). It recounts the lives of Adam and Eve from after their expulsion from the Garden ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
