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Barbelites

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

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Barbelo

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was one of the names given to certain Ophitic Gnostics (Epiph. i, 85 B), taken from Barbelo, a personage in their mythology. Theoderet (Hist. Eccl. i, 13) calls them Barbeliotoe, apparently on no independent authority. The common text of Irenaeus (p. 107) speaks of "multitudo Gnosticorumn Barbelo;" but Mr. Harvey reasonably suggests that Barbelo came in from the margin. This sentence refers to a "multitude" of heretics, "some" only of whom are said in the next sentence to have "imagined" (ὑπέθεντο ) Barbelo (Borboriani). — Smith, Dict. of Christ. Biog. s.v.