Quaestiones Mariae
Standard abbreviation: Quest. Mary
Other titles: Greater Questions of Mary
Clavis numbers: ECCA 285; CANT 32
Category: Revelatory Dialogues
Related literature: Ephipanius, Panarion 26.8; Apocryphon of John; Books of Jeu (book 2, 43); Gospel of Eve; Pistis Sophia (47)
Compiled by: Tony Burke, York University ([email protected])
Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Burke, Tony. “Questions of Mary.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/questions-of-mary/.
Created August 2025.
1. EXCERPT
Epiphanius associates the text with a heretical group he calls the Borborites (a pejorative name meaning “filthy people”). He provides the following excerpt (Panarion 26.8.1–3):
For in the book called The Greater Questions of Mary (they have also forged one called the Lesser), they indicate that he [Jesus] gave a revelation to her [Mary]. Taking her to the mountain he prayed and then extracted a woman from his side and began having sexual intercourse with her; then he gathered his semen in his hand, explaining that “This is what we must do in order to live.” When Mary became disturbed and fell to the ground, he again raised her and said to her, “Why do you doubt, you of little faith?”
Epiphanius continues with some discussion of scriptures interpreted by the Borborites in ways to justify the practices mentioned in the excerpt. It is not known whether or not these were part of the text.
Named Historical Figures and Characters: Mary Magdalene.
Geographical Locations: none.
2. RESOURCES
2.1 Web Sites and Other Online Resources
“Borborites.” Wikipedia.
Early Christian Writings: Questions of Mary. Administrator: Peter Kirby (features English translation and a brief bibliography).
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
3.1 Manuscripts and Editions
3.1.1 Ephipanius, Panarion 26.8
Holl, Karl, ed. Epiphanius. Ancoratus and Panarion. GCS 25, 31, 37. Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1915–1933 (vol. 1, p. 284).
Ehrman, Bart D. and Zlatko Pleše, The Apocryphal Gospels: Texts and Translations. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2011 (reproduction of Williams’ text [sic.; likely Holl’s] with English translation, pp. 607–11).
3.2 Modern Translations
3.2.1 English
Ehrman, Bart D. and Zlatko Pleše, The Apocryphal Gospels: Texts and Translations. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2011 (reproduction of Williams’ text [sic.; likely Holl’s] with English translation, pp. 607–11).
Layton, Bentley, with David Brakke. The Gnostic Scriptures: A New Translation with Annotations. 2d ed. New York: Doubleday, 2021 (excerpts from the Panarion, pp. 252–72; on Quest. Mary, pp. 265–66).
Puech, Henri-Charles. “The Questions of Mary.” Pages 390–91 in New Testament Apocrypha, Vol. 1, Gospels and Related Writings. Edited by Wilhelm Schneemelcher. Translated by R. McL. Wilson. Rev. ed. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1991 (excerpt and short discussion).
Williams, Frank. Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis. NHS 35. Leiden: Brill, 1987 (p. 96).
3.2.2 German
Markschies, Christophe. “Die Fragen Marias.” Pages 410–15 in vol. 1 of Antike christliche Apokryphen in deutscher Übersetzung. 2 vols. AcA I/1-2. Edited by Christoph Markschies and Jens Schröter. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2012.
3.2.3 Italian
Erbetta, Mario. Gli apocrifi del Nuovo Testamento. 3 vols. Italy: Marietti, 1975–1981 (vol. 1.1, p. 292).
3.2.4 Spanish
de Santos Otero, Aurelio. Los Evangelios Apócrifos. 1st ed. Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Christianos, 2005 (brief mention, p. 26).
3.3 General Works
Benko, Stephen. “The Libertine Gnostic Sect of the Phibionites.” VC 21 (1967): 103–19.
Broek, Roelof van den “Sexuality and Sexual Symbolism in Hermetic and Gnostic Thought and Practice (Second-Fourth Centuries).” Pages 1–22 in Hidden Intercourse: Eros and Sexuality in the History of Western Esotericism. Edited by Wouter J. Hanegraff and Jeffrey J. Kripal. New York: Fordham University Press, 2011.
Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen. “Libertines or Not: Fruit, Bread, Semen and Other Body Fluids in Gnosticism.” JECS 2.1 (1994): 15–31.
Ehrman, Bart. Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003 (pp. 198–201).
Fendt, Leonhardt. Gnostiche Mysterien: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des christlichen Gottesdienstes. Munich: Chr. Kaiser, 1922 (pp. 3–29).
Gero, Stephen. “With Walter Bauer on the Tigris: Encratite Orthodoxy and Libertine Heresy in Syro-Mesopotamian Christianity.” Pages 287–307 in Nag Hammadi, Gnosticism, and Early Christianity. Edited by Charles Hedrick and Robert Hodgson Jr. Peabody, MA: Hendrikson, 1986.
Goehring, James E. “Libertine or Liberated: Women in the So-Called Libertine Gnostic Communities.” Pages 338–44 in Images of the Feminine in Gnosticism. Edited by Karen L. King. SAC. Philadelphia 1988.
Grypeou, Emmanouela. “Gnostic Libertinism Revisited.” Pages 29–46 in Bibel, christlicher Orient und Byzanz. Festschrift für Stephen Gerö zum 65 Geburtstag. Edited by Dmitrij Bumazhnov, Emmanouela Grypeou, Timothy Saliors, and Alexander Toepel. Leuven: Peeters, 2011.
__________. “Das vollkommene Pascha.” Gnostische Bibelexegese und Ethik. Orientalia Biblica et Christiana 15. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2005 (pp. 115–35).
Marjanen, Antti. The Woman Jesus loved. Mary Magdalene in the Nag Hammadi Library and Related Documents. NHMS 40. Leiden: Brill, 1996 (pp. 189–202).
Oort, Johannes van. “‘Human Semen Eucharist’ Among the Manichaeans? The Testimony of Augustine Reconsidered in Context.” VC 70 (2016): 193–216.
Petersen, Silke. “Zerstört die Werke der Weiblichkeit!” Maria Magdalena, Salome und andere Jüngerinnen Jesu in christlich-gnostischen Schriftten. NHMS 48. Leiden, 1999 (p. 128).
Williams, Michael A. Rethinking “Gnosticism”: An Argument for Dismantling a Dubious Category. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996 (pp. 179–84).
