1004. borboros

Lexical Summary

borboros: Mire, Mud, Filth

Original Word: βόρβορος
Part of Speech: Noun, Masculine
Transliteration: borboros
Pronunciation: BOR-bo-ros
Phonetic Spelling: (bor'-bor-os)
KJV: mire
NASB: mire
Word Origin: [of uncertain derivation]

1. mud

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance

mire, mud

Of uncertain derivation; mud -- mire.

NAS Exhaustive Concordance

Word Origin
of uncertain origin
Definition
mud, filth
NASB Translation
mire (1).

Thayer's Greek Lexicon

STRONGS NT 1004: βόρβορος

βόρβορος, βορβόρου, ὁ, dung, mire: 2 Peter 2:22. (the Sept.; Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Plato, and following; ἐν βορβόρῳ κυλίεσθαι, of the vicious, Epictetus diss. 4, 11, 29.)

Topical Lexicon

Entry: Strong’s Greek 1004 – βόρβορος

Scriptural usage

The word appears once in the Greek New Testament—2 Peter 2:22—where Peter cites two vivid proverbs to describe false teachers who abandon the way of righteousness: “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud” (2 Peter 2:22). The image of an animal instinctively plunging back into filth serves as a closing illustration of the entire chapter’s warning: those who profess faith yet persist in corruption reveal their unchanged nature.

Old Testament echoes and broader biblical imagery

Although βόρβορος itself is not used in the Hebrew text, the concept of mire or sludge threads through Scripture:
• Psalms 40:2 speaks of God lifting the psalmist “out of the miry clay.”
• Jeremiah 38:6 records the prophet sinking “into the mud” of a cistern, symbolising persecution and helplessness.
• Isaiah 57:20 likens the restless wicked to a turbulent sea that “cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and muck.”

These passages establish mire as a metaphor for moral defilement, danger, and bondage—all of which frame Peter’s allusion.

Cultural setting

In both Jewish and Greco-Roman worlds, swine epitomised uncleanness (Leviticus 11:7; Tacitus, Histories 5.4). A sow freshly scrubbed yet instinctively rolling in mire illustrated the futility of mere external cleansing; inward nature governs behaviour. Peter’s readers, scattered in Asia Minor, would immediately grasp the shock value of such imagery and its implications for professing believers flirting with falsehood.

Theological significance

1. Nature versus nurture. Peter’s proverb underscores that regeneration is not cosmetic but transformational. Without the new birth (John 3:3), the heart remains unchanged, and reversion to sin is inevitable.
2. Apostasy exposed. The sow’s return identifies those who “escape the corruption of the world by knowledge of the Lord” yet become “entangled in it again” (2 Peter 2:20). The outcome is not loss of genuine salvation but exposure of counterfeit faith (1 John 2:19).
3. Divine justice. Earlier in the chapter Peter recounts judgment on angels, the ancient world, Sodom and Gomorrah, and Balaam. βόρβορος brings the warning to a sensory climax: just as mire clings, so judgment clings to the unrepentant.

Pastoral and ministry application

• Discernment. Leaders are called to identify teachings that entice believers back toward moral mire (Acts 20:28-31).
• Discipleship. Genuine conversion involves heart transformation leading to holy living (Romans 6:4). External reform alone—like washing a sow—cannot substitute for repentance and faith.
• Perseverance. Believers must “make every effort to confirm your calling and election” (2 Peter 1:10), guarding against the gradual slide that ends in the mud.
• Restoration. While βόρβορος highlights the danger, it also drives home the hope of cleansing: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Historical resonance in Christian teaching

Church Fathers such as Clement of Alexandria and Augustine referenced 2 Peter 2:22 when confronting nominal believers and the laxity of certain clergy. Throughout revivals and reformations, preachers have appealed to the proverb to warn against outward religiosity devoid of inward change.

Literary impact

The proverb’s stark realism has permeated Christian hymnody and prose. John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress” portrays characters who, having glimpsed the Celestial City, nonetheless retreat to the Slough of Despond—imagery indebted to the biblical concept of mire.

Conclusion

βόρβορος anchors a single but potent scriptural picture: the disgusting mire to which an unregenerate heart inevitably gravitates. Peter wields the term to call believers to authentic transformation and steadfastness, reminding the church in every age that the gospel cleanses completely and equips saints to walk in newness of life, far from the mud of their former ways.

Forms and Transliterations

βόρβορος βορβορου βορβόρου βορβόρω borborou borbórou

Englishman's Concordance

2 Peter 2:22 N-GMS
GRK: εἰς κυλισμὸν βορβόρου
NAS: [returns] to wallowing in the mire.
KJV: to her wallowing in the mire.
INT: to [her] rolling place in [the] mire

Strong's Greek 1004
1 Occurrence

βορβόρου — 1 Occ.