BORBORIANI (BORBORITI). - Antinomian Gnostics; Epifanio was the first to call them by this name, but they probably existed earlier as well (cf. Clemente Aless., Strom., II, 20, and III, 4: PG 8, 1061, 1132-33). According to s. Epifanio (Haereses, XXVI, 3: PG 41, 336), who knew them in Egypt, they took their name from βόρβορος (mud). Filastro (Haereses, LXXIII: PL 12, 1186) believes that they actually besmeared themselves with mud. More correctly, s. Agostino (Haereses, VI: PL 52, 26) interprets the name metaphorically. Indeed, they professed doctrines and practised rites of revolting immorality. If they were not identical with them, they certainly differed little from other Gnostics of the time, such as the coddiani, the naasseni, the stratioti, the fibioniti, etc. They interpreted Holy Scripture arbitrarily and, moreover, accepted the Vangelo di Eva, the Apocalisse di Adamo, the Vangelo di Filippo, and other apocrypha.
They still existed in the 5th century, so much so that they were condemned together with other heretics by an imperial law of 428 (cf. Cod. Theod., XVI, v, 65).