Gossip and Slander

Gossip (3x)

“Rumours. Insubstantial information, frequently not factual and leading to groundless fears.

• “Gossip exploits the personal issues or matters of another person. Someone who gossips “habitually reveals personal or sensational facts about others.”1 Such conversations typically involve “rumors, opinions, or inside information.… [Gossip] is not an innocent pastime. It is sin.”

Gossip (content) “psithyrismos”- “noun. a report (often malicious) about the behaviour of other people; especially one that is spoken in low tones and whispers

2 Corinthians 12:20 “For I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish—that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder.”

Gossiper (whisperer) “psithyrist-eh-s”— “noun. gossiper who is especially characterized by whispers and hushed tones

Romans 1:29 “They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,”

Gossipy, nonsense “phlyaros”- “adjective. characterized by indulging in empty and foolish talk”

1 Timothy 5:13 “Besides that, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not.”

Slander (17x)

Communicating false (and negative) claims about another person.

Slander is a direct partner of gossip. Slander includes malicious and hurtful talk about another person. It is “the utterance of false charges or misrepresentations which defame or damage another’s reputation.”3

Proverbs 11:13 “Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing covered.”

Proverbs 20:19 “Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets; therefore do not associate with a simple babbler.”