Slander

Charles Buck Theological Dictionary

According to Dr. Barrow, is uttering false speeches against our neighbour, to the prejudice of his fame, safety, welfare; and that out of malignity, vanity, rashness, ill nature, or bad design. The principal kinds of slander are these:

1. Charging others with facts they are not guilty of.

2. Affixing scandalous names and odious characters which they deserve not.

3. Aspersing a man's actions with foul names, importing that they proceed from evil principles, or tend to bad ends, when it doth not or cannot appear.

4. Perverting a man's words or acts disadvantageously by affected misconstruction.

5. Partial or lame representation of men's discourse or practice, suppressing some part of the truth, or concealing some circumstances which ought to be explained.

6. Instilling sly suggestions which create prejudice in the hearers.

7. Magnifying and aggravating the faults of others.

8. Imputing to our neighbour's practice, judgment, or profession, evil consequences which have no foundation in truth. Of all the characters in society, a slanderer is the most odious, and the most likely to produce mischief. "His tongue, " says the great Massilon, "is a devouring fire, which tarnishes whatever it touches; which exercises its fury on the good grain equally as on the chaff; on the profane as on the sacred; which, wherever it passes, leaves only desolation and ruin; digs even into the bowels of the earth; turns into vile ashes what only a moment before had appeared to us so precious and brilliant, acts with more violence and danger than ever, in the time when it was apparently smothered up and almost extinct; which blackens what it cannot consume, and sometimes sparkles and delights before it destroys.

It is an assemblage of an iniquity, a secret pride, which discovers to us the mote in our brother's eye, but hides the beam which is in our own; a mean envy, which, hurt at the talents or prosperity of others, makes them the subjects of its censures, and studies to dim the splendour of whatever outshines itself; a disguised hatred, which sheds in its speeches the hidden venom of the heart; an unworthy duplicity which praises to the face, and tears in pieces behind the back; a shameful levity, which has no command over itself or words, and often sacrifices both fortune and comfort to the imprudence of an amusing conversation; a deliberate barbarity, which goes to pierce an absent brother; a scandal, where we become a subject of shame and sin to those who listen to us; an injustice, where we ravish from our brother what is dearest to him. It is a restless evil, which disturbs society; spreads dissention through cities and countries; disunites the strictest friendship; is the source of hatred and revenge; fills wherever it enters with disturbances and confusion; and every where is an enemy to peace, comfort, and Christian good breeding.

Lastly, it is an evil full of deadly poison: whatever flows from it is infected, and poisons whatever it approaches; even its praises are empoisoned; its applauses malicious; its silence criminal; its gestures, motions, and looks, have alltheir venom, and spread it each in their way. Still more dreadful is this evil when it is found among those who are the professed disciples of Jesus Christ. Ah! the church formerly held in horror the exhibitions of gladiators, and denied that believers, brought up in the tenderness and benignity of Jesus Christ, could innocently feast their eyes with the blood and death of these unfortunate slaves, or form an harmless recreation of so inhuman a pleasure; but these renew more detestable shows; for they bring upon the stage not infamous wretches devoted to death, but members of Jesus Christ, their brethren; and there they entertain the spectators with wounds which they inflict on persons" who have devoted themselves to God. Barrow's Works, vol. 1: ser. 17, 18; Massilon's Sermons, vol. 1: ser. 5: English trans. and article Evil Speaking

Webster's Dictionary

(1): ( n.) A false tale or report maliciously uttered, tending to injure the reputation of another; the malicious utterance of defamatory reports; the dissemination of malicious tales or suggestions to the injury of another.

(2): ( n.) Disgrace; reproach; dishonor; opprobrium.

(3): ( n.) Formerly, defamation generally, whether oral or written; in modern usage, defamation by words spoken; utterance of false, malicious, and defamatory words, tending to the damage and derogation of another; calumny. See the Note under Defamation.

(4): ( v. t.) To defame; to injure by maliciously uttering a false report; to tarnish or impair the reputation of by false tales maliciously told or propagated; to calumniate.

(5): ( v. t.) To bring discredit or shame upon by one's acts.

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Leviticus 19:16 Exodus 20:16 Deuteronomy 5:20 Matthew 12:36 Ephesians 4:31 1 Peter 2:1 James 4:11-12 1 Peter 2:12 1 Peter 3:16 John 8:44Satan Evil DemonicDevilEthics

King James Dictionary

SLA'NDER, n.

1. A false tale or report maliciously uttered. and tending to injure the reputation of another by lessening him in the esteem of his fellow citizens, by exposing min to impeachment and punishment, or by impairing his means of lining defamation. Slander, that worst of poisons, ever finds an easy entrance to ignoble minds.

2Disgrace reproach disreputation name.

SLA'NDER, To defame to injure by maliciously uttering a false report respecting one to tarnish or impair the reputation of one by false tales, maliciously told or propagated.

Charles Spurgeon's Illustration Collection

We saw in the Museum at Venice an instrument with which one of the old Italian tyrants was accustomed to shoot poisoned needles at the objects of his wanton malignity: we thought of gossips, backbiters, and secret slanderers, and wished that their mischievous devices might come to a speedy end. Their weapons of innuendo, shrug, and whisper, appear to be as insignificant as needles, but the venom which they instil is deadly to many a reputation.

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

See Evil-speaking.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

slan´dẽr (substantive, דּבּה , dibbāh , "slander"; διάβολος , diábolos , "slanderer"; verb רגל , rāghal , "to slink about" as a talebearer, לשׁן , lāshan , "to use the tongue," "to slander"; διαβάλλω , diabállō , "to calumniate," "to slander"; and other words): Slander (etymologically a doublet of "scandal," from OFr. esclandre , Latin scandalum , "stumblingblock") is an accusation maliciously uttered, with the purpose or effect of damaging the reputation of another. As a rule it is a false charge (compare   Matthew 5:11 ); but it may be a truth circulated insidiously and with a hostile purpose (e.g.  Daniel 3:8 , "brought accusation against," where Septuagint has diaballō , "slander";  Luke 16:1 , the same Greek word). Warnings, condemnations and complaints in reference to this sin are very frequent, both in the Old Testament and New Testament. Mischievous "tale-bearing" or "whispering" is condemned ( Leviticus 19:16;  Ezekiel 22:9 ). There are repeated warnings against evil-speaking (as in  Psalm 34:13;  Proverbs 15:28;  Ephesians 4:31;  Colossians 3:8;  James 4:11;  1 Peter 3:10 ), which is the cause of so much strife between man and man ( Proverbs 16:27-30 ), and which recoils on the speaker himself to his destruction ( Psalm 101:5;  Psalm 140:11 ). Especially is false witness, which is "slander carried into a court of justice," to be condemned and punished ( Exodus 20:16;  Deuteronomy 19:16-21; compare  Proverbs 12:17;  Proverbs 14:5 ,  Proverbs 14:25;  Proverbs 19:5;  Proverbs 21:28;  Proverbs 24:28 ). Special cases of slander more than usually mean are when a wife's chastity is falsely impeached by her husband ( Deuteronomy 22:13-19 ), and when one slanders a servant to his master ( Proverbs 30:10 ). Even a land may be slandered as well as persons ( Numbers 14:36 ). Slanderers and backbiters are mentioned in some of Paul's darkest catalogues of evildoers ( Romans 1:29 ,  Romans 1:30;  2 Corinthians 12:20;  2 Timothy 3:3 ). To refrain from slander is an important qualification for citizenship in theocracy ( Psalm 15:1 ,  Psalm 15:3;  Psalm 24:3 ,  Psalm 24:4 ) and for a place in the Christian church ( 1 Timothy 3:11;  Titus 2:3 ). Jesus Himself was the victim of slanders ( Matthew 11:19 ) and of false testimony ( Matthew 27:63 ). The apostles, too, came in for a full share of it (e.g.  Acts 24:5 f;   Acts 28:22;  2 Corinthians 6:8 ). In the case of Paul, even his central doctrine of justification was "slanderously reported" as if it encouraged immorality ( Romans 3:8 ). The devil (= "the calumniator") is represented as the great accuser of God's people ( Revelation 12:10 ), the slanderer par excellence (compare  Job 1:9-11;  Zechariah 3:1 ). See also Crimes; Punishments .

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

according to Dr. Barrow, is uttering false speeches against our neighbor, to the prejudice of his fame, safety, welfare, and that out of malignity, vanity, rashness, ill nature, or bad design. The principal kinds of slander are these:

(1) charging others with faults they are not guilty of;

(2) affixing scandalous names and odious characters which they deserve not;

(3) aspersing a man's actions with foul names, importing that they proceed from evil principles, or tend to bad ends, when it does not or cannot appear;

(4) perverting a man's words or acts disadvantageously by affected misconstruction;

(5) partial or lame representation of men's discourse or practice, suppressing some part of the truth or concealing some circumstances which ought to be explained;

(6) instilling sly suggestions which create prejudice in the hearers;

(7) magnifying and aggravating the faults of others;

(8) imputing to our neighbor's practice, judgment, or profession evil consequences which have no foundation in truth.