StrongerBible

loidoros

λοίδορος

GreekG3060“reviler, slanderer, ...”

Appears 2 times · tap a cell to see the verses

1Co 5:111Co 6:10
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradeLOY-do-rosnoun

What loidoros means

a reviler: a person who verbally abuses and insults others openly, to their face

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

A reviler is someone whose habit is loud, cutting, insulting speech aimed straight at another person. The word appears only twice in the New Testament, both in Paul's lists of behaviors that mark a person out (1 Corinthians 5:11; 6:10), where it stands without apology beside idol-worship, adultery, theft, and greed. Paul treats abusive speech as a serious sin, not a small one.

The abuse here is done to someone's face, not whispered behind their back. That is why "slanderer" fits the word poorly: in modern English slander suggests secret, false rumor, which is closer to a different word for the backbiter (κατάλαλος). This word is also aimed at people, unlike βλασφημία, which leans toward speech that insults God.

There is an older layer worth knowing. In the Greek Old Testament this word group often translates the Hebrew verb for picking a fight or pressing a quarrel (רִיב), the word behind the place-name Meribah, which means "Quarrel." So the term carries the flavor of contentious, combative disputing, not merely name-calling. Some scholars read Paul's use at Corinth against that community's status-driven lawsuits (1 Corinthians 6:1-8), where believers were dragging one another before the courts.

The opposite of a reviler runs through the New Testament as an ideal. Paul says of himself and his coworkers, "when reviled, we bless" (1 Corinthians 4:12), and 1 Peter holds up Christ, who "when reviled, did not revile in return" (1 Peter 2:23). The reviler does exactly what Christ refused to do under provocation.

1Co 5:111Co 6:10

Disputed

Whether the word names covert defamation ("slander") or open, face-to-face abusive speech ("reviling").

  • majorityOpen, face-to-face abusive speech: "reviler, abusive person." This is the reading of most commentators and modern committee translations (CSB, NASB, NET "verbally abusive").; BDAG, s.v. λοίδορος, λοιδορία; Hans Hanse, 'λοιδορέω κτλ.', TDNT 4:293-294
  • minorityA speaker of slander: "slanderer," filed under the domain of speaking evil.; Louw-Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the NT Based on Semantic Domains, 33.395

What scholars say about loidoros

The standard reference works agree on the core sense and part company mainly on the best English label. BDAG glosses λοίδορος as "reviler, abusive person" and λοιδορία as "speech that is highly insulting, abuse, reproach, reviling"; the TDNT article by Hans Hanse (4:293-294) treats the group as reproach/reviling directed at human beings, set against βλασφημέω (injurious speech against God). The outlier is Louw-Nida, which files λοίδορος at semantic domain 33.395 as "one who engages in slandering, a slanderer"; most commentators resist "slanderer" because λοιδορία is characteristically open, face-to-face abuse rather than covert defamation, which is why CSB, NASB, and NET render it "verbally abusive." A distinctive biblical backdrop is the Septuagint's repeated use of λοιδορέω to render Hebrew רִיב, the verb of contention and legal quarrel, in the Massah-Meribah tradition (Exodus 17:2; Numbers 20:3, 13) and in wisdom literature (Proverbs 25:24; Sirach 23:8), lending the word a flavor of quarrelsome, quasi-legal dispute. Building on this, a situational line of interpretation (Peter S. Zaas, NTS 34.4 [1988]: 622-629; B. J. Oropeza, ExpTim 110.1 [1998]: 9-10; Bruce Winter, After Paul Left Corinth) argues that the vice lists of 1 Corinthians 5-6 are tailored to a litigious, status-driven Corinthian elite (1 Corinthians 6:1-8), whereas older form-critical scholarship (Vögtle 1936; Wibbing 1959; Kamlah 1964) and cautious commentators (Fee, Conzelmann) regard λοίδορος as a conventional item in inherited Hellenistic-Jewish and Stoic catalogues. The word also anchors a non-retaliation ethic: Paul's own λοιδορούμενοι εὐλογοῦμεν (1 Corinthians 4:12) and 1 Peter's portrait of Christ who "when reviled did not revile in return" (1 Peter 2:23; cf. 3:9) present refusal to revile as the imitation of Christ, rooted in the Jesus tradition (Luke 6:28) and the Isaiah 53 Servant.

In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDAG, s.v. λοίδορος, λοιδορίαlexicon
  • Hans Hanse, 'λοιδορέω κτλ.', TDNT 4:293-294theological-dictionary
  • Louw-Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the NT Based on Semantic Domains, 33.395lexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. λοιδορία, λοιδορέωlexicon
  • T. Muraoka, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, s.v. λοιδορέωlexicon
  • Peter S. Zaas, 'Catalogues and Context: 1 Corinthians 5 and 6', New Testament Studies 34.4 (1988): 622-629journal-article
  • Bruce W. Winter, After Paul Left Corinth (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001)monograph
  • Deborah Kamen, Insults in Classical Athens (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2020)monograph

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of λοίδορος

nominative m p

λοίδοροι

1Co 6:10

nominative m s

λοίδορος

1Co 5:11