a lie: something untrue held out as true, whether a false word, a false life, or a counterfeit that stands in for the truth
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
This word names the false thing itself. Greek keeps the parts of lying separate: the act of lying has its own verb (ψεύδομαι), the person who lies has his own noun (ψεύστης), and this word is what they produce, the untruth that is now out in the world.
Almost every New Testament use sets it directly against truth. That pairing is what stretches the word. If truth is not only accurate speech but the reality God has made known, then its opposite is not only inaccurate speech but everything that pretends to be that reality and is not.
So the range runs in three steps:
a spoken untruth, the kind believers are told to put away and speak truth instead
a whole way of living that is false, named in Revelation alongside murder and idol worship
"the lie" itself, the counterfeit that people accept in exchange for God's truth and then worship or believe
One further use is simply descriptive. The signs and wonders that accompany the lawless man are called wonders "of falsehood", which labels them as belonging to the realm of the lie rather than to the truth.
Nuances
1aa spoken untruth: something said that is not true
TranslatabilityDirect
Jhn 8:44Eph 4:251Jn 2:211Jn 2:27Rev 14:5
1bfalsehood lived out: conduct that is false through and through, not merely a false statement
Rev 21:27*Rev 22:15*
1cthe lie: the counterfeit that takes the place of God's truth and is then worshipped or believed
TranslatabilityPartial
Rom 1:252Th 2:11
1dfalse: marking something as belonging to falsehood rather than to truth
Names the falsehood itself as a thing, so it can be traded for something else and then believed: people swapped the truth about God for it, and are handed over to trusting it.Rom 1:252Th 2:11
In its heaviest uses it is not just any falsehood but one great counterfeit with a source behind it: the devil speaks it out of what he is and fathers it, and it stamps the fake wonders of the coming lawless one.Jhn 8:442Th 2:9
Being a thing, it can be present or absent in a person, which makes it a test of who belongs: none was found in the mouths of the redeemed, while everyone who loves and practises it is left outside the city.Rev 14:5Rev 21:27Rev 22:15
It is treated as a whole category, the flat opposite of truth: nothing of it comes out of the truth, and a teaching that is true is described by saying it is not this.1Jn 2:211Jn 2:27
Both
Both are measured against the truth and defined as its opposite: claiming to share God's life while walking in darkness makes the claim false and leaves the truth undone, and nothing false comes out of the truth at all.1Jn 1:61Jn 2:21
Both carry the same instruction to the church about honest speech, one telling believers to quit lying to one another as part of taking off the old way of life, the other telling them to put falsehood away and speak the truth with their neighbour.Col 3:9Eph 4:25
Both are used to show where a being finally stands, since God is incapable of it while the devil is its father and speaks it from his own nature.Heb 6:18Jhn 8:44
Both name a lie that is not merely private dishonesty but a boast or a claim set against the truth of the gospel, whether in someone bragging over a rivalry inside the church or in a false teaching that has nothing true in it.Jas 3:141Jn 2:27
Names the act of lying, and usually names the one being lied to as well: Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit and so to God rather than to people, and believers are told to stop lying to each other.Act 5:3Act 5:4Col 3:9
It is the word a writer uses to swear that his own account is honest, saying flatly "I am not lying" about something he has just claimed.Rom 9:12Co 11:31Gal 1:201Ti 2:7
It covers false speech aimed at a target: evil spoken against people because they follow Jesus, and a false claim to be something one is not.Mat 5:11Rev 3:9
Because it is an act, it can be ruled out of someone's character entirely: it is the one thing God is unable to do.Heb 6:18
ψεύστηςthe person, a liar, someone whose settled character is to speak falsely, where this word is the false thing he produces.
Names the false thing itself, something a person speaks or is found holding, so it can be put away like a garment or looked for in someone's mouth.Eph 4:25Rev 14:5
Can be taken up and believed as though it were a rival to the truth, something people trade the truth of God for and then trust.Rom 1:252Th 2:11
Describes the character of a display of power, so that signs and wonders themselves can be false rather than any single speaker being named.2Th 2:9
Works as a category of conduct that bars people from the holy city, naming what they practice and love rather than what they are called.Rev 21:27Rev 22:15
Both
Both are traced to the devil in one breath: he is called the one who speaks falsely and the father of what is false, so the person and the thing are two sides of the same source.Jhn 8:44
Both are measured against the truth and defined by contradicting it, whether the point is that nothing false comes from the truth or that God stays true while people do not.1Jn 2:21Rom 3:4
Labels a person rather than a thing: it is the verdict passed on someone whose claim about God is contradicted by how that person lives.1Jn 2:41Jn 4:20
Can be aimed at God himself in an argument: to reject his testimony is to call him one, which is exactly why the charge is unthinkable.1Jn 1:101Jn 5:10
Sticks to a whole group as a standing reputation or slots into a list of the kinds of people the law is aimed at.Tit 1:121Ti 1:10
Serves as the name for one particular figure, the person who denies that Jesus is the Christ, and Jesus refuses the name for himself.1Jn 2:22Jhn 8:55
ψεῦσμαone particular untruth someone has told, a single instance, where this word also reaches to falsehood as a whole realm opposed to truth.
Names the false thing itself, something people can turn to and give themselves over to as if it were real, so that it stands as a rival to the truth about God.Rom 1:252Th 2:11
Marks a whole character or way of life, so that people are described by falsehood itself when their standing before God is being settled.Rev 21:27Rev 22:15Rev 14:5
Gets traced back to a source outside the speaker, the devil who fathers it and the deceiving power at work behind the lawless one.Jhn 8:442Th 2:9
Both
Both name what is untrue and are set directly opposite the truth, so the one rules out the other.Eph 4:25Rom 3:7
In both, the falsehood belongs to a speaker who is answerable for it rather than floating free as an abstract idea.Jhn 8:44Rom 3:7
Names a person's own untruthfulness, claimed in the first person as "my" dishonesty, inside an argument about whether God is honored when a human being proves false.Rom 3:7
πλάνηbeing led off course, the wandering and error that a lie produces in the person who accepts it, rather than the untrue thing itself.
Names a false thing that is spoken, so it comes out of the mouth and can be laid aside like a garment.Eph 4:25Rev 14:5Jhn 8:44
Works as a definite object people can swap in and accept in place of the truth about God.Rom 1:252Th 2:9
Marks a settled practice that shuts people out, since telling falsehood becomes a habit that names the kind of person they are.Rev 21:27Rev 22:15
Both
Both stand opposite the truth, and both belong to the same act of deception: a deluding power goes to work on people so that they accept what is false.2Th 2:11
Both are used in John's letters as the plain contrary of what is true, one as the pull that leads people wrong and the other as the false claim itself.1Jn 4:61Jn 2:21
Names a whole way of living that has gone off course, a wandering someone is walking in and can be turned back from.Jas 5:202Pe 2:18Jud 1:11
Describes the condition of the people who have been misled, so it is something a person suffers and is paid back for, not something said.Rom 1:272Pe 3:17
Can name the misleading force at work behind a message, the drift or delusion an appeal springs from rather than a specific false claim.1Th 2:3Eph 4:14Mat 27:64
δόλοςdeceit as craft and bait, the trick used to catch someone, where this word is the untrue content rather than the method.
Names the false thing itself, set directly opposite the truth, so the two are named as a straight pair of alternatives.1Jn 2:21Eph 4:25
Can stand for a whole false way of seeing the world that people swap for the truth and then live by, worshipping what was made instead of the one who made it.Rom 1:252Th 2:11
Attaches to displays of power as well as to speech: wonders can themselves be false, staged to make a false claim look true.2Th 2:9
Becomes a settled label for those shut out at the end, naming the falsehood people love and practise rather than one occasion of it.Rev 21:27Rev 22:15
Both
Both name what an honest mouth is free of, and each is used for that same praise: nothing of the kind was found in the speaker.1Pe 2:22Rev 14:5
Both are listed among the things a believer strips off, put alongside the plain command to speak truthfully with one another.1Pe 2:1Eph 4:25
Both are treated as marks of a settled character rather than isolated slips, one listed among the traits of a mind given over to evil and the other traced to the devil's own nature.Rom 1:29Jhn 8:44
Names the crafty method rather than the false statement: the quiet plot to take someone by surprise, where the wrong is in the scheming itself.Mat 26:4Mrk 14:1
Covers underhanded ways of winning people over, so a preacher can insist his appeal used no such tactics even though nothing untrue was said.1Th 2:32Co 12:16
Describes a person's whole bent toward scheming, so its absence is praised as being completely straightforward, with nothing hidden behind the words.Jhn 1:47Mrk 7:22
ψεῦδος is the falsehood itself: the false thing believed or told, especially the great deception that turns people away from God to worship the creature instead.Rom 1:252Th 2:11
ψεῦδος is the calling card of the powers opposed to God: the lying wonders of the lawless one, and what is forever shut out of God's city.2Th 2:9Rev 21:27Rev 22:15
ψεῦδος marks the absence of deceit as a sign of those who belong to God: no lie was found in their mouth.Rev 14:51Jn 2:27
Both
The two are set directly against each other as the two things a person can speak or live by: truth versus the lie. Each verse puts them side by side, so that to embrace one is to reject the other.Rom 1:25Rom 1:18
Both name what a person's speech can carry. Putting away the lie and speaking truth to one another are commanded together as the mark of the new self.Eph 4:25
Both belong to the test of who fathers a person. The devil is the source of the lie because there is no truth in him; the children of God are those who know the truth and that no lie comes from it.Jhn 8:441Jn 2:21
ἀλήθεια is reality itself: what actually is the case, as opposed to mere appearance or pretense. It can name God's own faithfulness and the genuine state of things, not only honest speech.Jhn 1:14Rom 3:7
ἀλήθεια becomes a near-name for the gospel and the Christian message as a whole: the body of saving truth one comes to know, believes, and obeys.Eph 1:13Col 1:51Ti 2:4
ἀλήθεια describes a way of life and conduct, not just statements: walking in the truth, doing the truth, loving in truth, where it means genuineness of character.Jhn 3:211Jn 3:183Jn 1:4
ἀλήθεια means plain accuracy in ordinary speech: telling it straight, teaching the way of God truthfully, without flattery or partiality.Mrk 12:14Mrk 5:33
Names the false thing itself, a lie set flatly against the truth. People exchanged the truth of God for the lie (Romans 1:25), and John insists no lie belongs to the truth (1 John 2:21,1 John 2:27). Where the other word is a seductive process, this word is the false content.Rom 1:251Jn 2:211Jn 2:27
Is something a person speaks or acts out, and so it marks the liar. The devil speaks it as his native tongue (John 8:44), believers are told to strip it off and speak the truth instead (Ephesians 4:25), and those shut out of the holy city are the ones who love and practice a lie (Revelation 21:27,Revelation 22:15).Jhn 8:44Eph 4:25Rev 22:15
Both
Both belong to the end-times deception that drags people to ruin, and they work side by side in one scene: the coming of the lawless one is marked by lying wonders and a lie people are made to believe (2 Thessalonians 2:9,2 Thessalonians 2:11), carried by every deceit of wickedness aimed at those who are perishing (2 Thessalonians 2:10).2Th 2:112Th 2:10
Names the deceptive PULL of something desirable, the power a thing has to promise more than it delivers and so lead a person astray. The New Testament attaches it to worldly goods: the deceitfulness of riches chokes the word (Matthew 13:22,Mark 4:19), sin deceives and hardens the heart (Hebrews 3:13), and desires that deceive corrupt the old self (Ephesians 4:22). The falseness here is not a spoken sentence but an enticement.Mat 13:22Heb 3:13Eph 4:22
Can describe an empty system of ideas that looks impressive but has no substance, the trap of philosophy and hollow deceit that carries people off (Colossians 2:8).Col 2:8
pseudos in the other biblical languages
שֶׁקֶרHebrew“deception”the main Hebrew word for a lie, weighted toward betrayed trust: false witness, false weights, and prophets who claim to speak for God and do not.
Set sharply against the truth as its opposite, the falsehood people exchange the truth for and worship in its place.Rom 1:251Jn 2:21
Names a deceiving cosmic power at the end, the lying signs and the strong delusion that make people believe the lie.2Th 2:92Th 2:11
Marks who is shut out of the holy city: in whose mouth no lie is found, no one who loves and makes a lie.Rev 14:5Rev 22:15
Both
Both name falsehood as the moral opposite of truth and locate it in the mouth: the lying lips God hates and the lie the redeemed are to put away.Pro 12:22Eph 4:25
Pseudos is set up as the great opposite of the truth, a whole category standing over against God's reality rather than just an untrue statement.Jhn 8:441Jn 2:21Rom 1:25
The lie is traced back to the devil as its source and father, so it names an active spiritual power and not only what a person says.Jhn 8:44
It names the end-time deception that people are handed over to believe, complete with false wonders that back it up.2Th 2:112Th 2:9
Both
Both name an assertion that does not correspond to reality, above all deceitful speech and the words of a false witness, and Greek translators used pseudos to carry kazav across.Pro 6:19Pro 14:5Eph 4:25
Both can name idolatry itself as the lie, the false object of worship that cannot do what it claims.Amo 2:4Rom 1:25
Both mark moral character and shut the liar out of God's people and God's city, while the redeemed are those in whom no lie is found.Zep 3:13Rev 21:27Rev 14:5
Kazav can name a thing rather than a statement, a shelter or food or a spring that gives way exactly when its weight is tested.Isa 28:17Pro 23:3Psa 62:9
It labels the fraudulent prophetic vision announced in God's name, a false oracle that never came from him.Ezk 13:6Ezk 13:9
reaches all the way to "the lie" as a counterfeit that takes God's place and is then worshipped or believed, something people exchange the truth for and stake their lives onRom 1:252Th 2:11
is traced back to a source with a will: the devil is called its father, so falsehood has a first speaker and a whole family of speakers after himJhn 8:44
works as a flat opposite of truth in teaching about what is true, so a writer can say of a message that it is true and no falsehood is in it1Jn 2:211Jn 2:27
labels things other than words as belonging to falsehood, marking signs and wonders as false because of the realm they come from2Th 2:9
Both
both are nouns that name the false thing itself rather than the act of lying or the person who lies, which is why the Greek word is the natural New Testament counterpart of the Hebrew onePsa 59:12Eph 4:25
both cover untrue words spoken to mislead or to hurt someone, the plain sense English calls "lies"Psa 59:12Rev 14:5
both stretch past a single untrue remark to falseness that has soaked into a life or a city, something a person practices and a place can be summed up byNam 3:1Rev 22:15
is pictured as a crop: a nation plants and eats the harvest of it, so falseness becomes the food a people live onHos 10:13
names flattery aimed at those in power, the pleasing untruths that keep a king and his officials happyHos 7:3
accuses a nation of broken faith with God, standing beside another Hebrew word for treachery as the charge against a whole peopleHos 11:12
carries a second and quite different picture, a body shrunken and wasted away, which is how most read Job's gaunt frame rising to testify against himJob 16:8
What scholars say about pseudos
The standard lexica treat ψεῦδος as the substantive counterpart to ψεύδομαι, denoting the falsehood itself rather than the act or the agent; LSJ documents the classical range from an untrue statement to a fiction or a deceit. BDAG separates the general sense of a lie or falsehood from a specifically religious usage in which τὸ ψεῦδος designates what is false in the sphere of religion, taking Rom 1:25 of the idol substituted for the true God and 2 Thess 2:11 of the eschatological deception. Bultmann's TDNT treatment of the ψεύδομαι group stresses the Johannine and Pauline antithesis of ψεῦδος and ἀλήθεια as a contrast not merely between statements but between two spheres of existence; Schnackenburg reads 1 John 2:21 and 2:27 within the same antithesis, where the anointing's teaching is ἀληθές and therefore οὐκ ψεῦδος. On Rom 1:25 Moo takes the articular ἐν τῷ ψεύδει as the concrete counterfeit received in the exchange, the idol standing over against ἡ ἀλήθεια τοῦ θεοῦ. On 2 Thess 2:9 commentators divide over whether τέρασιν ψεύδους is a genitive of quality, making the wonders themselves counterfeit, or a descriptive genitive tying genuine displays of power to the service of the lie; Bruce reviews both options. Beale reads ὁ ποιῶν ψεῦδος in Rev 21:27 and 22:15 as Semitic idiom for practicing what is false, associated in Revelation with idolatry and deception rather than restricted to speech.