Gossip

Gossip (Hebrew nirgan, whisperer; rakil, talebearer; Greek psithurismos, whispering) designates the sharing of damaging or private information about others in an informal, often malicious context. Mosaic law prohibits going about as a slanderer: "You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people" (Lev. 19:16). Proverbs consistently condemns the gossip as a destroyer: "A whisperer separates close friends" (Prov. 16:28; 17:9); "The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels; they go down into the inner parts of the body" (Prov. 18:8; 26:22), capturing both the appetizing appeal and the destructive effect of gossip. Without a gossip, quarreling ceases (Prov. 26:20). Paul lists gossips and slanderers among those who suppress the truth and whose hearts are darkened (Rom. 1:29–30) and among the sins he fears finding unrepented in Corinth (2 Cor. 12:20). He also warns Timothy that younger widows who are idle learn to be gossips and busybodies (1 Tim. 5:13). James's teaching on the tongue (Jas. 3:5–12) provides the theological basis for condemning gossip: the tongue's destructive capacity is disproportionate to its size, like a small fire that sets a great forest ablaze. The remedy is speech that builds up (Eph. 4:29) and love that covers a multitude of sins (1 Pet. 4:8; Prov. 10:12).