A traducer; specially, Satan (compare )
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Diabolos means slanderous, falsely accusing, or the slanderer, and with the article or personal reference it commonly names the devil. Matthew presents the devil tempting Jesus, while Paul warns a new overseer against falling into the devil's condemnation or snare.
Reader summary
Full entry for διάβολος (G1228) · Open the biblical lexicon
Diabolos means slanderous, falsely accusing, or the slanderer, and with the article or personal reference it commonly names the devil. Matthew presents the devil tempting Jesus, while Paul warns a new overseer against falling into the devil's condemnation or snare.
The BSB source-word alignment has 37 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include devil (28), [the] devil (2), slanderers (2), [he] (1), a devil (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 4:1. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (6), Luke (5), Revelation (5), 1 John (4).
Diabolos means slanderous, falsely accusing, or the slanderer, and with the article or personal reference it commonly names the devil. Matthew presents the devil tempting Jesus, while Paul warns a new overseer against falling into the devil's condemnation or snare. The same adjective describes human slanderers in church qualifications and last-days vice lists, showing that malicious accusation reflects the adversary's character.
The word does not authorize treating every accuser as demonic, dismissing credible reports, or speculating beyond Scripture about evil powers. Christians resist the devil through allegiance to Christ, truth, humility, prayer, and holiness, and they resist diabolical speech through evidence, fair process, refusal of gossip, protection of the falsely accused, and serious hearing of those reporting harm.
Diabolos names the personal devil and characterizes slanderous human speech. Its uses connect satanic opposition, pride, malicious accusation, and the truth-governed character required in God's household.
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Matthew 4:1 names the devil as the tempter who confronts Jesus in the wilderness. Jesus answers deceptive testing with rightly applied Scripture and filial obedience.
He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same condemnation as the devil.
First Timothy 3:6 warns that a recent convert elevated too quickly may become conceited and fall into the devil's condemnation. Pride makes leadership spiritually dangerous.
In the same way, the women must be dignified, not slanderers, but temperate and faithful in all things.
First Timothy 3:11 requires women in recognized service or deacons' wives to be dignified and not slanderers, joining speech integrity to sobriety and faithfulness.
Unloving, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, without love of good,
Second Timothy 3:3 uses the adjective in a last-days vice list for slanderous people marked by relational and moral corruption.
Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in their behavior, not slanderers or addicted to much wine, but teachers of good.
Titus 2:3 commands older women to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or enslaved to much wine, and able to teach what is good.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Accuser and slanderer; Satan as the supreme false accuser who opposes God's people through deception.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 38 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
slanderous, the Slanderer, the Devil
Read verseslanderous, the Slanderer, the Devil
Read verseslanderous, the Slanderer, the Devil
Read verseslanderous, the Slanderer, the Devil
Read verseslanderous, the Slanderer, the Devil
Read verseslanderous, the Slanderer, the Devil
Read verseslanderous, the Slanderer, the Devil
Read verseslanderous, the Slanderer, the Devil
Read verseslanderous, the Slanderer, the Devil
Read verseslanderous, the Slanderer, the Devil
Read verseslanderous, the Slanderer, the Devil
Read verseslanderous, the Slanderer, the Devil
Read verseslanderous, the Slanderer, the Devil
Read verseslanderous, the Slanderer, the Devil
Read verseslanderous, the Slanderer, the Devil
Read verseslanderous, the Slanderer, the Devil
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 6 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 35 lexical occurrence verses.
διάβολος is built from this root:
Indicates spiritual opposition within proximity.
Represents spiritual paternity opposed to truth.
Hebrew roots and equivalents that share conceptual or etymological ground with this Greek word.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Diabolos holds personal spiritual opposition and human speech ethics together without confusing them. The devil tempts the Son by twisting vocation and Scripture, and pride threatens an immature overseer with the adversary's condemnation or snare. In household qualifications, ordinary people can become slanderous when they carry malicious or false accusations.
Churches resist this pattern not by calling every allegation satanic, but by loving truth: listening carefully, preserving evidence, testing claims impartially, correcting falsehood, protecting reporters from retaliation, and restoring reputations when accusations fail. Spiritual warfare is neither denial of personal evil nor escape from responsible process.
Christ defeats the tempter through obedient sonship, and His people refuse both gossip that destroys neighbors and institutional secrecy that hides verified wrongdoing.
Matt.4.1
Diabolos is related to diaballo, to bring charges or slander. As an adjective it means slanderous or falsely accusing; as a substantive it commonly designates the devil, the slanderer.
The serpent deceives, the accuser challenges God's servants, and false witnesses destroy neighbors. God's law simultaneously condemns false testimony and requires truthful adjudication.