What does κατηγορία (katēgoría) mean in the Bible?
κατηγορία names a formal accusation or charge, the kind brought before a legal authority. ' The question exposes a real problem in the proceedings against Jesus.
Greek · G2724
κατηγορία
Accusation
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κατηγορία G2724
Pronunciation katēgoría
What does κατηγορία (katēgoría) mean in the Bible?
κατηγορία names a formal accusation or charge, the kind brought before a legal authority. ' The question exposes a real problem in the proceedings against Jesus.
Reader summary
Full entry for κατηγορία (G2724) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G2724?
The BSB source-word alignment has 3 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include accusation (2), an accusation (1).
Where does κατηγορία (katēgoría) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at John 18:29. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Timothy (1), John (1), Titus (1).
What This Word Actually Means
κατηγορία names a formal accusation or charge, the kind brought before a legal authority. John 18:29 records Pilate's own demand for one: 'What accusation are you bringing against this man?' The question exposes a real problem in the proceedings against Jesus. The religious leaders have brought him to Pilate expecting a straightforward execution, but Roman legal process requires a stated charge, and John's narrative shows the leaders struggling to supply one that will hold up as a genuinely Roman crime.
Their eventual answer, twisting Jesus' claims into a charge of treason against Caesar (John 19:12), reveals the gap between the actual, religious grounds of their hostility and the political charge they need to secure a Roman execution. Teachers should let this word expose the legal irregularity at the heart of Jesus' trial rather than passing over it as a mere formality.
How the Bible Uses It
John 18:29 puts a legal spotlight on the whole trial narrative. Pilate is not being obstinate; he is asking the question Roman law required him to ask. Isaiah 53:8-9 describes the Servant taken away 'by oppression and judgment' though he 'had done no violence,' and John's careful narration of the search for a workable accusation against Jesus in John 18:29-19:12 shows that same pattern of injustice enacted through real legal process rather than through lawless mob violence alone.
- John.18.29
So Pilate went out to them and asked, “What accusation are you bringing against this man?”
John 18:29 records Pilate's demand, 'What accusation are you bringing against this man?' as the religious leaders bring Jesus to the Roman governor.
- John.18.30
“If He were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed Him over to you.”
The leaders' evasive reply in John 18:30, 'If He were not a criminal, we would not have handed Him over to you,' fails to supply the specific charge Pilate requested, revealing the weakness of the case against Jesus on Roman legal grounds.
- John.19.12
From then on, Pilate tried to release Him, but the Jews kept shouting, “If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who declares himself a king is defying Caesar.”
John 19:12 records the leaders eventually settling on a political charge, warning Pilate that releasing Jesus would make him 'no friend of Caesar,' the accusation that finally moves the trial toward execution.
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It accusation 2× John 18:29, Titus 1:6
an accusation 1× 1 Timothy 5:19
Show sample aligned rows
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row John 18:29
Aligned rows 3
Books represented 3
John 1 1 Timothy 1 Titus 1
Source forms
κατηγορίαν 2x katēgorian John 18:29, 1 Timothy 5:19
κατηγορίᾳ 1x katēgoria Titus 1:6
Parsing patterns
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular 2x John 18:29, 1 Timothy 5:19
Noun - Dative Feminine Singular 1x Titus 1:6
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Use this detail to highlight the real injustice of a manipulated legal process, not to make a broad claim about Roman law or Jewish leadership in general beyond this specific narrative.
- Keep the accusation's evolution, from a missing charge to a political one, anchored to John 18:29 through 19:12 as a connected sequence.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim Pilate's question proves he was seeking genuine justice for Jesus throughout the trial; his later actions in the same narrative show him yielding to pressure despite finding no formal charge.
- Do not generalize this specific trial's irregularities into a broad indictment of Roman or Jewish legal systems as a whole.
Passage contextBook context
Evidence Summary
Greek word. A formal charge brought against someone, requiring evidence or witnesses to establish.
Strong's G2724
Lexical occurrences 3 verses Greek text appearances 4 times Word forms 2 forms 3 references Verse guides 0 guides
Study link Acts 25:23-27 Source Gloss
accusation
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
4 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Luke 6:7 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
κατηγορίαν kathgorian
a charge, accusation
Read verse John 18:29 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
κατηγορίαν kathgorian
a charge, accusation
Read verse 1 Timothy 5:19 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
κατηγορίαν kathgorian
a charge, accusation
Read verse Titus 1:6 Noun Dative Singular Feminine
κατηγορίᾳ kathgoria
a charge, accusation
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.
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 2 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.
Form patterns 2 Aligned forms 3 Case pattern Accusative (2) Number pattern Singular (3)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Dative · Singular · Feminine Titus 1:6 1×
Accusative · Singular · Feminine John 18:29 · 1 Tim 5:19 2×
Selected Scripture Witness
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
New Testament Witnesses
Charge or cause.
Showing 1 selected witness from 3 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
κατηγορία is built from this root:
Why This Word Matters
Highlights the absence of substantiated crime. Acts 25:23-27
For the Preacher and Teacher
John 18:29 puts a legal spotlight on the whole trial narrative. Pilate is not being obstinate; he is asking the question Roman law required him to ask. The religious leaders' inability to answer it directly, and their eventual pivot to a political charge of rivaling Caesar, exposes that Jesus' actual offense, as far as the leaders were concerned, was religious and theological, not criminal in the sense Rome recognized.
Preachers can use this word to show that Jesus' condemnation involved a real, if manipulated, legal process, not simply an eruption of unregulated hostility, which sharpens rather than softens the injustice involved. This word opens a teaching doorway on the legal irregularity of Jesus' trial: Pilate's demand for a formal accusation exposes that the religious leaders lacked a genuine Roman charge and had to construct a political one, showing Jesus' condemnation as manipulated legal process rather than simple mob violence.
It helps teachers describe the trial's injustice with historical and legal precision. It corrects readings that treat Jesus' trial as an informal, chaotic mob action; John's narrative shows a real Roman legal process being worked, however unjustly, toward a predetermined outcome. Frame κατηγορία as the specific, missing legal charge that exposes the manipulated character of Jesus' trial, not as a minor procedural detail.
Anchor passage
John.18.29
Doctrinal connections
- John.18.29 - primary John anchor for accusation, formal charge.
- John.18.30 - local narrative or book-level context that supports the companion's claim.
- John.19.12 - canonical parallel or background that keeps the entry's theological claim bounded.
- Gospel of John - book context that keeps this entry anchored in John's witness to Jesus.
Frame κατηγορία as the specific, missing legal charge that exposes the manipulated character of Jesus' trial, not as a minor procedural detail. Linguistically, κατηγορία should be allowed to name accusation, formal charge without carrying claims the cited passages do not make.
From Old to New Testament
Isaiah 53:8-9 describes the Servant taken away 'by oppression and judgment' though he 'had done no violence,' and John's careful narration of the search for a workable accusation against Jesus in John 18:29-19:12 shows that same pattern of injustice enacted through real legal process rather than through lawless mob violence alone.
Sources
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain