An accuser presents a charge against someone, and the word names that role before determining whether the charge is true. Acts uses it for the people whose arrival and statements form part of Paul's hearings before the governors.
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Full entry for κατήγορος (G2725) · Open the biblical lexicon
An accuser presents a charge against someone, and the word names that role before determining whether the charge is true. Acts uses it for the people whose arrival and statements form part of Paul's hearings before the governors.
The BSB source-word alignment has 6 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include accusers (5), accuser (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at John 8:10. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (4), John (1), Revelation (1).
An accuser presents a charge against someone, and the word names that role before determining whether the charge is true. Acts uses it for the people whose arrival and statements form part of Paul's hearings before the governors. Festus describes an opportunity to face accusers and answer the charges, then reports that their statements concerned a dispute about religion and Jesus rather than the crimes he had expected.
Revelation places the accuser in a different setting, explicitly identifying the defeated dragon as the devil and Satan. That identification comes from the vision's explanation, not from the bare noun. The passages call for attention to the actual parties, charge and account of the hearing or conflict. A complaint about wrongdoing must not be dismissed as satanic simply because someone occupies an accusing role.
Paul's hearings contain named accusers and reported charges; Revelation's heavenly scene identifies the dragon through its own explanation. The legal role and the vision's particular adversary must remain distinct when drawing a teaching conclusion.
He said, “I will hear your case when your accusers arrive.” Then he ordered that Paul be kept under guard in Herod’s Praetorium.
The governor says he will hear Paul's case when the accusers arrive and orders him kept under guard, placing the noun within a hearing that has not yet occurred rather than a completed judgment.
I told them that it is not the Roman custom to hand a man over before he has had an opportunity to face his accusers and defend himself against their charges.
Festus reports his stated custom of allowing the accused to face accusers and defend against their charges; this is his account to Agrippa of the handling of Paul's case.
And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ. For the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down—he who accuses them day and night before our God.
The voice announces the throwing down of the accuser of the brothers after the preceding verse identifies the dragon as the devil and Satan; the following verse names the Lamb's blood and their testimony.
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. One who brings formal accusation in court; accuser in judicial proceedings, not mere critic.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
7 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a prosecutor, accuser
Read versea prosecutor, accuser
Read versea prosecutor, accuser
Read versea prosecutor, accuser
Read versea prosecutor, accuser
Read versea prosecutor, accuser
Read versea prosecutor, accuser
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 3 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 1 selected witness from 4 lexical occurrence verses.
κατήγορος is built from these roots:
Introduces the next phase of legal confrontation.Acts 23:23-35
The governor's statement in Acts 23 is about a hearing still to occur: Paul's accusers must arrive before the case is heard. Festus later describes an opportunity for an accused person to answer charges and reports his own surprise about what the accusers actually said. The narrative thus requires attention to a charge and its handling instead of deciding every fact from the role's name.
Revelation identifies its accuser through the dragon's stated identity and announces his defeat through the Lamb's blood and the brothers' testimony. This is more specific than a rule that whoever complains is serving the devil. Teaching should keep both settings intact. Confidence in God's justifying work must never become a mechanism for silencing a harmed person, treating a leader as exempt from accountability or replacing careful attention to facts with a hostile spiritual label.
Acts.25.16
The Greek noun designates an accuser, a person bringing a charge. Truthfulness, motive and the identity of a particular adversary require contextual evidence; the noun does not itself mean liar, victim or Satan, and it supplies no complete modern procedural rule.
Deuteronomy 19:15-18 names witnesses, parties, priests and judges within Israel's judicial setting and directs investigation of a disputed testimony. It offers a particular covenant context for hearing charges; this word study does not convert those instructions into a current legal or safeguarding procedure, or dismiss a report of harm by labeling its bearer an accuser.