Exploring the Meaning of Katalalia in Greek

καταλαλιά refers to “slander,” harmful speech that damages another person’s standing. It appears in two New Testament admonitions—one in Paul’s anxious warning about what he might find in Corinth, and one in Peter’s call for a clean break with vices of speech and intent.

Root and Related Words

καταλαλιά is related to katalalos (κατάλαλος), “slanderous” (Strong’s G2637), indicating a close connection between the abstract idea of slander and a descriptor for a person characterized by such speech.

Occurrences

“For I am afraid that by any means, when I come, I might find you not the way I want to, and that I might be found by you as you don’t desire, that by any means there would be strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander, whisperings, proud thoughts, or riots,” (2 Corinthians 12:20)

Here καταλαλιά appears in a clustered list of relational breakdowns that Paul fears may be present when he arrives. In this catalogue, “slander” sits among communal pressures and rivalries (“strife,” “jealousy,” “factions”) and alongside other speech-acts (“whisperings”). The placement suggests slander as one outward symptom of a community already strained by inner dispositions (“proud thoughts”) and volatile behaviors (“outbursts of anger,” “riots”). Paul’s concern is not abstract; he anticipates the painful experience of arrival into a church environment where reputations are being undermined and where corrosive talk is part of a wider pattern of conflict. The verse’s repeated “by any means” heightens the sense of anxious possibility: slander is one of several destructive outcomes Paul dreads encountering, and it contributes to the picture of a congregation whose internal life has become adversarial rather than peaceable.

“Putting away therefore all wickedness, all deceit, hypocrisies, envies, and all evil speaking,” (1 Peter 2:1)

In Peter’s exhortation, καταλαλιά is included in what is to be “putting away,” framed as an act of deliberate removal. The surrounding terms map a moral field that includes both inward motives (“envies”) and relational falsehoods (“deceit,” “hypocrisies”). In that context, slander functions as speech that expresses and spreads these vices—language that does harm rather than good within the community. The phrase “all evil speaking” gathers slander into an emphatic totality: not a single tolerated corner of malicious talk remains. Peter’s list reads like a house-cleaning of both heart and mouth, and slander is treated as something incompatible with the new pattern of life he is urging. The verse’s “therefore” ties the command to what precedes in the letter’s argument, but even within the single line quoted, the thrust is clear: slander belongs to an old set of behaviors that must be stripped off decisively.

Sense and Usage

Across these two occurrences, “slander” is portrayed as a communal poison expressed through speech, with consequences that ripple through relationships. In 2 Corinthians 12:20 it is one item in a chain reaction of disorder: when a group is marked by rivalry and anger, slander becomes one way those tensions are carried, sharpened, and weaponized. The word’s proximity to “whisperings” is especially suggestive in that setting: slander thrives when talk moves sideways—through insinuation, private circulation, and the kind of speech that avoids open responsibility while still shaping opinion. Paul’s fear is not merely that harsh words might be spoken, but that the church’s shared life may be structured by antagonistic talk that erodes trust.

In 1 Peter 2:1 the same reality is addressed from the angle of moral transformation. Slander is treated as something that can be put away, grouped with deceitful and two-faced behaviors. The list links speech to character: slander is not a neutral communication mistake but a vice that belongs with “wickedness” and “envies.” The breadth of “all” before each item intensifies the demand—no selective moral pruning where a community keeps certain forms of damaging speech while discarding others. In this verse, slander is the kind of speaking that must be renounced as part of a new communal ethic.

Together, the passages show slander operating both as a sign of existing conflict and as a target of deliberate repentance. Paul’s sentence imagines the social atmosphere slander creates and inhabits; Peter’s imperative imagines the social atmosphere that follows when such speech is removed. Both assume slander is not isolated to private opinion—it is communicated, heard, and socially effective. Whether it is feared as an imminent reality (Paul) or forbidden as an ongoing practice (Peter), slander is treated as speech that fractures fellowship by shaping how people are viewed and treated.

Imagery

The two scenes evoke different but complementary images. In 2 Corinthians 12:20, slander is part of a noisy crowd of disturbances—“strife… outbursts of anger… riots”—where talk becomes another kind of upheaval, stirring suspicion and hostility. In 1 Peter 2:1, slander is pictured as something that can be taken off and discarded along with other corrupt habits, as if cleaning out a community’s speech so that what remains is no longer bent toward harm.

Sources: Lexical data from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance and the Translators Brief Lexicon of Extended Strongs for Greek (STEPBible, CC BY). Occurrence data from the Translators Amalgamated Greek New Testament (STEPBible, CC BY). Scripture quotations from the World English Bible (public domain).