Bible Dictionary
Backbite
To backbite is to slander, malign, or spread harmful reports about someone who is absent. Scripture condemns such secret talebearing and evil speech.
Definition
To backbite is to slander or malign an absent person, especially by carrying secret reports or speaking maliciously against him. The image suggests a dog biting from behind, where the victim cannot see.
Biblical Usage
Scripture condemns backbiting, talebearing, secret slander, and evil-speaking. It presents such speech as conduct inconsistent with righteous living and Christian fellowship.
Historical Background
The biblical terms translated “backbite” include expressions for going about as a talebearer, speaking against another, and using a tongue of secrecy.
Scripture References
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
In Ps. 15:3, the rendering of a word which means to run about tattling, calumniating; in Prov. 25:23, secret talebearing or slandering; in Rom. 1:30 and 2 Cor. 12:20, evil-speaking, maliciously defaming the absent.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>bak'-bit raghal; doloo: To slander the absent, like a dog biting behind the back, where one cannot see; to go about as a talebearer. "He that backbiteth [Revised Version, slandereth] not with his tongue" (Ps 15:3).</p><p>Backbiters bak'-bit-~rz (Greek katalaloi: Men who speak against. Vulgate, "detractors" (Ro 1:30)).</p><p>Backbiting bak'-bit-ing: cether: Adj. "a backbiting tongue"; literally, "a tongue of secrecy" (Pr 25:23). katalalia: substantive "a speaking against" (2Co 12:20; Wisdom 1:11); "evil speaking" (1Pe 2:1). glossa trite: "a backbiting tongue" (the King James Version of Ecclesiasticus 28:14,15); more literally translated in the Revised Version (British and American) "a third person's tongue."</p><p>T. Rees</p>