Word study

Accusation

3 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: accusation, accusations. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.

At a glance

How often each original word is translated “accusation” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

Greek words (New Testament)

  • κατηγορία katēgoríaa charge, accusationtranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G2724Noun  ·  Translated: accusation 3

    John 18:29 So Pilate went out to them and asked, “What accusation are you bringing against this man?”

    1 Timothy 5:19 Do not entertain an accusation against an elder, except on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

    Full study and all 3 verses →
  • ἐγκαλέω enkaléōI bring a charge against, accusetranslated this way 2 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s G1458Verb  ·  Translated: bring charges 1, charged 1, accusation 1, accusations 1

    Acts 23:29 I found that the accusation involved questions about their own law, but there was no charge worthy of death or imprisonment.

    Acts 26:2 “King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate to stand before you today to defend myself against all the accusations of the Jews,

    Full study and all 6 verses →
  • συκοφαντέω sykophantéōI accuse falsely, defraudtranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s G4811Verb  ·  Translated: false accusation 1, cheated 1

    Luke 3:14 Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?” “Do not take money by force or false accusation,” he said. “Be content with your wages.”

    Full study and all 2 verses →
  • κατηγορέω katēgoréōI accuse, charge, prosecutetranslated this way 1 time of its 22 uses · Strong’s G2723Verb  ·  Translated: accuse 6, accusing 3, charges 3, accused 2

    Acts 25:11 If, however, I am guilty of anything worthy of death, I do not refuse to die. But if there is no truth to their accusations against me, no one has the right to hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar!”

    Full study and all 21 verses →
How to study a word well
  1. Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
  2. Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
  3. Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
  4. Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
  5. See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
  6. Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
  7. Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.

Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.