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Bible Dictionaries
Tattlers
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or ‘Tattlers’ is the translation of φλύαροι in 1 Timothy 5:13. As a noun the word is found only here in the NT. As a verb φλυαρέω occurs in 3 John 1:10, where it stigmatizes Diotrephes. In 4 Maccabees 5:10 it is used as an adjective, and applied to a worthless kind of philosophy (ἀπὸ τῆς φλυάρου φιλοσοφίας).
In classical Greek the word is in common use to denote ‘foolery,’ ‘silly chatter,’ and generally ‘playing the fool’; and not infrequently with a tinge of moral blameworthiness. In 1 Timothy 5:13 the word φλύαροι (‘trifling silly talkers’) is applied to the baser sort among the order of widows, and especially to the younger women of that order: ‘And withal they learn also to be idle, going about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not.’ ‘From leisure springs that curiosity which is the mother of garrulity’ (Calvin). Bengel translates by garrulae. ‘The social intercourse of idle people is naturally characterised by silly chatter’ (Expositor’s Greek Testament , Edinburgh, 1910, in loc.).
We have here one of the vignettes of character, so abundant in the Pastorals, where one sees as in a mirror the frivolous side of the Greek temperament, its restlessness and curiosity, its ‘itch’ to hear or to tell some newer thing. In the land of gossips this propensity had invaded the Church, and threatened to become (as we can well believe) troublesome to good order, as well as hurtful to the grave and restrained life which was imperative on Christian women in the relaxed moral conditions of the cities of the Empire. Timothy is therefore warned to hold a tight rein over the troops of gadabout women with their prurient talk (λαλοῦσαι τὰ μὴ δέοντα). See Babbler.
W. M. Grant.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Tattlers'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/t/tattlers.html. 1906-1918.
