InterVarsity Press

Conversations: What About Busybodies?

Linda:

Where can I find scriptures on being a "busybody"?

Ruth:

The term is somewhat anachronistic, but you could find many references to things like gossip in your concordance—hardcopy or online.

Here is a scripture in the King James that uses the term: "But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters" (1 Peter 4:15).

The term has sexist connotations in that it most often describes a woman. Here's a reference from Wikipedia: "In the early silent cinema in America, the busybody is a stock character, harassing The Girl in D. W. Griffith's Intolerance and trying to take The Kid away from the Little Tramp in Charlie Chaplin's The Kid. In these films, the busybody is usually an upper class woman with too much time on her hands, who believes that her social class gives her moral superiority over the lower class characters in whose lives she meddles."

I hope this helps.