Word study

Doubt

1 Hebrew and 5 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: doubt, doubts, doubting, doubted. 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 “doubt” or one of its forms.

Compare the Greek words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

Greek words (New Testament)

  • διακρίνω diakrínōI distinguish, discern, doubt, hesitatetranslated this way 6 times of its 19 uses · Strong’s G1252Verb  ·  Translated: doubt 3, hesitation 2, doubts 2

    Matthew 21:21 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen.

    Mark 11:23 “Truly I tell you that if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and has no doubt in his heart but believes that it will happen, it will be done for him.

    Full study and all 18 verses →
  • διστάζω distázōI waver, doubttranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G1365Verb  ·  Translated: doubt 1, doubted 1

    Matthew 14:31 Immediately Jesus reached out His hand and took hold of Peter. “You of little faith,” He said, “why did you doubt?”

    Matthew 28:17 When they saw Him, they worshiped Him, but some doubted.

    Full study and all 2 verses →
  • βέβαιος bébaiosfirm, steadfast, enduringtranslated this way 1 time of its 8 uses · Strong’s G949Adjective  ·  Translated: sure 2

    2 Peter 1:19 We also have the word of the prophets as confirmed beyond doubt. And you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

    Full study and all 8 verses →
  • διαλογισμός dialogismósa calculation, reasoning, thought, plottingtranslated this way 1 time of its 14 uses · Strong’s G1261Noun  ·  Translated: thoughts 7, thinking 2

    Luke 24:38 “Why are you troubled,” Jesus asked, “and why do doubts arise in your hearts?

    Full study and all 14 verses →
  • ἄπιστος ápistosunbelieving, incredulous, unchristian, unbelievertranslated this way 1 time of its 23 uses · Strong’s G571Adjective  ·  Translated: unbelieving 9, unbelievers 7, unbeliever 5, Stop doubting 1

    John 20:27 Then Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and look at My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe.”

    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.