Unbelief
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G570 names unbelief, lack of faith, or refusal to trust what God has said and done. In its New Testament settings, the word is used with the range and pressure described by its local passages rather than by a bare gloss alone.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἀπιστία (G570) · Open the biblical lexicon
G570 names unbelief, lack of faith, or refusal to trust what God has said and done. In its New Testament settings, the word is used with the range and pressure described by its local passages rather than by a bare gloss alone.
The BSB source-word alignment has 11 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include unbelief (5), [and] unbelief (1), [their] unbelief (1), in unbelief (1), lack of faith (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 13:58. Its strongest book concentrations include Romans (4), Mark (3), Hebrews (2), 1 Timothy (1).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
G570 names unbelief, lack of faith, or refusal to trust what God has said and done. In its New Testament settings, the word is used with the range and pressure described by its local passages rather than by a bare gloss alone. It can mark anguished weakness, resistant response to Jesus, covenant failure, or the danger of a heart turning away from God. Scripture distinguishes struggling faith from hardened unbelief without making unbelief harmless.
This companion therefore treats the word as a Scripture-governed guide, not as a shortcut around exegesis. It helps teachers comfort weak believers and warn hardened hearers with different tones. It should help readers ask better questions of the passage: who is speaking or acting, what covenant or gospel reality is in view, and how the surrounding context limits or strengthens the claim.
It should not be used to shame every question or to soften settled refusal.
G570 ranges from anguished weakness to hardened refusal and covenant danger.
Immediately the boy’s father cried out, “I do believe; help my unbelief!”
The father brings divided weakness honestly to Jesus: he believes and asks for help with unbelief.
Yet he did not waver through disbelief in the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God,
Abraham does not waver through unbelief but is strengthened in faith toward God\'s promise.
That is correct: They were broken off because of unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid.
Branches are broken off because of unbelief, and Gentile believers are warned against arrogance.
See to it, brothers, that none of you has a wicked heart of unbelief that turns away from the living God.
Hebrews warns against an evil heart of unbelief that turns away from the living God.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. Failure to trust God's promises or character, not mere intellectual doubt about doctrine.
Failure to trust God's promises or character, not mere intellectual doubt about doctrine.
(ἄπιστος), [in LXX: Wis.14:25, 4Ma.12:4 * ;] want of faith, unbelief: Mat.13:58, Mrk.6:6 9:24 16:14, Rom.3:3 (but see: ἀπιστέω) Rom.4:20 11:20, 23, 1Ti.1:13, Heb.3:12, 19 (DCG, ii, 775a; Cremer, 492).
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
12 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
unbelief, unfaithfulness, distrust
Read verseunbelief, unfaithfulness, distrust
Read verseunbelief, unfaithfulness, distrust
Read verseunbelief, unfaithfulness, distrust
Read verseunbelief, unfaithfulness, distrust
Read verseunbelief, unfaithfulness, distrust
Read verseunbelief, unfaithfulness, distrust
Read verseunbelief, unfaithfulness, distrust
Read verseunbelief, unfaithfulness, distrust
Read verseunbelief, unfaithfulness, distrust
Read verseunbelief, unfaithfulness, distrust
Read verseunbelief, unfaithfulness, distrust
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 4 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 5 selected witnesses from 11 lexical occurrence verses.
ἀπιστία is built from this root:
Explains why branches were broken off and warns against similar failure. Hebrews 3:7-19
Explains the rejection of Christ. Mark 6:1–6
Explains the root cause of Israel's exclusion from rest. Romans 11:11-24
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Teach G570 by distinguishing honest weakness from settled refusal. A faithful teacher should begin with the nearest passage, observe who acts, what is being named, what problem or promise is in view, and what response the text calls for, then move carefully to related passages. This word helps a teacher avoid crushing the weak while still warning against hardening under the word of God.
The entry should help readers read Scripture more carefully, not replace the work of tracing the sentence, paragraph, book, and covenant setting. This keeps the word useful for shepherds, teachers, leaders, groups, families, and disciples without letting the word carry claims that belong to the whole passage or canon.
Mark.9.24
The noun names absence or refusal of faith. Its moral force depends on the object and context.
Hebrews reads Israel\'s wilderness unbelief as a warning for the church.
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