Bible verses about doubt

A word Matthew uses twice

The Greek verb for doubt in Matthew is distazo, Strong’s 1365, glossed “to doubt, to waver”. The concordance lists exactly two occurrences in the New Testament, and both are here.

He said, “Come!” Peter stepped down from the boat and walked on the waters to come to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was strong, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand, took hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”Matthew 14:29-31 · World English Bible

The first is Peter on the water. Notice the order: he cries out, he is caught immediately, and the question about doubting comes after the hand. It is asked of a man who is already being held.

But the eleven disciples went into Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had sent them. When they saw him, they bowed down to him; but some doubted. Jesus came to them and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.Matthew 28:16-20 · World English Bible

The second is the closing scene of the gospel. They see him, they bow down, but some doubted — and what comes next is not a rebuke. Jesus comes to them, speaks, and sends them. The doubt is recorded and the sending goes ahead in the same paragraph.

Who “some” were is argued, by name. Meyer and Bengel take it as some of the eleven; the Cambridge Bible and the Pulpit Commentary think it more likely others who were present; the Expositor’s Greek Testament reads a mixed scene of reverence and hesitation. All of them are at Bible Hub’s commentaries on Matthew 28:17. We are not settling it. Either way, the doubt is in the text at the gospel’s last scene, and nobody is sent away for it.

Thomas is never called a doubter

But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, wasn’t with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” After eight days, again his disciples were inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, the doors being locked, and stood in the middle, and said, “Peace be to you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Reach here your finger, and see my hands. Reach here your hand, and put it into my side. Don’t be unbelieving, but believing.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”John 20:24-29 · World English Bible

Read both translations and look for the word “doubt”. It is not there, in either. The nickname is later. What Jesus says is “Don’t be unbelieving, but believing” — the King James has “be not faithless” — and the Greek is apistos (571) against pistos (4103), unbelieving against believing. Thomas asked to see and to touch, and he is offered exactly that. He is also the one who says My Lord and my God.

The same word family turns up in Mark, in the most honest sentence on this page:

Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out with tears, “I believe. Help my unbelief!”Mark 9:23-24 · World English Bible

The father’s “unbelief” is apistia (570), the noun of Thomas’s adjective. He says both halves in one breath, and the story does not make him choose between them. His son is healed in the verses that follow.

The stern verses, read honestly

But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed. For that man shouldn’t think that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.James 1:5-8 · World English Bible

This is the passage most often used against somebody who doubts, and it is stern. It says the double-minded person should not expect to receive anything, and it means it. Two things are worth knowing, and neither of them softens it.

First, it is not Matthew’s word. James uses diakrino (1252), a verb whose usual work is to judge, distinguish or decide — the concordance renders it “discern”, “made no distinction” and “disputed” as well as “doubt”. Here it is someone divided against themselves. And the King James does not say doubt in these verses at all: it says “nothing wavering” and “he that wavereth”, where the modern rendering says “doubting” and “doubts”. Same Greek; you can see the choice in the toggles.

Second, “double-minded” is dipsuchos (1374), literally two-souled, and it occurs exactly twice in the New Testament, both in James (1:8 and 4:8). Note too what the warning is attached to: verse 5 is a promise that God gives wisdom to anyone who asks, liberally and “without reproach”. Verses 6 to 8 are about how that asking is done.

But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because it isn’t of faith; and whatever is not of faith is sin.Romans 14:23 · World English Bible

The King James’s “he that doubteth is damned” is the most frightening line on this page, and the chapter it closes is about food — whether to eat what your own conscience is unsure of. The verb is diakrino again, and for the King James’s “damned” the modern rendering has “condemned”. The doubt in view is doubt about whether eating is right.

A verse where both our translations sit on one side

On some have compassion, making a distinction,Jude 1:22 · World English Bible

Both our translations say to have compassion on some, “making a distinction”. Most recent English translations say instead to have mercy on those who doubt — compare them on Bible Hub’s parallel page. That is not a translation choice; it is a manuscript question, and it comes down to one case ending. The critical editions (SBL, Nestle 1904, Westcott and Hort) print diakrinomenous, so the people shown mercy are the ones doubting. The Byzantine Majority Text and both Textus Receptus editions print diakrinomenoi, so the distinguishing is done by the reader. Bible Hub sets the Greek editions side by side. Our two translations both follow the second reading, so you would never know from the text above that the first exists. We are telling you rather than choosing.

The doubters the book keeps

Now when John heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to him, “Are you he who comes, or should we look for another?” Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. Blessed is he who finds no occasion for stumbling in me.”Matthew 11:2-6 · World English Bible

John the Baptist, in prison, sends to ask whether Jesus is the one. The answer is not a rebuke. It is a list of what is happening, sent back for John to weigh himself.

But as for me, my feet were almost gone. My steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.Psalms 73:2-3 · World English Bible

When I tried to understand this, it was too painful for me— until I entered God’s sanctuary, and considered their latter end.Psalms 73:16-17 · World English Bible

Psalm 73 is doubt about whether God is good, from someone who watched the arrogant do well. My feet were almost gone. It is in the songbook, and the turn comes in the sanctuary: he took the question in with him.

LORD, how long will I cry, and you will not hear? I cry out to you “Violence!” and will you not save? Why do you show me iniquity, and look at perversity? For destruction and violence are before me. There is strife, and contention rises up.Habakkuk 1:2-3 · World English Bible

A prophet opens his book with a complaint — how long will I cry, and you will not hear? — and the book is named after the man who asked it.

He said to them, “Why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is truly me. Touch me and see, for a spirit doesn’t have flesh and bones, as you see that I have.”Luke 24:38-39 · World English Bible

One more split in the toggles: the modern rendering has “doubts” here and the King James has “thoughts”. The Greek is dialogismoi (1261), glossed “a reasoning”. So on this page alone, the modern rendering’s “doubt” stands for three different Greek words, and in two places the King James uses other words entirely: “wavering” and “thoughts”. The answer given in the verse is the one Thomas got: see my hands.

What this page is not

It does not tell you whether doubt is a sin. Christians answer that differently, and the texts above pull in more than one direction — James is stern, Matthew records doubters being sent, and Jude, in most modern texts, asks for mercy on them. This page puts them side by side and leaves them there. If what you are carrying has become sleeplessness or dread, our pages for anxiety and fear carry the health links, and 2 Corinthians 12:9 is the page for a prayer that was refused.