What does ἀπιστία (apistía) mean in the Bible?
G570 names unbelief, lack of faith, or faithlessness, but its pastoral force varies with the passage. In Mark 9:24 a father confesses unbelief while entrusting his need to Jesus.
Greek · G570
ἀπιστία
Unbelief
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ἀπιστία G570
Pronunciation apistía
What does ἀπιστία (apistía) mean in the Bible?
G570 names unbelief, lack of faith, or faithlessness, but its pastoral force varies with the passage. In Mark 9:24 a father confesses unbelief while entrusting his need to Jesus.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἀπιστία (G570) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G570?
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).
Where does ἀπιστία (apistía) appear in Scripture?
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).
Are there verse guides for ἀπιστία (apistía)?
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
What This Word Actually Means
G570 names unbelief, lack of faith, or faithlessness, but its pastoral force varies with the passage. In Mark 9:24 a father confesses unbelief while entrusting his need to Jesus. Mark 6:6 and 16:14 describe responses that meet rebuke, Romans 3:3 asks whether human faithlessness nullifies God's faithfulness, and Romans 4:20 contrasts unbelief with Abraham's confidence in God's promise.
Romans 11 warns Gentile believers against arrogance while explaining branches broken off through unbelief. First Timothy 1:13 recalls Paul's former ignorance and unbelief within his testimony to mercy. Hebrews 3 identifies unbelief with turning away and failing to enter God's rest. These texts distinguish confessed weakness from resistant refusal without treating either as a diagnosis readers may impose merely because someone asks a hard question.
How the Bible Uses It
The selected artifact reflects about eleven New Testament uses ranging from confessed weakness to rejected testimony, human faithlessness, and covenant warning.
- Mark.9.24
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.
- Rom.4.20
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.
- Rom.11.20
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.
- Heb.3.12
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.
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It unbelief 5× Matthew 13:58, Mark 6:6, Mark 9:24, Mark 16:14
[and] unbelief 1× 1 Timothy 1:13
[their] unbelief 1× Hebrews 3:19
in unbelief 1× Romans 11:23
lack of faith 1× Romans 3:3
of unbelief 1× Hebrews 3:12
through disbelief 1× Romans 4:20
Show sample aligned rows
Matthew 13:58 ἀπιστίαν to unbelief Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular Mark 6:6 ἀπιστίαν to unbelief Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular Mark 9:24 ἀπιστίᾳ to unbelief Noun - Dative Feminine Singular Mark 16:14 ἀπιστίαν to unbelief Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular Romans 3:3 ἀπιστία to lack of faith Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular Romans 4:20 ἀπιστίᾳ to through disbelief Noun - Dative Feminine Singular Romans 11:20 ἀπιστίᾳ to unbelief Noun - Dative Feminine Singular Romans 11:23 ἀπιστίᾳ to in unbelief Noun - Dative Feminine Singular 1 Timothy 1:13 ἀπιστίᾳ to [and] unbelief Noun - Dative Feminine Singular Hebrews 3:12 ἀπιστίας to of unbelief Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Matthew 13:58
Aligned rows 11
Books represented 5
Matthew 1 Mark 3 Romans 4 1 Timothy 1 Hebrews 2
Source forms
ἀπιστίᾳ 5x apistia Mark 9:24, Romans 4:20, Romans 11:20, Romans 11:23
ἀπιστίαν 4x apistian Matthew 13:58, Mark 6:6, Mark 16:14, Hebrews 3:19
ἀπιστία 1x apistia Romans 3:3
ἀπιστίας 1x apistias Hebrews 3:12
Parsing patterns
Noun - Dative Feminine Singular 5x Mark 9:24, Romans 4:20, Romans 11:20, Romans 11:23
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular 4x Matthew 13:58, Mark 6:6, Mark 16:14, Hebrews 3:19
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular 1x Hebrews 3:12
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular 1x Romans 3:3
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Invite people who confess weakness to seek Christ's help, and let passages about resistant unbelief retain their sober warning.
- Use observable responses and the passage's own categories rather than assigning hidden motives.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim that having questions means hardened unbelief.
- Do not claim that unbelief is overcome by willpower apart from God's promise and mercy.
- Do not use the olive-tree warning to encourage hostility toward Jewish people or pride in Gentile inclusion.
Key Verse and Form Guides
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Evidence Summary
FaithMessiah
Greek word. Failure to trust God's promises or character, not mere intellectual doubt about doctrine.
Source Gloss
unbelief
Extended definition Source: STEPBible TBESG + Abbott-Smith
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).
Greek Text Appearances
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.
Matthew 13:58 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ἀπιστίαν apistian
unbelief, unfaithfulness, distrust
Read verse Matthew 17:20 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ἀπιστίαν apistian
unbelief, unfaithfulness, distrust
Read verse Mark 6:6 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ἀπιστίαν apistian
unbelief, unfaithfulness, distrust
Read verse Mark 9:24 Noun Dative Singular Feminine
ἀπιστίᾳ. apistia
unbelief, unfaithfulness, distrust
Read verse Mark 16:14 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ἀπιστίαν apistian
unbelief, unfaithfulness, distrust
Read verse apistia
unbelief, unfaithfulness, distrust
Read verse Romans 4:20 Noun Dative Singular Feminine
ἀπιστίᾳ, apistia
unbelief, unfaithfulness, distrust
Read verse Romans 11:20 Noun Dative Singular Feminine
ἀπιστίᾳ apistia
unbelief, unfaithfulness, distrust
Read verse Romans 11:23 Noun Dative Singular Feminine
ἀπιστίᾳ, apistia
unbelief, unfaithfulness, distrust
Read verse 1 Timothy 1:13 Noun Dative Singular Feminine
ἀπιστίᾳ· apistia
unbelief, unfaithfulness, distrust
Read verse Hebrews 3:12 Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
ἀπιστίας apistiav
unbelief, unfaithfulness, distrust
Read verse Hebrews 3:19 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ἀπιστίαν. apistian
unbelief, 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.
Grammatical Forms
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.
Form patterns 4 Aligned forms 11 Case pattern Dative (5) Number pattern Singular (11)
Genitive · Singular · Feminine Heb 3:12 1×
Dative · Singular · Feminine Mark 9:24 · Rom 4:20 · Rom 11:20 · Rom 11:23 · 1 Tim 1:13 5×
Accusative · Singular · Feminine Matt 13:58 · Mark 6:6 · Mark 16:14 · Heb 3:19 4×
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
New Testament Witnesses
unbelief
unbelief
Unbelief, lack of faith.
Additional Occurrences
Luke 1:5–25 ἀπιστία apistía
Unbelief, lack of faith
Mark 6:1–6 ἀπιστία apistía
unbelief
Showing 5 selected witnesses from 11 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
ἀπιστία is built from this root:
Why This Word Matters
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
Canonical Themes
Faith Messiah
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
For the Preacher and Teacher
G570 requires teachers to distinguish conditions that English readers may too quickly collapse. The father in Mark 9 confesses unbelief to Jesus and asks for help, while the disciples in Mark 16 are rebuked for refusing the testimony of those who saw the risen Christ. Romans 3 speaks of human faithlessness without weakening God's faithfulness; Romans 4 sets Abraham's confidence in the promise against unbelief; Romans 11 warns Gentiles who stand by faith not to boast over broken branches.
Hebrews 3 presents the wilderness generation as a serious warning about turning away. The word therefore supports both tenderness and warning, but the passage, not a guess about motives, determines which pastoral tone is faithful.
Anchor passage
Mark.9.24
Doctrinal connections
- Mark.9.24 - Confessed unbelief is brought directly to Jesus in a request for help.
- Rom.3.3-4 - Human faithlessness does not overthrow the faithfulness of God.
- Rom.4.20-21 - Abraham's faith is directed toward God's ability to perform what He promised.
- Rom.11.20-23 - The olive-tree warning joins unbelief, faith, humility, severity, kindness, and possible restoration.
- Heb.3.12-19 - The wilderness generation warns the congregation against an unbelieving heart that turns away.
The noun can denote unbelief or faithlessness. Its moral and pastoral force cannot be read from the gloss alone; the object of trust, the person's response, and the surrounding argument determine whether the passage describes weakness, refusal, or unfaithfulness.
From Old to New Testament
Hebrews 3 reads Israel's wilderness refusal to enter God's rest as a warning addressed to the congregation. The connection is made by Hebrews' own exposition and should not be generalized into a claim that every struggle repeats the wilderness rebellion.
Sources
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain