Doubt

dout: This word, found only a score of times in the Bible, translates nevertheless about half as many different Hebrew and Greek originals with a corresponding variety of meanings.

In Ge 37:33 "without doubt" is to be taken in the common sense of "certainly"; in Job 12:2 in the sarcastic sense of "indeed!" In Da 5:12,16, it is used as a difficult problem or mystery to be explained, and these are the only cases of its employment in the Old Testament.

Here, as in Mt 14:31, "doubt" does not indicate a lack of faith, but rather "a state of qualified faith": its weakness, but not its absence.

In Joh 10:24 "doubt" translates airo psuchen, which literally means "to lift up the soul" or "to keep one in suspense"; so the Revised Version (British and American). See also DISPUTATION.

James M. Gray