StrongerBible

diakrinō

διακρίνω

GreekG1252“doubt, make a distinction, ...”

Appears 19 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 16:3Mat 21:21Mrk 11:23Act 10:20Act 11:2Act 11:12Act 15:9Rom 4:20Rom 14:231Co 4:71Co 6:51Co 11:291Co 11:311Co 14:29Jas 1:6 (2×)Jas 2:4Jud 1:9Jud 1:22
Compound of
diaδιάthrough/because of687G1223
krinōκρίνωto judge115G2919
Root family
Names & words formed with this
Word studyResearch-gradedee-ah-KREE-noverb

What diakrinō means

1

to tell things apart: to distinguish, discern, evaluate, or decide between them.

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled

At its root the word means "to separate one thing from another", and from there to tell things apart in the mind. Depending on the setting, English needs different words for it:

  • to make a distinction
  • to size something up
  • to weigh it
  • to settle a matter between people

This is the everyday, uncontested meaning, and it runs from ordinary life into the life of the church. Peter reports that God made no distinction between Jewish and non-Jewish believers. Paul asks the proud Corinthians who it is that makes them any different from anyone else, tells them to weigh what a prophet says, and warns them to examine themselves before the Lord's Supper.

The same word also covers formal judging: arbitrating a case, deciding between two parties. What holds all of this together is the single act of drawing a line between things and then acting on the difference.

Nuances

1ato make a distinction, to treat people or things as different (or, in a bad sense, to discriminate).
Act 11:12Act 15:91Co 4:7Jas 2:4
1bto discern, evaluate, or weigh something so as to judge what it really is.
Mat 16:31Co 11:291Co 11:311Co 14:29
1cto arbitrate, to settle a case between parties.
1Co 6:5
2

to dispute or contend with someone; to take issue.

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

When the word describes people set against each other rather than a judgment made in the mind, it means "to dispute, to quarrel, to take issue with someone". This use is well attested both inside and outside the Bible, and no one questions it.

Luke uses it this way when the strict believers took issue with Peter for eating with outsiders. Jude uses it of the angel Michael contending with the devil over the body of Moses. In both places one party is arguing with another, which is why the plain sense here is dispute, not doubt. These two verses matter for the larger debate about this word: they prove that the New Testament writers knew and used its ordinary meaning.

Act 11:2Jud 1:9
3

to be divided within oneself, to waver; traditionally rendered "to doubt."

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyContested

This is the meaning made famous by a handful of verses:

  • do not doubt in your heart when you tell the mountain to move
  • Abraham who did not waver
  • the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, tossed by the wind

For centuries English Bibles have rendered these with the word "doubt".

Here is the surprise: outside the New Testament this Greek word never means "doubt", not in the classical writers, not in the Greek Old Testament, not in Jewish authors of the same era. Its normal force is to separate, to distinguish, or to dispute. So scholars now ask whether the New Testament writers stretched the word toward an inner wavering, or whether later translators read doubt into it. What the word seems to picture in these verses is a person split in two, not settled or whole, whether that split is uncertainty about God, a heart torn between loyalties, or even an argument with God. Which of these it is, the Greek does not decide on its own.

The safest way to read it is a divided or double heart rather than plain intellectual doubt. The famous saying is less have no questions and more do not be split against yourself. James makes the same connection when he calls such a person double-minded in the very next breath.

Mat 21:21Mrk 11:23Act 10:20Rom 4:20Rom 14:23Jas 1:6 (2×)Jud 1:22
Rom 4:20

Whether Paul says Abraham did not waver in unbelief, or did not arrogantly dispute with God, over the promise.

  • majorityAbraham did not waver; he was not divided against himself in unbelief.; C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans, ICC (1975); James D. G. Dunn, Romans 1-8, WBC (1988); Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, NICNT, 2nd ed. (2018)
  • minorityAbraham did not haughtily dispute with or contend against God's promise, for instance by trying to secure it through other means.; Benjamin Schliesser, "'Abraham Did not "Doubt" in Unbelief' (Rom. 4:20)," Journal of Theological Studies 63 (2012); Benjamin Schliesser, Zweifel, WUNT 500 (Mohr Siebeck, 2023)
Jas 1:6

Whether James warns against inner doubt, against disputing with God in prayer, or against being divided in loyalty within the community.

  • majorityInner doubt or double-mindedness, tied to the double-minded (dipsychos) person named two verses later.; Douglas J. Moo, The Letter of James, Pillar (2000); Peter H. Davids, The Epistle of James, NIGTC (1982); Dale C. Allison Jr., James, ICC (2013)
  • minorityDisputing or quarreling with God in prayer.; Peter Spitaler, "James 1:5-8: A Dispute with God," Catholic Biblical Quarterly 71 (2009)
  • minorityBeing divided or at odds within the community.; Nicholas List, "How Diakrinomai became 'Doubt': The Jewish Two Ways Tradition and the Christian Discourse of Prayer," New Testament Studies 71 (2025)
Jud 1:22

Whether Jude tells the church to have mercy on those who waver, or to correct those who dispute, a choice tangled with an unusually unstable manuscript tradition at this verse.

  • majorityHave mercy on those who waver or are divided.; Richard J. Bauckham, Jude, 2 Peter, WBC (1983)
  • minorityCorrect or refute those who dispute, reading the word as of Michael's dispute earlier in the letter.; Jerome H. Neyrey, 2 Peter, Jude, Anchor Bible (1993)
Act 10:20

Whether the Spirit tells Peter to go without hesitation, or to go making no distinction between clean and unclean people.

  • majorityWithout hesitation or misgiving.; C. K. Barrett, The Acts of the Apostles, ICC (1994); Craig S. Keener, Acts: An Exegetical Commentary (2012-2015)
  • minorityMaking no distinction, matching the vision about clean and unclean that frames the episode.; Richard Bauckham, "James, Peter, and the Gentiles," in The Missions of James, Peter, and Paul (2005); Nicholas List, "How Diakrinomai became 'Doubt'," New Testament Studies 71 (2025)

What scholars say about diakrinō

Outside the New Testament the middle and passive of this verb never mean "doubt": the finding is documented across classical prose, the Septuagint, the papyri, Josephus, and Philo (DeGraaf surveyed 388 examples between 200 BC and AD 100). The active voice is stable throughout as "separate, distinguish, discern, evaluate, judge, arbitrate," and the middle as "contend, dispute" (so Acts 11:2 and Jude 9). The live question is the origin of the "doubt" sense in the contested middle/passive occurrences (Matthew 21:21; Mark 11:23; Romans 4:20; 14:23; James 1:6; Jude 22). Friedrich Buchsel (TDNT, s.v. krino and compounds) conceded the sense was otherwise unattested and attributed it to "the language-forming power of the Gospel." Peter Spitaler (NovT 49 [2007]; Biblica 87 [2006]; CBQ 71 [2009]) argues the sense was created by Latin translators (dubito, haesito) and reads the verses as "dispute"; Stanley Porter and Chris Stevens ("Doubting BDAG on Doubt," Filologia Neotestamentaria 30 [2017]) reach the same conclusion on monosemic grounds; Benjamin Schliesser (JTS 63 [2012]; Zweifel, 2023) reads Romans 4:20 as Abraham not arrogantly disputing with God; Nicholas List (NTS 71 [2025]) traces the drift within Greek through the Christian discourse of prayer and the pairing with the "double-minded" (dipsychos), solidified only in the Byzantine lexica. Dale Allison (ICC James, 2013) mounts the strongest defense of a genuine intra-Christian "doubt/double-mindedness" sense while conceding the lexical point. The active-voice uses in 1 Corinthians (4:7; 6:5; 11:29, 31; 14:29) and Acts (11:12 in the preferred reading; 15:9) are uncontroversial, and James 2:4 is now widely read as "make distinctions/discriminate" (Ward, HTR 62 [1969]).

Where scholars disagree about diakrinō

Whether the New Testament developed a genuine "doubt/waver" sense of this verb, or whether its contested occurrences mean "dispute" or "be divided," as the word does everywhere else in Greek.

  • majorityThe New Testament, and the early church reading it, developed a real sense of inner doubt or double-mindedness for this word, even though earlier Greek did not use it that way. This underlies the traditional rendering "doubt" in the famous verses.; Dale C. Allison Jr., James, ICC (2013); Friedrich Buchsel, "κρίνω κτλ.," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) 3:921-954; BDAG, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, s.v. διακρίνω
  • minorityThe word never meant "doubt." The contested verses mean "dispute" or "take issue," and the "doubt" sense was read in later by Latin translators.; Peter Spitaler, "Διακρίνεσθαι in Mt. 21:21 ...," Novum Testamentum 49 (2007); Stanley E. Porter and Chris S. Stevens, "Doubting BDAG on Doubt," Filologia Neotestamentaria 30 (2017)
  • minorityThe contested verses picture a divided or double heart, a split loyalty, rather than simple intellectual doubt; the sense shifted within Greek under the influence of early Christian language about the "double-minded" person.; David DeGraaf, "Some Doubts about Doubt," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 48 (2005); Nicholas List, "How Διακρίνομαι became 'Doubt'," New Testament Studies 71 (2025)
In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDAG (Bauer-Danker-Arndt-Gingrich), Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, s.v. διακρίνωlexicon
  • LSJ (Liddell-Scott-Jones), A Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. διακρίνωlexicon
  • Friedrich Buchsel, "κρίνω, διακρίνω κτλ.," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) 3:921-954dictionary
  • James Hope Moulton and George Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, s.v. διακρίνωlexicon
  • David DeGraaf, "Some Doubts about Doubt: The New Testament Use of Διακρίνω," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 48 (2005)article
  • Peter Spitaler, "Διακρίνεσθαι in Mt. 21:21, Mk. 11:23, Acts 10:20, Rom. 4:20, 14:23, Jas. 1:6, and Jude 22: the 'Semantic Shift' That Went Unnoticed by Patristic Authors," Novum Testamentum 49 (2007)article
  • Peter Spitaler, "Doubt or Dispute (Jude 9 and 22-23)," Biblica 87 (2006)article
  • Peter Spitaler, "James 1:5-8: A Dispute with God," Catholic Biblical Quarterly 71 (2009)article
  • Stanley E. Porter and Chris S. Stevens, "Doubting BDAG on Doubt," Filologia Neotestamentaria 30 (2017)article
  • Benjamin Schliesser, "'Abraham Did not "Doubt" in Unbelief' (Rom. 4:20)," Journal of Theological Studies 63 (2012)article
  • Benjamin Schliesser, Zweifel: Zur Bedeutung von διακρίνεσθαι im Neuen Testament, WUNT 500 (Mohr Siebeck, 2023)monograph
  • Nicholas List, "How Διακρίνομαι became 'Doubt': The Jewish Two Ways Tradition and the Christian Discourse of Prayer," New Testament Studies 71 (2025)article
  • Dale C. Allison Jr., A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle of James, ICC (2013)commentary
  • Richard J. Bauckham, Jude, 2 Peter, WBC 50 (1983)commentary
  • Jerome H. Neyrey, 2 Peter, Jude, Anchor Bible 37C (1993)commentary
  • Roy Bowen Ward, "Partiality in the Assembly: James 2:2-4," Harvard Theological Review 62 (1969)article

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of διακρίνω

present middle participle nominative m s

διακρινόμενος

Act 10:20, Rom 14:23, Jas 1:6, Jas 1:6, Jud 1:9

aorist active indicative 3s

διέκρινεν

Act 15:9

aorist active infinitive

διακρῖναι

1Co 6:5

aorist active participle accusative m s

διακρίναντα

Act 11:12

aorist passive indicative 2p

διεκρίθητε

Jas 2:4

aorist passive indicative 3s

διεκρίθη

Rom 4:20

aorist passive subjunctive 2p

διακριθῆτε

Mat 21:21

aorist passive subjunctive 3s

διακριθῇ

Mrk 11:23

imperfect active indicative 1p

διεκρίνομεν

1Co 11:31

imperfect middle indicative 3p

διεκρίνοντο

Act 11:2

present active imperative 3p

διακρινέτωσαν

1Co 14:29

present active indicative 3s

διακρίνει

1Co 4:7

present active infinitive

διακρίνειν

Mat 16:3

present active participle nominative m s

διακρίνων

1Co 11:29

present middle participle accusative m p

διακρινομένους

Jud 1:22