adjective
apistos
Strong’sG571
unbelieving, incredulous, unchristian, unbeliever
stem apist-23 times in the New Testamentin 10 of 27 books10 of 26 forms occur
What it means
A plain-English reading of the word, with the lexicons it draws on — Abbott-Smith, Strong's, and Liddell-Scott-Jones — right below it, in full.
AI Summary
Unbelievable, incredible — used of things or reports that are hard to credit 13.
Without faith or trust; unbelieving — used of persons who do not believe, and specifically of "unbelievers" as those outside the Christian faith, contrasted with believers 134. This can shade into being untrustworthy or, in the other direction, mistrustful and incredulous oneself, i.e. not believing what one is told 23. Strong's notes that this sense can specially denote a heathen, that is, someone without Christian faith 2.
Sources: 1 Abbott-Smith 2 Strong's 3 LSJ 4 Dodson. Condensed by anthropic/claude-sonnet-5 on 2026-09-23 — it may still misstate what these say; check them yourself if it matters to you.
The lexicons it was drawn from, in full:
Abbott-Smith — the 1922 lexicon entry, in full
ἄ-πιστος, -ον
(< ἀ- neg., πιστός), [in LXX: Pr 17:6 28:25, Is 17:10*;]
G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, 1922 — public domain. References open in the reader.
Strong’s G571 — the 1890 definition, and where the word comes from
Saidap'-is-tos
(actively) disbelieving, i.e. without Christian faith (specially, a heathen); (passively) untrustworthy (person), or incredible (thing)
Fromfrom G1 (as a negative particle) and G4103;
King Jamesthat believeth not, faithless, incredible thing, infidel, unbeliever(-ing).
James Strong, Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, 1890 — public domain. The numbers in it link to the entries here.
Liddell-Scott-Jones — the classical dictionary this word appears in
I passive, not to be trusted, and so:
I.1 of persons and their acts, not trusty, faithless, ὑπερφίαλοι καὶ ἄ.Refs 8th c.BC+; δολοπλοκίαιRefs 6th c.BC+mistrusted, Refs 5th c.BC+; θράσει ἀ. ἐπαιρόμενος by untrustworthy, groundless confidence, Refs 5th c.BC+; shifty, unreliable, Refs 5th c.BC+
I.2 of reports and the like, incredible, uncertain in Refs 7th c.BC+; τὸ ἐλπίδων ἄ. undreamed of even in hope, Refs 5th c.BC+: comparative -ότερος, λόγοςRefs 4th c.BC+: superlative, πίστις ἀπιστοτάτηRefs 5th c.BC+
II active, mistrustful, incredulous, suspicious, θυμὸς δέ τοι αἰὲν ἄ.Refs 8th c.BC+less credulous, Refs 5th c.BC+; ἄ. πρὸς Φίλιππον distrustful towards him, Refs 4th c.BC+; ἄ. εἶ.. σαυτῷ you do not believe what you say yourself, Refs 5th c.BC+; τὸ ἄ., ={ἀπιστία}, Refs 5th c.BC+
II.b in NT, unbelieving, NT
II.2 disobedient, disloyal, Refs 5th c.BC+; ἔχειν ἄπιστον.. ἀναρχίαν πόλει, i.e. ἀναρχίαν ἔχειν ἀπειθοῦσαν τῇ πόλει,Refs 5th c.BC+
III adverb ἀπίστως:
III.1 passive, beyond belief, ἀ. ἐπὶ τὸ μυθῶδες ἐκνενικηκόταRefs 5th c.BC+; οὐκ ἀ. not incredibly, Refs 4th c.BC+
III.2 active, distrustfully, suspiciously, Refs 5th c.BC+
III.2.b treacherously, Refs 1st c.AD+
H. G. Liddell, R. Scott, H. S. Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon (9th ed., 1925–1940) — digitised by the Perseus Digital Library and corrected and expanded by Tyndale House, Cambridge, via STEPBible-Data's TFLSJ table, CC BY 4.0. Covers all of Greek literature, not just the Bible.
Translated as
Every occurrence, sorted by the English it was actually given — the evidence for what the word means, not a gloss of it.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), dedicated to the public domain — berean.bible.
Biblang forms
Every form this word takes in Biblang, with the Greek it corresponds to and how often the New Testament uses it.
| Job in the sentence case | masculine singular | feminine singular | neuter singular | masculine plural | feminine plural | neuter plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| subject nominative | apistos4×ἄπιστος | apistas1×ἄπιστος | apistem1×ἄπιστον | apistois1×ἄπιστοι | apistais | apisteim |
| object accusative | apiston1×ἄπιστον | apistan1×ἄπιστον | apistoin | apistain | ||
| direct address vocative | apistor | apistar3×ἄπιστος | apistoir | apistair | ||
| of, belonging to genitive | apistou2×ἀπίστου | apistau | apisteu | apistoiu4×ἀπίστων | apistaiu | apisteiu |
| to, for dative | apisto | apista | apiste | apistoi5×ἀπίστοις | apistai | apistei |
Tinted cells are forms the New Testament never uses, so there is no Greek to show against them — but they are still correct Biblang, built from the slots below like any other.
Why these forms, and no others — the slots that make them
apist is this word in every one of its forms. The slots after it make all the rest.
same in every form varies — every value shown
Words built on the same stem
Other words sharing the exact same stem — not merely related in meaning.
Where it appears
Every verse the word appears in, filed under the form it takes there.
23 occurrences, every one of them listed
apistos“unbeliever”subjectnominative singular4×
John 20:27“unbelieving”… tan pleuran mu, kai mē genosōr apistos alla pistos.… it into My side. Stop doubting and believe.”
1 Corinthians 7:14hagiazotē gar tos andros tos apistos en ta gunaika, kai hagiazotē tas …For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his believing …
1 Corinthians 7:15ei de tos apistos chōrizotō, chōrizotōr; ouk doulotē tos adelfos …But if the unbeliever leaves, let him go. The believing …
1 Corinthians 14:24… de pantois profēteualeiō, eiserchateia de tinos apistos ē idiōtos, elenchotō hupo pantoiu, anakrinotō …But if an unbeliever or uninstructed person comes in while …
apiston“unbelieving”objectaccusative singular1×
1 Corinthians 7:13kai gunaikas ei tinas echatō andron apiston, kai houtos suneudokatō oikarō meta autau, …And if a woman has an unbelieving husband and he is willing to …
apistou“unbeliever”of, belonging togenitive singular2×
2 Corinthians 6:15… Beliar, ē tinas meridas pisto meta apistou?… believer have in common with an unbeliever?
1 Timothy 5:8… pronoatō, tan pistian arnotē kai atō apistou cheirōnos.… faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
apistas“unbelieving”subjectnominative singular1×
1 Corinthians 7:14… gunaika, kai hagiazotē tas gunaikas tas apistas en to adelfo; epei ara teim …… through his believing wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing …
apistan“unbeliever”objectaccusative singular1×
1 Corinthians 7:12“unbeliever”… kurios; ei tinos adelfos gunaikan echatō apistan, kai houtas suneudokatō oikarō meta autou, …… not the Lord): If a brother has an unbelieving wife and she is willing to live with him, he must …
apistar“unbelieving”direct addressvocative singular3×
Matthew 17:17… de tos Iēsus legata; Ō genear apistar kai diastreforēntar, heōs pote meta vu …“O unbelieving and perverse generation!” Jesus replied. “How …
Mark 9:19… de apokrinirantos autoi legatō; Ō genear apistar, heōs pote pros vin emi? heōs …“O unbelieving generation!” Jesus replied. “How long must …
Luke 9:41… de tos Iēsus legata; Ō genear apistar kai diastreforēntar, heōs pote emi pros …“O unbelieving and perverse generation!” Jesus replied. “How …
apistem“incredible”subject or objectdirect singular1×
Acts 26:8tinem apistem krinotō para vi ei tos theos …… would any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?
apistois“unbelievers”subjectnominative plural1×
1 Corinthians 14:23… lalaleiō glōssai, eiserchaleia de idiōtois ē apistois, ouk legali hoti mainovō?… some who are uninstructed or some unbelievers come in, will they not say …
apistoiu“unbelievers”of, belonging togenitive plural4×
Luke 12:46… kai tem merem autou meta toiu apistoiu tithati.… assign him a place with the unbelievers.
1 Corinthians 6:6… meta adelfou krinotō, kai houtem epi apistoiu?… another, and this in front of unbelievers!
1 Corinthians 10:27“unbelievers”ei tinos kalatō vin toiu apistoiu kai thelavō poreuorō, pantem tem paratithorōntem …If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat anything set before you without …
2 Corinthians 4:4… aiōnou houtou tuflata teim noēmeim toiu apistoiu eis tem mē augazara ton fōtismon …… age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so they cannot see the light …
apistoi“unbelievers”to, fordative plural5×
1 Corinthians 14:22… alō ouk toi pisteuarōntoi alla toi apistoi, tas de profēteias ouk toi apistoi …… sign, not for believers, but for unbelievers. Prophecy, however, is for believers, not …
1 Corinthians 14:22… apistoi, tas de profēteias ouk toi apistoi alla toi pisteuarōntoi.… however, is for believers, not for unbelievers.
2 Corinthians 6:14Mē genovōr heterozugarōntois apistoi; tinas gar metochas dikaiosuna kai anomia, …Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership can righteousness have …
Titus 1:15… toi katharoi; toi de mianorēntoi kai apistoi oudenem katharem, alla mianotē autoiu kai …… pure; but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. Indeed, both their …
Revelation 21:8“faithless”toi de deiloi kai apistoi kai bdelussorēntoi kai fonevoi kai pornoi …But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers …