For the doubt of the distracted mind the NT appears to have two expressions, lUTcupl^eadai (Lk 12-^) and iiariitio (Mt 14" 28"). This .state of mind is .superinduced on faith, and is a witness to the faith which lies behind it ; only those who have faith can waver or be distracted from it. Hut the faith to which it witnesses is equally neces- .sarily an incomplete and imperfect faith ; only an imperfect faith can waver or be distracted from iis firm assurance. The exhortation, ' Be ye not of a wavering mind,' is appropriately given, there- fore, in Lk 12-"', to those who are addressed as 'of liitle faith' ((!Xi7(i7ri<rToi). of whom it is the specific characteristic. It is to trust in God's provi- dential care without carking anxiety as to our food and drink and clothing that the Saviour is exhorting His hearers in this context — to fulness of faith, which, according to its ilefinition in Ho 111, jg absorbed in the unseen and future in con- trast with the seen and present. Those who have full faith will have their whole life hid with God ; and ill proportion as care for earthly things enters, in that proportion do we fall away from the heights of faith and exhibit a wavering mind. It was a similar weakness which attacked Peter, when, walking, by virtue of faith, upon the water to come to Jesus, he saw the wind and was afraid (Mt 14^1) ; and, accordingly, our Saviour addres.sed him similarly, '() thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt {(Shraaa!) '.' ' Here, again, is real faith though weak, but a faith that is dis- tracted by the entrance of fear. The same term, and surely with similar implications, is u.sed again and on an even more interesting occa-sion. When the disciples of Jesus came to the mountain where He had appointed them and there saw their risen Lord, we are told (Mt 28''), 'They worshipped: but some doubted (idlirTaaap).'' It is this .same doubt of imperfect and distracted faith, and not the sceptii'al doubt of unbelief, that is intended. All woi-sliipped Him, though .some not without that doubt of the distracted mind which is no more • psychologically absurd ' here than in Lk 12-' and ^lt 14". Whence the distraction arose, whether ])i)ssil)ly from joy itself, as in Lk 24", or from a less noble emotion, as possibly in .hi 20-^, we do not know, lint the ipiality of doubt resulting from it, aitliough manifesting the incompleteness of the dis- ciples' faith, was not inconsislent with ils reality ; and the reoorfl of it is valuable to us as showing, along with such pas.sages as Lk 24''- *', Jn 2iy'-', that the apostles' testimony to the resurrection
was that of convinced rather than of credulous witnesses.
A kindred product of weak faith, the doubt of questioning hesitation, is expressed in NT by the term 5m\oyia)i6i (Lk 243s, IJo 14', Ph 2", 1 Ti 2"). It is the Nemesis of weakness of faith that it is pursued by anxious (luestionings and mental doubts. Thus, when Christ appeared to His dis- ciples in Jerus., ' they were terrified and affrighteil, and supposed that lliey had beheld a spirit' (Lk 24*^), provoking their Master's rebuke, ' Where- fore do questionings arise in your heart ? ' And in St. Paul's Epistles, the timid outlook of the weak in faith is recognized as their chief characteristic. This seems to be the meaning of Ko 14', where ' he that is weak in faith ' is to be received into full Christian brotherhood, but not ' for the ad- judication of questionings ' (cf. the Hpivirw of v.' and the Kplpuv of v.<) : here is a man whose mind is crowded with .scruples and doubts, — he is to be received, of course, but not as if his agitated conscience were to be law to the community ; he is to be borne with, not to be obeyed. The same implication underlies Ph 2'*, where the contra.st between ' murmurings and disputings ' seems to be not so much between moral and intellectual rebellion, as between violent and timid obstacles in the Christian pathway, — a contrast which ap- pears also in I Ti 2'. It would seem that those who are troubled with ijuestionings are every- where recognized as men who possess faith, but who are deterred from a proper entrance into their privileges and a proper performance of their Christian duties by a settled habit of hesitant casuistry, which argues lack of robustness in their faith.
The NT term which expresses that deeper doubt which argues not merely the weakness but the lack of faith is the verb SiaKplti«r$ai (Mt 21-', Jlk IT--', Ko 4-', M->, Ja 1''"', Jude -=). Wherever this critical attitude towards divine things is found, there faith is absent. The term may be used in contrast to that faith by which miracles are wrought, or in which God is approached in prayer (Mt 21-', Mk 11-3, Ja I6(.i«) I in either case it implies the absence of the faith in question and the conse- quent failure of the result, — he that 'doubteth' in this sense cannot expect to receive anything of the Lord. It may be used of a frame of mind in which one lives his life out in the Chris- tian profession (Ho 14-^) ; in this case, the intru- sion of this critical spirit vitiates the whole course of his activities, — because they are no longer of faith, and 'what.soever is not of faith is sin.' Or it may be used as the extreme contrast to that fulness of faith which Abraham exhibited in his typical act of faith ; and then it is represented as the outgrowth of unbelief (Ho 4-'). From the full description of its opposite here, and the ccpially full description of it itself in Ja l'-"'- (.see Mayor's note), we may attain a tolerably complete concep- tion of its nature as the critical, self-debating habit of the tyjiical sceptic, which casts him uiion life like a derelict ship upon the .sea, and makes him in all things 'doulihvmiiuled ' and' unstable.' Such a habit of mimi is the extreme contradiclion of faith, and cannot coexist with it ; and it is there- fore treated everywhere with condemnation — unless Jude ■-"- be an exception, and there the reading is too uncertain to justify its citation as such. See further, F.VITH.