Illustrations in the Gospels. — The term rendered 'unbelief is the noun awiaTia (occurring 5 times: Mt Vdr-^ 17'-", Mk 6" O-'* 16'*), with a range of mean- ing between distrust and disbelief. There is the use of the verb Tnarfvo) with the objective (ov) or subjective {/j-rj) negative ; occasionally the inten- sitive (ov /XT]) is met with : here again varying shades of significance are observable. Four times (Mk 16"' ^'', Lk 24'^- *^) the verb dTntTT^io occurs ; and in each case the ' disbelieve ' of RV suggests that it is used absolutely. It may be remarked generally that the questions at issue differ, and that there are differences in regard to mental attitude.
(«) In the Synoptics. — Jesus is on a visit to ' his own country.' If Lk 4'" refers to a previous visit (which is unlikely). He will seek once more to win His fellow-townsmen when (Mt IS^^^. m jyjk gi. 2) jje takes His stand in the synagogue at Nazareth. They are, indeed, astonished at His wisdom : the reports of mighty works done by Him have filled them with amazement ; but they are little disposed to give a patient and sympathetic heai'ing to one of whom they themselves have known so much, and withal nothing that has augured greatness. His claims scandalize them. They reject His teaching and Himself. 'And he marvelled,' dia t7)v airLariav avTuiv (Mk 6"); it became evident that 'a Divine "cannot" answers to a Divine "must"' (West- cott). If the unbelief manifested on that occasion amounted to a positive disbelief, it was certainly not consequent on prolonged and serious reflexion. Adverse opinions were precipitated by bias ; those who were swayed by prejudice were quick to dis- allow. And this unbelief of prejudice is again met with in the case of elders and chief priests and scribes as they question Jesus in their council <Lk 22"""®*). Tlie reply which comes from Him is significant: 'If I tell you, ye will not believe' (oii /XT] wKTTemyjrf) ; in the face of hostile and precon- ceived opinion further speaking would be to no purpose.
A group of passages may be taken next where the unbelief illustrated is, generally speaking, that of incredulity. But the incredulity is diverse : its explanations point to reasonable distrust, want of
receptiveness, power of discernment overcome for the time being by various emotions, knowledge limited, inability to apprehend that which is out- side the sphere of previous experience. Thus Lk 2411 (Kal TjiriaTow avrah) : where re^jorts brought by the women are discredited as idle tales by disciples unable to grasp the idea of a life lived under new conditions. Their doubt becomes assurance ; but the sudden gladness told of in Lk 24'*' {dincrTo^vTCJv avTwv d-rro rrjs x^^P^') renders it impossible to rise to a full apprehension of what is still the inexplicable. Despondency lies in the background of the unbelief referred to in the appendix to the Second Gospel (Mk 16''- ^^) ; a despondency which, because yielded to, has sunk into a settled disinclination to be con- vinced. The thought here is of that stolid unbelief in which the heart is hardened and the mind unre- ceptive of spiritual truth (Mk 16"). And this in- credulity of apathetic minds is perhaps noticeable in the attitude which ' the priests and the scribes and the elders ' had adopted in the case of John the Baptist (cf. Mt21'-^3-27, Mk ll^-^^).
If, on the one hand, there is an incredulity which Jesus reproves (Mk 16"), so, on the other hand, there is an incredulity which He not merely sanc- tions but enjoins. He makes large demands for faith, trust, belief ; what He will not have is that mere credulity which bespeaks the inert mind, that superficiality which is ready to assent to anything. There is surely a depth and width of meaning in the fj,r] in(TT€V(TriTe addressed to the disciples in His recorded predictions (Mt 24.^^ Mk IS^') ; and the warning against false Messiahs may be equally a warning against perverted notions of Deity, false conceptions of religion. By implication, a demand is made that tests be applied, discrimination exer- cised. The reality of faith will then manifest itself in the deliberate rejection (disbelief) of whatever does not bear the hall-mark of eternal truth. ' Re- ligion is belief — surely it requires little thought to see that religion is, or should be, belief in what is true ' (A. T. Lyttelton).
There is an unbelief which is indicative of a want of knowledge. But along with it there is the desire to know, to rise to a fuller apprehension of that whereof already there is the dim perception. Faith shines out in it ; faith which, up to a certain point, is strong, and which can even declare itself openly ; at the .same time there is a profound consciousness of infirmity and limitations. And this is strikingly exemplified in the father of the demoniac boy (Mk 914-29) . ^i^g unbelief which, realized by himself, he will not conceal from Jesus, has not deprived him of the capacity to trust. That he can, and does, trust is evident from his pathetic utterance (Mk 9'^* TTLCTTevij}, porjdei /j.ov rfj dviaTigL). Pleading the compassion of Jesus instead of his own faith, he unconsciously shows a genuine faith (Gould, St. Mark).