Status: Core study Faith & Logic Published August 29, 2026 Updated September 22, 2026
Assay. Test. Prove as metal is proved.
The Greek is δοκιμάζω (dokimazō), dok-im-AD-zo. First hearers knew the marketplace sense: you do not take a coin because it shines. You prove whether it is genuine.
Paul: “Test all things; hold fast what is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
John: “Do not believe every spirit, but test (δοκιμάζετε) the spirits, whether they are of God” (1 John 4:1).
Same verb. One street is every claim. The other is the breath behind a claim — teaching, prophecy, impulse — and whether it is from God. Neither verse is “wait for a feeling.”
What it is not: suspicion as a personality. A license to carve Scripture into a private system. A mood called discernment. Dokimazō is work. Then you hold fast what survives.
On this site, How to Test a Claim is this word in practice.
The gift is still a gift. The assay is how a hearer refuses a counterfeit.
See also: First Hearers. Logic. Logos.