PerryDox – BeJustAChristian

Twenty-five times the phrase “the fear of the Lord” occurs in the NASB. “Fear” is a word that is considered…well, you have heard the phrase “politically incorrect,” so let me coin another frightening phrase—“religiously incorrect.”

Today’s “Christianity” has the “pendulum” effect of overreacting to the past emphasis of fear to the neglect of love. Too much past preaching on fear, too much motivation out of fear, has led to too little present emphasis on fear and too much on love. Both are needed.

Yesterday’s “Christianity” also isolated only one aspect of fear to the neglect of another, and so again the pendulum swung and the result is that both meanings have been lost on different generations. What are the two meanings of “fear?” Dread and respect. Both are biblical and both are needed.

Hebrew Word Meanings

• yare (3372/3) fear, revere; – a primitive root; to fear; morally, to revere; caus. to frighten:–affright, be (make) afraid, dread(-ful), (put in) fear(-ful, -fully, -ing), (be had in) reverence(-end), X see, terrible (act, -ness, thing).
•  (Jonah 1:16, Ps 90:11, 25:12-14, 34:9,118:4, 76:7, 19:9, Isa 8:12a)
• yirah (3374) fear, terror; fear (also used as infinitive); morally, reverence:–X dreadful, X exceedingly, fear(-fulness) (Jer 5:22, Mal 3:16, Ps 34:11,111:10, Prov 9:10, 8:13, 14:26, 16:6, 19:23, Job 28:28)
  • fear mingled with reverence
• pachad (6342/3) fear, dread; a (sudden) alarm (properly, the object feared, by implication, the feeling):–dread(-ful), fear, (thing) great (fear, -ly feared), terror.  (Job 3:25a, Ps 119:120, Job 23:15)
• arats (6206) dread, fear, tremble (Ps 89:7, Isa 8:12c, 8:13b)
• mowra (4172) fear, reverence, terror (Isa 8:12b, 8:13a)
• kabad (3513) honor, glorify, heavy (Ex 20:12)

Greek Word Meanings

• phobeo (5399) to terrify (Mat 10:28, Luke 12:4-5, 1 Jn 4:18b)
• phobo (5401) fear, dread, terror’ from a primary phebomai (to be put in fear); alarm or fright:–be afraid, + exceedingly, fear, terror.
•  (Mat 28:4, 1 Pet 2:17c, 2 Cor 5:11, 7:1, 1 Jn 4:18a,b, 1 Pet 1:17, Phil 2:12)
• phoberos (5398) fearful, terrible (Heb 10:31,12:21a)
• ekphobos (1630) exceedingly fear (Heb 12:21b)
• tromos (5156) tremble, quake (Phil 2:12b)
• timao (5091/2) honour, venerate, value (1 Pet 2:17a/d [this verse is a most interesting contrast of words)
• aidos (0127) reverence, shame (Heb 12:28a)
• eulabeia (2124) reverence, veneration (Heb 12:28b)

Tags: Lexicon

This entry was posted by PHall on Sunday, February 14th, 2010 at 1:57 am and is filed under Bible. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.