FEAR (יִרְאָה, H3711, יָרֵא֒, H3707; φόβος, φοβέω). Several Heb. words are tr. “fear” in the OT, the principal ones of which are yirah and yare, noun and verb respectively. Their meaning comprises “fear,” “dread,” “terror,” “timidity,” “wonderful,” “stupendous,” “reverence,” and “awe.” The chief Gr. words for fear are phobos and phobeo, also tr. “terror,” “alarm,” “reverence,” and “respect.”
Fear in the Bible, as in common parlance, is used in many ways, all of which fall into two categories. In one it is beneficial; in the other baneful. Hence, fear is either friend or foe. In its natural sense, innate fear serves as an alarm system, or an arousal, alerting one to impending danger. Consequently, the threatened may prepare for the appropriate reaction, to fight, to flee, or to freeze. Fear of this character is nature’s asset. Contrarily, if fear is not soon expelled, it sinks into the subconscious mind where it becomes “phobia,” which is an unhealthy condition. In modern scientific experiments with primates and children psychologists have learned that the principal sources of innate fear are darkness, loss of support, strange things, sudden noises, and snakes. All these are potentially beneficial or harmful, and all are found in the Bible either factually or fig. Numerous other objects of man’s fear may be added to this list, both from everyday life and the Bible. In the Scriptures clear distinction is made between what man should fear and should not fear.
1. Beneficial fear—the fear of God. The most prevalent use of fear in the Bible is the fear of God. Next to that is the fear of God’s people. The former is the reverential or awesome side of the fear spectrum. This fear is friend.
a. As religion of God’s people. The majesty and holiness of God cannot but incite fear in man. “God is clothed with terrible majesty. The Almighty—we cannot find him; he is great in power and justice, and abundant righteousness he will not violate. Therefore men fear him” (Job 37:22-24). Anything of magnitude that dwarfs man by contrast incites fear in him. As man gazes into a deep canyon, or into limitless stellar space, or across a boundless ocean, he senses a feeling of awesome fear. How much more is this effect in the presence of God who is vastly greater than all these. As the psalmist meditated on this contrast he was amazed that God would be mindful of man (Ps 8:1-4). Similarly, God’s holiness transcends man’s character with like effects (Isa 6:5). Naturally then, the phrases, “the fear of God” and “the fear of the Lord” occur frequently in the Bible, particularly in the OT. The Heb. deity was awesome, so naturally the Israelites were constantly called on to “fear the Lord your God” (Deut 10:20). The admonition was an instrument with two edges, rewards and restraints.
“The fear of God” is synonymous with religion, and therefore rewarding. It was considered so as early as Abraham’s day. When that patriarch misrepresented his wife Sarah to Abimelech, he gave as his reason, “because I thought, There is no fear of God at all in this place” (Gen 20:11). The fear of deity was an integral part of primitive and pagan religion. Even God was called “the Fear of Isaac” (31:42). In advising Moses to appoint subordinate judges to share the judicial burden, his father-in-law, Jethro, recommended that he select “able men...such as fear God” (Exod 18:21). Proselytes in the NT were called “Godfearing” or those who “fear God,” as Cornelius (Acts 10:2) and Paul’s congregation in Antioch of Pisidia (13:16, 26).
“The fear of God” was required in the following ways: by keeping His commandments (Exod 20:20); by serving Him and keeping His statutes (Deut 6:13, 24); by hearkening to His voice (1 Sam 12:14); and by worshiping in His Temple (Ps 5:7). Moses’ strict injunction to Israel was, “You shall fear your God” (Lev 19:14b). Furthermore he said, “The Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive” (Deut 6:24). From early times rewards were promised for Jehovah worship.
God’s blessings on those who fear Him are numerous, mentioned frequently throughout the Bible. Satan asked the Lord, “Does Job fear God for naught,” and in answering his own question declared that God had “put a hedge about him” (Job 1:9f.). And, Eliphaz asked Job, “Is not your fear of God your confidence?” (4:6). The psalmist said, “The eye of the Lord is on those who fear him...that he may deliver their soul from death, and keep them alive in famine” (Ps 33:18, 19). In the wisdom lit. it is stated: “The fear of the Lord prolongs life” (Prov 10:27); “The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life” (14:27); “...leads to life” (22:4; cf. Ps 61:5; 119:37f.). One of the most familiar Proverbs is “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov 9:10; Ps 111:10). Similar ones are: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Prov 1:7), and “The fear of the Lord is instruction in wisdom” (15:33). David summarized religious benefits in two statements: “He fulfills the desire of all who fear him” (Ps 145:19), and “O how abundant is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for those who fear thee” (Ps 31:19; cf. 34:9).
Isaiah’s prophetic description of the Messiah was that “His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord,” and “the fear of the Lord is his treasure” (Isa 11:3; 33:6c). Malachi prophesied in the words of the Lord, “But for you who fear my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings” (Mal 4:2). And one psalmist sang, “Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him” (Ps 85:9).
Another benevolent work of the fear of God is its restraining force. Constantly the Israelites were warned of the consequences of wrong doing. Moses taught, “And now, Israel, what does the Lord require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord...” (Deut 10:12). One Heb. philosopher said, “By the fear of the Lord a man avoids evil” (Prov 16:6). Clearly, all these references to the fear of God mean the Jehovah religion, worship and service of God. Consequences of failure to do so are clearly stated, as in the major categories of infidelity, injustice, and insincerity.
Since spiritual infidelity, or apostasy, mothers a multitude of sins, the penalty was death, that “all Israel shall hear, and fear, and never again do any such wickedness as this among you” (Deut 13:11; cf. 17:13; 21:21). And, if the laws were not kept, “that you may fear this glorious and awful name, the Lord your God, then the Lord will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary afflictions” (Deut 28:58, 59; see v. 67). Joshua (Josh 24:14) and Samuel (1 Sam 13:14) and all the prophets uttered similar warnings.
Judicial injustices were sternly warned against by King Jehoshaphat (2 Chron 19:5-11) and governor Nehemiah “because of the fear of God” (Neh 5:6-15). And the psalmist warned, “O kings, be wise; and be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, with trembling kiss his feet, lest he be angry and you perish in the way” (Ps 2:10f.; cf. 90:11).
Isaiah warned against insincerity, those who “honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men learned by rote” (Isa 29:13). The extreme penalty was paid by Ananias and Sapphira for insincerity, and “great fear came upon the whole church” (Acts 5:11).
b. As reflected on God’s people. When God made man and gave him dominion over the earth, he said, “The fear of you and dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every bird of the air, and upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea” (Gen 9:2). It is doubtless the image of God reflected in the countenance and personality of man that incites fear in lower creatures (Ps 139:14). Consequently, man “shall not fear the beasts of the earth” (Job 5:22). David (1 Sam 17:34-36) and Daniel (Dan 6:22) boldly faced savage beasts.
Moreover, God’s people are feared by wicked people. As the Israelites began the conquest of Canaan, God said, “This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the peoples that are under the whole heaven...” (Deut 2:25; cf. 11:25). And the harlot Rahab confessed to the spies “that the fear of you has fallen upon us” (Josh 2:9). Soon the tribal kings “feared greatly” Joshua’s army (Josh 10:2). Note also Absalom’s rebellion (2 Sam 17:10); Jews in Persia (Esth 9:2); mariners and Jonah (Jonah 1:1-16); and Herod and the Jewish rulers (Matt 14:5; 21:46; Mark 12:12).
2. Baneful fear—the fear of evil. The other side of the ledger of fear is deficit. This fear is harmful to those who fear, and in turn makes them a source of fear. This fear is man’s foe. It debilitates, disorganizes, demoralizes, and destroys.
a. As it affects evil men. The wicked person is destroyed by his fears. Some wise man said, “The wicked flee when no one pursues” (Prov 28:1). Numerous records confirm this. When Cain was exiled, he was seized with a fearful dread that “whoever finds me will slay me” (Gen 4:14). He had slain and was afraid someone would slay him. Likewise, Herod’s guilt fears haunted him after he beheaded John the Baptist (Matt 14:1f.) In man’s dreadful hallucinations he fears all kinds of evil, destitution, desolation, and destruction (see Job 5:21; Isa 7:25; 8:6; Rev 18:10, 15). In Elisha’s day the Syrian army fled, panic-stricken, in the night, “For the Lord had made the army of the Syrians hear the sound of chariots, and of horses, the sound of a great army” (2 Kings 7:6). Later, Isaiah encouraged Hezekiah with God’s promise, “Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land” (2 Kings 19:7). Fear itself is a destructive enemy. “What the wicked dreads will come upon him” (Prov 10:24). Isaiah said, God will “bring their fears upon them” (Isa 66:4). Fear disorganizes the wicked. When Belshazzar saw a man’s handwriting on the wall, “the king’s color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together” (Dan 5:6). Fear also paralyzes. When the angel rolled away the stone from the sepulchre, “for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men” (Matt 28:4).
b. As it affects godly men. No matter how it works, “The fear of man lays a snare” (Prov 29:25). It takes its toll among good people. It disqualified men from fighting the holy wars. Moses left instructions that, “What man is there that is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go back to his house” (Deut 20:8). And, when Gideon screened men to fight the Midianites, he said, “Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home” (Judg 7:3). The good are sometimes stricken with fear as with a dreadful disease. Job said, “The thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me” (Job 3:25). False perception can replace faith with fear. When Jesus came to His disciples at night on the stormy sea, they “were terrified...And they cried out for fear” because they thought he was “a ghost” (Matt 14:26).
Christian freedom has been threatened from the beginning by fear of the wicked. “For fear of the Jews” Joseph of Arimathea was a secret disciple (John 19:38); parents of the healed blind man declined testimony (9:22); and the Twelve hid behind closed doors (20:19). Punishment and judgment are causes of fear for all (Deut 28:67; Heb 10:27, 31).
3. Banishing fear—freedom from fear. By precept and example Jesus taught His disciples to make conquest of their fears. It can be done.
a. By the presence of God. David said triumphantly, “I fear no evil; for thou art with me” (Ps 23:4b). Long before this, God had said to Abraham, “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield” (Gen 15:1). To Isaiah He said for Israel, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you...Fear not, for I am with you” (Isa 43:1, 5; cf. Zeph 3:15; John 12:15). Divine visible presence, after the first startling moments, always dispelled fears (Exod 3:6; Luke 1:30; 2:10; Matt 14:27; 17:6f.). Moreover, God’s unseen presence hovers over His own and protects them. Elisha had at his command a mountain covered with “horses and chariots of fire” (2 Kings 6:17). And, Jesus had in reserve “more than twelve legions of angels” (Matt 26:53).
b. By perfected love. “The fear of God” in the OT yielded to “The love of God” in the NT. Though the awesome nature of God will never diminish, His Fatherly love was manifested through Jesus. His tenderness has replaced terror. Consequently, John could give the Christian antidote for fear: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love” (1 John 4:18). The Christian should have no fear of hunger, nakedness, sickness, suffering, wicked people, death, nor judgment. All have lost their power of fear in the love of Christ. “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). See Worship of Church.
Bibliography L. D. Weatherhead, Psychology and Life (1935), 213-237; E. S. Jones, Abundant Living (1942), 68-88; D. O. Hebb, A Textbook of Psychology (1960), 64-97; A. M. Fiske, “Death, Myth and Ritual,” Journal of American Academy of Religion (Sept. 1969), 249-265.