Volume 1
A dictionary of the Bible : dealing with its language, literature, and contents, including the Biblical theology / edited by James Hastings ; with the co-operation of John A. Selbie.
- Date:
- 1909-10
Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Credit: A dictionary of the Bible : dealing with its language, literature, and contents, including the Biblical theology / edited by James Hastings ; with the co-operation of John A. Selbie. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
886/898 page 858
![Davies quotes from Bp. Andrewes (v. 8), ' Knowing that we fear honour and power, though it last but for a small time, He feareth us with One whose honour and power lastcth for ever,' where the neuter and active senses of the word are found together. Tlie example in AV is Wis 17^ ' For though no terrible thing did fear them ; yet being scared witli beasts that passed by, and hissing of serpents, they died for fear' {^(pspa, RV 'affrighted'). A Heb. idiom is expressed in the phrase 'fear before,' which occurs 1 Ch W^, Ps m\ Ec Hag Thus Ps 96'-' ' O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth' (i*?'!! vjsp, RV ' tremble before him '). The verb is used in a grammatical misconstruction in Is 57 ' And of whom hast thou been afraid or feared,' which is rectified in RV ' And of whom hast thou been afraid and in fear ?' Fearful in older Eng. meant ' greatly fearing' as well as 'greatly to be feared.' Both senses are used in AV and retained in RV. 1. Dt 20* ' What man is there that is fearful and fainthearted ?' («i^D); Jg 7^ ' fearful and afraid' (.si;); Is 35* ' Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not' (nVnnDj?, lit. 'hasty of heart,' as RVm); Mt 8- ' Wliy are ye fearful, O ye of little faith ?' (deiUs ; so Mk i'^o, Rev 21^ [all]); Sir 212 22'8, 1 Mac S^^, 2 Mac 8. Cf. Adams, // Peter, 55, ' If thou lovest God, thou wilt be fearful to ofTend him, careful to please him'; and Chapman, Homer's Iliads, xxiii. 740— ' On the shore, tar-off, he caus'd to raise A ship-mast; to whose top they tied a fearful dove by th' foot. At which all shot.' 2. Ex 15 ' Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders ?' {n^m kiij, lit. ' feared [in] praises'; usually understood ' to be feared even when praised '; Kalisch, ' awful in praises,—the qualities which are mentioned in praising Him fill the mind with awe and rever- ence ' ; in Kautzsch, Dti furchtbarer in Euhmes- thaten, ' fearful in deeds of praise'; the last, or Oxf. Ueh. Lex. ' terrible in attributes that call for praise,' being best); Dt 28^' 'that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, the lord THY GOD' (Ni'iJ); Lk 21 'fearful sights' (TR 4>b^r)Tpa, edd. 4>6^ri0pa, RV ' terrors'); He 10-' ' a certain fearful looking for of judgment' (</>o/3ep6s; so v., but in 12^^ ' terrible,' RV ' fear- ful ': <f>. is always used of that which inspires fear); 2 Es 8^^ 12^ 15, 2 Mac 1=^ Cf. Melvill, Diary (Wod. p. 271), 'The ministerie of Mr. Robert Bruce was verie steadable and inightie that yeir, and divers yeirs following, maist com- fortable to the guid and godly, and maist feirfull to the enemies.' ' Awful' and ' dreadful' have both meanings also. Fearfully is found only in Ps 139 ' I am fear- fully and wonderfully made' niNnij,* Del. ' I am wonderfully come into being under fearful circumstances, i.e. circumstances that excite a shudder, sc. of astonishment'; Cheyne, ' graced so fearfully and gloriously ').t Fearfulness has in the earlier VSS both the meanings of fearful, as Ezk 30^^ Gov. ' a fearful- ness will I sende into the Egipcians londe'; 2 Mac 15-' Gov. ' sende now also thy good angell before us (o LORDE of heavens) in the fearfulnesse and drede of thy mightie arme.' But in AV 'fearfulness' means always the feeling of fear, apprehension, timidity : Ps 55», Is 33^'' 21\ 2 Es 5 11*° 15. * See Davidson, Syntax, § 71, Rem. 2. t See Cheyne's whole note (Book of Psalms, p. 352); It is par- ticularly good. He says, ' Hitzig considers such a burst of admiration inappropriate to the case of human birth. But why? Take the production of a human hand. Why should not a sensitive poet thrill, like Browning's heroine (James Lee's wife, viii.), a.t~ The beauty in this—how free, how fine To fear almost ?' RV adds Wis 17' ' These were themselves sick with a ludicrous fearfulness' (KaTayeXasTov ti/Ka^eiav, AV ' fear worthy to be laughed at'). J. Hastings. FEAR—As in Eng., so in Heb. and in Gr. the same words are used to express emotions of fear which differ widely in their ethical character. At one end of the scale we have the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom (Ps 111) and the whole duty of man (Ec 12'^); at the other end that fear of pain, shame, or death, which is craven, servile, and selfish, and which is often rebuked in Scripture. But it ia impossible to draw any sharp line between the two kinds of fear, for in the im- perfection of human character one motive shades off into another. Once even, by a bold anthropo- morphism, God Himself is said to fear in the lower sense of the word (Dt 32^', see Driver's note). The fear which is merely self-regarding ought not to exist in a rational being who knows that God is his Father and understands enough to trust Him. Perfect love casteth out fear (1 Jn 4^'*). But man, as he is, fears the forces of nature, which he does not understand or cannot control, because he does not trust God's providence. And he fears his fellow-man, because he is aware that brotherly instincts have grown weak with the sense of the loss of God's Fatherhood. ' Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all.' When Adam fell, he was afraid because he was naked (Gn 31°), and he felt he could no longer face God : thus fear of God took its rise in the violation of peaceful fellowship with Him. Similarly, Cain violates human fellowship, and fears man because he i.s an outlaw and God's curse is upon him (Gn 4*^'''*). Fear is thus the natural consequence of misdoing (Pr 28'), and, accordingly, is some- times expressly said to be inflicted a.s a punish- ment (Lv 26, Dt 28^5.60), Tlie effect of selfish fear is to unman the coward, he loses spirit (Jos 2; for the same phrase used in a higher sense, see 1 K 10^): such men are to be rejected from active service in the army, lest the infection of their timidity spread (Dt 20', Jg 7'). Courage is especially needed in a prophet (Jer 1', Ezk 3). Fear is to be overcome by faith in God (Ps 112'-'). In Rev 21' the fearful are numbered with the unbelieving among the most grievous sinners. The nobler fear has no thought of danger to self, so that the fear of God is the very opposite to tlie fear of man (Is S'^- Mt lO'-'); but it arises from the sense of the nearness of some higher and holier being. Thus the beasts fear man (Gn 9^), and man fears angels and spirits, and, above all, God. To fear the Lord (the phrase occurs far more often with J than with Elohim) means rather to feel awe of what He is, than fear of what He might do. It is fear of a Person (J is God's personal name), of His character, dignity, and holiness, rather than of His power or works. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil (Pr 8'^). Fear in the better sense of the word is the mainspring of religion, and ' to fear' is constantly used as signifying ' to worship,' whether the object be the true God or the gods of the heathen (e.g. 2 K 17^^-'). Thus, too, Jacob, when dealing with Laban, calls J the Fear of his father Isaac (Gn 3^ 42. 63j^ (^ija,^; jg^ object of his worship and religi- ous awe. This kind of fear is so far removed from the lower sort, that it is one of the dis- tinguishing qualities given by God's Spirit to the Messianic King (Is 11^-^, the spirit of the fear of the Lord), and the prayers of the Incarnate Son were heard because of His godly fear (He 5'). But men are only gradually trained to the level of this holy and disinterested fear. They often have to be taught to fear God at all, even in the lower sense ; and this lesson is enforced by divine](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24749163_0001_0886.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
