Faith is believing what you know ain't so.: January 2016

A Christian Apologist argues that when the Bible commands believers to "fear God" it doesn't mean "fear" in the sense of be afraid, but rather it means to revere or to be in awe of. The Apologist points out that English Dictionaries have at least four meanings of the word including the archaic meaning "a mixed feeling of dread and reverence".

Ignoring the flawed assertion that it's possible to command reverence or awe, this does seem to highlight a problem with Bible translations.

1 The English word "Fear"
The verb "fear" is originally from Old English and meant to terrify or frighten. It wasn't until around the year 1400 that the word began to mean "feeling of dread and reverence for God". This contradicts the argument that the authors of the Bible used that meaning.

2 Yare
The word "fear" is ambiguous - it has several meanings - but it's not the word that was used when the Bible was written. The OT was written in a form of Hebrew thousands of years ago so it doesn't matter what meanings the English word "fear" has. It's the Hebrew word "yare" that we need to know the ancient meaning of. The word "yare" may have several meanings but we need to know which meaning the author intended to use. The author is, of course, long dead, so we will never know. Any translation is speculation.

3 Context
It can be argued that the appropriate meaning of "yare" could be inferred from the context in which it is used. There are dozens of English language Bibles all translated by experts in Hebrew, Greek and theology. But they don't all agree on how to translate "yare".

Here's a comparison of different Bibles and how they translate "yare" in the various verses that tell us to fear God. The New English Translation appears to be the one that puts most effort into making clear which meaning of "fear" applies where. If so, then the Apologist is partially right - "yare" is sometimes translated as "revere" or "awe" but not always.

NIV

NLT

ESV

NAS

KJV

HCS

ISV

JB1

JB2

NET

GWT

JPS

JUB

KJ2

AKJ

Reference

1 Chronicles

16:25

Fear

Awe

Fear

1 Peter

2:17

Fear

1 Samuel

12:24

Fear

Revere

Fear

2 Kings

17:36

Worship

Bow

Fear

Bow

Fear

Bow

Fear

Deuteronomy

6:2

Fear

Revere

Fear

Deuteronomy

10:12

Fear

Revere

Fear

Deuteronomy

6:13

Fear

Revere

Fear

Deuteronomy

10:20

Fear

Revere

Fear

Deuteronomy

6:24

Fear

Revere

Fear

Deuteronomy

8:6

Revere

Fear

Revere

Fear

Revere

Fear

Deuteronomy

13:4

Revere

Fear

Revere

Fear

Deuteronomy

31:12

Fear

Deuteronomy

31:13

Fear

Ecclesiastes

5:7

Fear

Ecclesiastes

12:13

Fear

Joshua