What does Fear of the Lord really mean?
Is it really "be afraid"?

When you read "fear of the Lord" or "fear the Lord", what do you think of? Being afraid? Scared half to death? Or maybe just a bit nervous? Or something else? What does Fear of the Lord really mean?

Take a look at the adjacent image. There are two very different interpretations of "Fear of the Lord" in there.

On the left, God is stern, scary, and the person is very much afraid.

On the right, God (the Father) is friendly. Jesus is in the background. And the person is studying about God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

But what does the image tell us? Does the person react differently because God is different? Or is something else going on there?

Let's find out.

What does fear, in fear of the Lord, really mean?

Here's a question about "Fear of the Lord". Is it fear the Lord? Is it revere the Lord? What's the difference and which is it?  Would you believe neither and both?

This came up because of something I'm writing about a verse in Ecclesiastes.  It's not like this is the only place the question comes up.  Nor is it the first time I'm writing about this confusing/scary statement - "fear" of the Lord.  But it seems important enough that it needs its own article, because it's something that generates intense feelings. and maybe for the wrong reason(s).

The passage from Ecclesiastes is this one, from the 1984 version of the NIV:

A Time for Everything

Ecc 3:9 What does the worker gain from his toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on men. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. 13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.

That one says "revere" in verse 14.  That conjures up an image in your mind of what your view of God should be.

But what about this one, from the 2011 (newer) version of the NIV -

Ecc 3:14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.  ¹The New International Version. (2011). (Ec 3:14). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Yes - the newer one says "fear" rather than "revere".

Why?  I thought we were getting away from the fire & brimstone/Hell & damnation kind of preaching.  And yet this newer version appears to be going back to it with that statement that God puts eternity in our hearts so that people will fear him.

Wow.  

Is it Fear of the Lord or Revere the Lord?

Let's look at this some more.  The starting place would be to look into the original Hebrew word that gets translated as either "fear" or "revere".

First of all - my software that gives the Hebrew with the English uses the 2011 version of the NIV.  That doesn't matter, because while the 1984 version of the NIV translates the word as "revere" in English - the Hebrew doesn't change.  This may be obvious to you, but I want to be completely sure everyone understands that.

Second - we see there is no Hebrew word for "people".  Based on the context of the rest of the sentence, "people" would have been understood by the Hebrew reader - but "people" is required because of English grammar rules, and to make it clear that it's us.

Third - we see that there are actually four Hebrew words - not just one.

The two Hebrew words in the middle מַ לְ mean this is an exclamation and it's in the "face of" something.  The translation puts these two concepts into one מִן and comes up with this meaning:

4481 מִן [min /min/] prep. Corresponding to 4480; TWOT 2833; GK 10427; 109 occurrences; AV translates as “of” 31 times, “from” 29 times, “part” six times, “… I” four times, “… me” three times, “before” three times, “after” twice, “because” twice, “Therefore” twice, “out” twice, “for” twice, “than” twice, “partly” twice, and translated miscellaneously 19 times. 1 from, out of, by, by reason of, at, more than. 1A from, out of (of place). 1B from, by, as a result of, by reason of, at, according to, (of source). 1C from (of time). 1D beyond, more than (in comparisons).  ²Strong, J. (1995). Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon. Woodside Bible Fellowship.

I have to say, that's rather meaningless without the words on either side - otherwise we don't really know what this is supposed to be about, and therefore we don't really know how to assign meaning to it.

So, the first word - with the 3372 under it:

3372 יָרֵא, יָרֵא [yareʾ /yaw·ray/] v. A primitive root; TWOT 907, 908; GK 3707 and 3708; 314 occurrences; AV translates as “fear” 188 times, “afraid” 78 times, “terrible” 23 times, “terrible thing” six times, “dreadful” five times, “reverence” three times, “fearful” twice, “terrible acts” once, and translated miscellaneously eight times. 1 to fear, revere, be afraid. 1A (Qal). 1A1 to fear, be afraid. 1A2 to stand in awe of, be awed. 1A3 to fear, reverence, honour, respect. 1B (Niphal). 1B1 to be fearful, be dreadful, be feared. 1B2 to cause astonishment and awe, be held in awe. 1B3 to inspire reverence or godly fear or awe. 1C (Piel) to make afraid, terrify. 2 (TWOT) to shoot, pour.  ³Strong, J. (1995). Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon. Woodside Bible Fellowship.

Here, we see the dilemma.  Both "fear" and "reverence" are here.  In fact, they are both in the same sub-definitions.  This is getting more confusing - not less.

Let's take a look at the last word to see if it clears things up.

6440 לִפְנֵי, לִפְנָי, פָּנֶה [paniym, always, sing.), paneh /paw·neem/] n m. From 6437; TWOT 1782a; GK 4367 and 4368 and 7156; 2109 occurrences; AV translates as “before” 1137 times, “face” 390 times, “presence” 76 times, “because” 67 times, “sight” 40 times, “countenance” 30 times, “from” 27 times, “person” 21 times, “upon” 20 times, “of” 20 times, “… me” 18 times, “against” 17 times, “… him” 16 times, “open” 13 times, “for” 13 times, “toward” nine times, and translated miscellaneously 195 times. 1 face. 1A face, faces. 1B presence, person. 1C face (of seraphim or cherubim). 1D face (of animals). 1E face, surface (of ground). 1F as adv of loc/temp. 1F1 before and behind, toward, in front of, forward, formerly, from beforetime, before. 1G with prep. 1G1 in front of, before, to the front of, in the presence of, in the face of, at the face or front of, from the presence of, from before, from before the face of.  ⁴Strong, J. (1995). Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon. Woodside Bible Fellowship.

I'd like to say it's crystal clear now.  The problem is, it's about as clear as mud.

Since we got no help whatsoever from definitions, let's look at the cultural meaning of the word fear.

Fear. Emotional foreboding or dread of impending distress or misfortune. Often spoken of as the source of religion. Yet fear alone can never account for true religion, since men are impelled to draw near unto God, the object of their worship. One does not desire to come close to the being he fears.   ⁵Sacks, S. D. (1988). Fear. In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 1, p. 781). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

OK - we're getting somewhere now.  Fear - and yet not only fear, but something else as well.

If we read and understand the Bible, one message we should get is that God wants us to be close to Him.  Even the passage we looked at earlier says:

Ecc 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. 13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God.

God wouldn't do these things unless He cared about us.  Further, going back to the beginning, before the Fall, God used to walk in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve.  And with the Resurrection we have the opportunity to be with God forever.  

This certainly falls in line with the feeling that fear, if it's the word as we know it, cannot be the only thing the original Hebrew word means.

Let's continue with Baker's Encyclopedia of the Bible:

The biblical conception of fear embraces a much wider dimension than our common English word, which simply denotes some sort of dread or terror. While this meaning forms an essential part of the scriptural picture, it is by no means the primary significance, especially when the fear of God—an awe-inspiring reverence—is referred to.  ⁶Sacks, S. D. (1988). Fear. In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 1, pp. 781–782). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

Grade levels for American English Bibles.

This confirms what I've often said here - when we get our English translations of the Bible, the words used just do not get across the intent of the authors - they don't paint an appropriate picture of what was going on at the time - the emotions and feelings involved - and therefore, we don't truly understand or appreciate what the Bible tries to tell us.

What follows is not a complete list. but it does have 31 popular Bible translations - showing the reading grade level and the age for that grade.  You can change the number of translations visible on your screen, search for a translation, and sort ascending/descending on any field to help you with comparing them.

Acronym	Full Name	Grade Level	Age Level
NIrV	New International Reader's Version	3.1	8
NLV	New Life Version	3.5	8
ICB	International Children's Bible	3.5	8
ERV	Easy to Read Version	4.0	9
NCV	New Century Version	4.1	9
GW	God's Word	5.1	10
CEV	Contemporary English	5.5	10
MSG	The Message (also TM)	5.8	10
NLT	New Living Translation	6.3	11
SEB	Simplified English Bible	6.7	11
NAB	New American Bible	6.8	11
GNT	Good News Translation	7.1	12
TLB	The Living Bible	7.3	12
TNIV	Today's NIV	7.5	12
NIV	New International Version	7.7	12
TIB	The Inclusive Bible	7.7	12
NET	New English Translation	7.8	12
HCSB	Holman Christian Standard Version	8.3	13
ESV	English Standard Version	8.4	15
NKJV	New King James Version	8.5	13
BBE	The Bible in Basic English	8.5	13
NJB	New Jerusalem Bible	8.7	13
NRSV	New Revised Standard	9.8	14
JB	Jerusalem Bible	10.0	15
REB	Revised English Bible	10.0	15
NASB	New American Standard	10.7	15
AMP	Amplified Bible	11.0	16
RSV	Revised Standard Version	11.0	16
KJV	King James Version	11.8	19
DR-CR	Douay-Rheims Challoner Revision	12.0	17
ASV	American Standard Version	12.0	17

Notice - 11 of them are at a grade school reading level!  Compare that with either 8 or 9 (depending on whether you count 9th grade) as high school level.  One Bible that I could not find a grade level associated with is Young's Literal Translation.  If you're a frequent reader, you've probably noticed that I go to this one when things get difficult to interpret.  On another list I found that assigns a target audience to each translation, Young's Literal Translation was the only one targeted at a college level person.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing.  It does, however, mean that in order to get deeper into the intended meaning of the Bible - we need to take more time to study.  As we'll see below, this is exactly what the Hebrew people in the Old Testament did.  The same is true for the Christians of the early church in the New Testament.

Why is this important?

To see why these grade levels being so low are a problem for us today, let's look at something from a time when few people could even read.  One would think that not being able to read is a problem as far as understanding scripture.  However, that's far from the case.  Here's a short description of education for God's people in ancient times:

Education. The original purpose of Jewish education was to teach children to know and understand their special relationship with God, to teach them to serve him, and to educate them in “holiness.” Later Jewish education included character development and the history of God’s people (particularly through rehearsing his acts of deliverance). Because of that education, the Jews knew the Mosaic law and their own history, and during periods of subjection to foreign powers they were able to maintain their national pride. In modern times they have reestablished themselves as a nation (1948).  ⁷Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). Education. In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 1, p. 657). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

This is a whole different point of view on education than what we have today.  Yes, a much higher percentage of the population in developed countries can read than the Hebrew people in Old Testament times, or at the time of the early church in the New Testament.  But that didn't mean they didn't know their scriptures.  In fact, they knew it better than most of us today.  It was harder to learn, because so few people could read the scrolls (not books). But it was so important to them that it was the original purpose for education.  Even from just a historical point of view, it's a sad commentary on modern education in too many places. Not to mention the fact that in "progressive" countries, like the U.S., God and religion are pretty much out of the picture.

Today, it's up to someone to read the Bible to know what it says.   Yes, we get pieces and parts in church, but when one hears a sermon for a half hour or so, once a week, if we even go to church every week, it's going to take forever to get through the Bible.  Bible study can be a great help, but how many people go?

Just compare our modern-day knowledge of the Bible with the people in ancient days' knowledge of Scripture, and guess who really knew their stuff?  Hint - it's not us.  And having Bibles at such low-grade levels doesn't help, especially when it's pretty much us, reading it on our own, if at all.  When people couldn't read they had to learn from someone else, like their Rabbi, who knew this stuff backwards and forwards. And it was in their native language so they knew all the nuances of the words.  They understood it.

But us?  We have things like this verse in Ecclesiastes, that talk about fear the Lord and revere the Lord.  And way too many people think it always means to be like that little yellow thing towards the top of the page - worried and scared. At best, maybe to be confused about whether to be afraid or in awe.

To really show just how big the difference is between then and now, let me include a bit more from a cultural point of view.

Education in the Home. The priority given to education stemmed from the value of children in the Jewish family. Children were a great joy and reward (Ps 127:3–5). Education in the home began soon after a child could talk, and certainly by the age of three. Parents taught prayers and songs which children learned by repetition, just as children today learn nursery rhymes.