Why do religious people call themselves 'God fearing'?

Tagged:

One of the first things Proverbs lays out is that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Ancient Judaism is probably the first to come up with the concept of ethical monotheism, which is the principle that all morality ultimately stems from God. So if you want to be wise, if you want to be moral, you need to look to God for those things.

So much of what makes religious study difficult is the fact that ancient peoples didn’t use words the same way we do.

The ancient Hebrews used two words that we have translated into “fear.” Pahhad, and yara. Yara has the same meaning we use it to mean. When you fear the actions of something dangerous to you. But it also means “to revere.” Pahhad, on the other hand, simply means “to shake.”

Fear (pahhad - noun)) came upon me, and trembling, and caused all my bones to shake (pahhad - verb). Job 4:14

And he said, I heard your voice in the garden and I feared (yarah) because I was naked and I hid myself. Genesis 3:10

You will revere (yarah)Yahweh your Elohiym and you will serve him and in his name you will swear. Deuteronomy 6:13

The fear (yirah) of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding Proverbs 9:10 (KJV)

So as you can see, there’s another meaning being added to the word ‘fear’ than we commonly see. We don’t really have a word for the kind of mixed awe, fear, and reverence that the Hebrews felt for their LORD.

But it’s that sense in which Christians “fear” God.