James Hastings Dictionary of the Bible: Fearfulness

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James Hastings Dictionary of the Bible: Fearfulness


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FEARFULNESS.—The adj. ‘fearful’ is often used in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] in the sense, not of causing fear, but of feeling it: and ‘fearfulness’ always denotes the emotion of fear. Thus Mat_8:26 ‘Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?’; Psa_55:5 ‘Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me.’ In the RV [Note: Revised Version.] of the NT the only meaning of ‘fearful’ is full of fear, the Revisers, Westcott tells us, having purposely retained this use in order that ‘fear,’ ‘fearful,’ and ‘fearfulness’ might all agree in meaning. They have accordingly changed ‘fearful sights’ in Luk_21:11 into ‘terrors.’ The Revisers of the OT, however, had no such thought, and they have left the word unchanged.