Full Text for The Fear of God as Ethical Motivation in Pauline Theology (Text)

THE FEAR of GOD. as . . ! . WA,L TER A. MAIER , _ .. ~-... , . :. . . . ETHIC'AL· ... MOTIVATION .. ,. lD ' . PAULINE THEOLOGY Concordia Theological Seminary Press Fort Wayne, Indiana, .. ~()\IlGICAl Sf'. ... ,~~.~ . ~ ~ .. . .. <:> .. u .. .. ~ ~ ~ FORT WAYNE ., i i \ TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I. . INTRODUCTION . • . . . .. . . '.' • . .. . . . . . . . II. THE FEAR OF GOD AS. ETHICAL MOTIVATION IN THE OLD TESTAMENT :z, • • • • • • , • • • • • • . • . . "Fear," tn Its Primary Sense--the Actual Emotion of Fear. . . .. .. . . A. • • • • • · :'. . CircumstanceS Under Which This Fear Is Aroused • • • General Instructions Concerning the Ethically Motivating Fear of God • • • • • • • • • • • • • "Filial" and "Servile" Fear ••••••••.•• Derived Significances of thf;! Phrase "Fear of God" •• The Ethically Motivating Fear of God Further Examined in Relation to the Specific Objects· of Thi~ Fear . . . . . . . . . . . . '.' . . . . • . A Closer Look at the Divine Punitive Judgm~nts ••• 7The Relationship of the Fear of God and the Love fo r God ~cr :r.J~~n 't; It; . " . .. . . , . . . . . . . . . . II'!, THE FEAR OF GOD AS ETHICAL MOTIVATION IN THE; LITERATURE OF THE INTERTESTAMEN~L PERIOD AND IN THE PRE-PAULINE CHRISTIAN CHURCH • • • • • IV. The Fear of God in the Intertestamental Literature. • .. . ••• This Fear in Philo •. ~ • This Fear in the Book of Acts. THE FEAR OF GOD AS ETHICAL MOTIVATION IN THE PAULINE CORPUS • • . • . • • '.' • • • • • • Ethically Motivating Fear in.the Teachings of Rabbinic Judaism. • .••..•••. Paul Speaks of This Fear as a' Christian. Romans 3: 18 • • . • • •.• •••• Romans 11:20-21. • • •••••• ·Romans ~3: 7. • •• ..:0 • •.• • • . . . . • • IS • • . . · . . 1 Corinthians 2:3. • • • • ~ •••••••• '2 Corinthians 5:11 • • • • • • • •••••••• 2 Corinthians 7:1. • •••• ~ •••• · . . 2 Corinthians 7:11 and 15 •••••••••••••• Ephesians 5:21 and 33 •••••••••••••••• Page , 1 9 9 10 22 , 26 35 38 40 42 46 47 52 57 63 69 72 79 83 85 89 . ' Chapter TABLE OF CQNTENTS (contin~ed) Ephe~ians' 6:5 and Colossians 3:22 •.•• . . . . Philippians 2:12-13 •••••• 1 Timothy 2:10 •••••.•••• 1 Timothy 5:20 •••••••••• • • e • The Fear of God As Ethical Motivation in Pauline Theology . • • • . . • • • • . • • The Relation of the Fear of God to Other Motivations for Ethical Living • • . . . . . . Page 94 99 106 111 115 \ 124\ V. THE FEAR OF GOD AS ETHICAL MOTIVATION IN THE GOSPELS AND NON -PAULINE EPISTOLARY LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT AND IN THE WRITINGS OF THE APOSTOLIC VI. FATHERS. • • • • • • • • • • • • • 133 The Fear of God in the Gospels. 134' The Fear 0'£ God As Ethical Motivation in the Non-Pauline Epistles • • • •• •• • • • • • 139' \ Fear o£ God in the Writings of the Apostolic Fathers. . . . . . e' • • • • • It • • • II • • • 147 Summary Observations, Including A Co~parison with the Pauline Concept of the Ethically Motivating Fear of God. • • .. • • • .". ••• • • 158 t SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. • • e II II • • II . . . . . 164 BIBLIOGRAPHY. • • f • ., ,110 • • . .' • • & '. . tI • " G • " 't • 179 / CHAPI'ER I INTRODUCTION A significant feature of Pauline ethical teachin,g is the apostle's' repeated use of motivations of various kinds to spur, Christians in their obedience to the will and Word of God. Four principal motivations are indicated in Paul's' letters: love for God, including the response of gratitude; f«;!ar of God; hope for reward, ariSing out of trust in the promises of the Lord; 'and faith in the Gospel' assurance of the believer's baptismal union with Christ and participation in the latter's death and resurrection. No section of the apostle's parenesis fails to include either the mention of or allusion to one or more o'f these motivations. Ideally, according to his thought, all four should function conjointly and simultaneously in prompting all moral ex'ertions whicJ:l Christians put forth. For a full understanding of Paul's ethical system, it is imperative correctly to comprehend the apostle' ~ teaching .in the whole area of Christian ethical motivation. The present writer has long been interested in the study of Pauline instruction concerning motivation for sanctification. 'In 1967 he pre­sented to the faculty of Concordia Seminary, St.Louis, a Master of Sacred Theology thesis on the subject of the fourth of the above­mentioned motivations for ethical living, namely, faith in the fact of the Christian's union with Christ and pers,onal participation with Him in 2 his death and resurrection. 1 The opportunity' to enter upon a concentrated study of what Paul has to say, in part'icular, about the sanctifying fear of God ,presented itself in ~he same year, when the writer obtained approval from the graduate ~aculty at the seminary to begin work on a doctoral dissertation dealing with this subject. The res'ults of his investigation ,are embodied in the present treatise, entitled, "The Fear of God As Ethical Motivation in Paulin,:! Theology.'" Of the several motivations for ethical living spoken-of in' Paul's works probably the fear of God is considered least in the church. '. This is undoubtedly the case in the writer's own.denomination. In his entire lifetime of church-going he has never once heard from a Lutheran ,pulpit a thorough exposition of that fear of God which is expected of Christians. Of the various motivations, fear of God is also the lea'st treated in the seminary classrooms and in the ,writings of New Testament scholars and commentators. Many books written on the theology of Paul and many works dealing specifically with Pa~line ethics 'do not even mention this fear, or scarcely refer to it. This is true, for example, 2 of Werner Elert' s The Christian Ethos ; Rudolf Schnackenburg's The'Moral 3 Teaching of the New Testament; D. E. H. Whiteley's The Theology of lWalter A. Maier, "The Christian Under Grace, According to Romans 6:1-14," (unpublished S.T.M. thesis, Concordia Seminary; St. Louis, 1967). This thesis, 'an exegetical study, is available in the library of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. 2 Translated from the German .by Carl J. Schindler (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1957). 3Translated from the 2nd.'revised German edition by'J. Holland-Smith and W. J. O'Hara (New York: Herder and Herder, ,1965). f • 3 "4 . St. Paul; and a recent volume by Victor Paul Furnish, Theology and -Ethics in Pau1.S Most commentators do not discuss fear as an ethical motivation, even when the term occurs· in the' Pauline text. A comment of Alfred Plummer in A Critical and Exegetical. Commentary on the Second Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians at 2 Co~. 7:1 is representative of the kind of remarks which are provided. He writes: 'The fear of God' or 'the fear of t~e Lord' is repeatedly given in O.T. as the principle of a good life; so esp. in Psalms (ii. 11, v. 7, etc~) and Proverbs (i. 7, 29, viii. 13, etc.). It i~ the whole, duty of man (Eccles. xii. 13). "He who tries to do any good thing without the fear of the Lord," says Herveius,' "is a proud man." Cf. v. 11; Rom. iii. 18; Acts ix. 31, x. 2, 35. In Eph. v.21 what is said in O.T. of Jehovah is in a re~arkab1e way transferred to Christ, 6V f'¥tf Xf.'forro17. The brief· ,statement of Philip E. Hughes in Paul's Second Epistle to the Corinthians at the same verse is typical, too: And this is to be done "in the fear of God"--that is, in reverence and devotion towards Him to whom we 'owe every­thing, in awe of Him at whose judgment-seat we shall have to give an account-of the things done in the body (5:10£.), and .in dread lest, through carelessness and disloyalty, we 7 should be ashamed before Christ at His coming (I In. 2:28). Another recent work, The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, does not offer much more light on the concept of the holy fear of God 4(Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1964). 5(New York: Abingdon Press, 1968). 6A1fred P~ummer, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Second Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians in The International Critical Commentary (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1915), p. 212. 7 ' , " In The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1962), p. 258. '." 4 in Paul's writings. In an article on fear by Samuel Terrien, under "F~ar in the NT" there is a section with the heading, "Fear and Sanctification." The first p,aragraph states: The new man in Chris.t is d'elivered from worldly fears, but he is constantly reminded that he has to fear evil in all its forms (Matt. 10:28; Rom. 11:20). The sanctifica­tion of the Christian individual as well as that'of the church is the fruit of the fear of the Lord (II Cor.5:l0-11; 7:1; cf. CoL 3:22;Heb. '10:31; etc .••. ). It is thus a grave error to maintain, with many moderns. that Chris tianity,' as opposed to Hebraism,' has rep laced the, fear of God by the love of God. The NT, as well as the OT,. understands sO profoundly the tragic dimensions of love and knows so acutely ~he awesomeness of the divine presence that it proposes to man no other prospect than 8 the service of God "with fear and trembling". (Phil. 2:12). The bibliographical list,ing at the end of this article mentioosonly a small number ,of works which deal with the concept o~ fear in the Old Teatament. Neither the library card catalogue nor indices to scholarly periodical literature on the New Testament can direct the reader to any substantive studies whose primary focus has been on the concept of the fear of God in the Pauline writings.9 The need of an "in depth" consideration of this subject is apparent, therefore. 8 "" ' , f Samuel Terrien, Fear in the NT," The Interpreter s Dictionary OI: the Bible, edited ,by George Arthur Buttrick, et aL (New, York: Abingdon ~re~s, 1962), II, 259. 9Brief tr~atments of the concept of the fear of God in Paul's 'writings are, found, e.g., in Rudolf Bultmann's Theology of the New Testament, translated from the' German by Kendrick Grabel (New York: ,'Charles Scribner'S Sons, 1951), 1,320-324; the article on "Furcht" by ·W. MundIe in Theologisches Begriffs1exikon 'zum Neuen Testament, edited by Lothar Coenen, Erich Beyreuther, and Hans Bietenhard, f,ourth part (Wupperta1: R. Brockhaus, n.d.), pp. 416-417;. the 'article on "Froemmig-. keitL Gottesverehrung" by L. Coenen, W. Guenther, and W~ Mundle in the same Begriffslexikon. pp. 394-399; and .the article on '''Fear'' by Ed,~ Diserens in A Companion to the Bible, edited byJ.-J.von A11men, trans­lated from the 2nd French edition by P. J Allcock, et a1. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1958), pp. 113-119. . i f. " 5 Many ques t,ions shou ld be answe,red,. Among them are the following: What is the actual meaning of "fear" in the phrase "fear of God"? What kind of fear is this? What is the difference between the fear of the Lord which is expected and that which is forbidden, according to the teaching of Paul? Exactly to what in or connected with the deity, is the believer's' fear the appropriate response? :What is the relation­ship of the fear of God to the other ethical motivations spoken of in the apostle's writings? Does Paul assume that fear of God and love for God are compatible? ,That they are capable of simultaneous generation within the heart? How, specifically does the fear of God prevent sinning and become ethically motivating? How is the, apostle Paul, 'the proclaimer of the Gospel of love and grace, able .to inculcate the fear of God when addressing Christian congregations? What are the sources of Paul's concept of the fear of God? Are his views on the subject derived from his background in rabbinic Judaism? Did aspects of hellenistic Jewish thought influence the apostle's l,Inderstanding of , this fear? What comparison' is there between the concept of the ethically motivating fear of God which is enjoined in the Old Testament and that which is presented in Paul's epistles? What is 'the relation-, ship of Paul's view to the instruction concerning this fear in the 'writings of other New.TestameQt authors? Did the apostle's teaching concerning this fear have an influence on sub~equent theological literature in the church, like that attributed' to the Apostolic 'Fathers? An 'examination of Paul's epistles leads to the discovery that the apostle expressly refers to the ethically, motivating fear of God fifteen ..... 6 times, in as many passages, scattered through seven of the thirteen letters. These passages are the following: Rom. 3:18; 1l:2~-2l (taken together as one passage); 13:7; 1 Cor. 2:3; 2 Cor •. 5:11; 7:1.11.15 (three passages); Eph., 5:2i;33 (two passages); 6:5; Phil 2:12-13 (one passage); Col. 3:22; 1 Tim. 2:10; 5:20. We snall be concerned in our study first with a consideration of possible sources for the Pauline concept .of this fear. To this end;' the next chapter will be devoted to an investigation of the concept of'the fear of God in the Old Testament. Chapter III will scrutinize the literature of the inter-• 0 te.stamental period and of the pre-Pauline Christian Church. (Acts). Chapter IV will take up the question of the effect of rabbinic thinking on Paul's understanding of the fear ·of God. Then. in the'same chapter. the fifteen above-indicated references to the "fear of , God" will be considered exegetically. General points' of instruction they provide will be summarized. The interpretative effort here will be 'the main concentration of our etudy. In Chapter V the occurrences of theco~cep't of the holy ·fear of God in the non-Pauline epistolary literature of the New Testament and in the writings of the Apostolic Fathers will be noted; comparisons with Pauline thought will be draWn. The final section will summarize the principal findings and list the over-all conclusions of our discussion. Throughout this investigation the writer has dealt chiefly w~th primary sources and! or Engl ish trans la tions of 'these sources .10 Views 10 The sources used are: Rudolf Kittel, et al., editors, Biblia Hebraica (3rd edition; Stuttgart: Privilegierte Wuerttembergische Bibelanstalt, 1945), 2 vols.; Alfred Rahlfs, editor, Septuaginta I i 7 of biblical scholars have been referred to wherever these contribute to the understanding of a text or topic under consideration. The major conclusions of the present study may, by way of anticipation, be stated ,as follows: Paul's ,understanding of that fear of God which fosters the sanctified life appears to be derived primarily from the canonical Old Testament, and not 'from the, literature of the intertestamental period, ,the religious teaching of the early (pre-Pauline) Christian. Church, the theology of contemporary Rabbinic Judaism, or other,possible sources of influence on the development of this concept in his' thinking. As in the Old Testament,. this fear, in the thinking of Paul, had as its object or focal point the divine judgment on sin, visited in the present and in the future upon believers as well as (Stuttgart: Privilegieite Wuerttembergische Bibelanstait, c.1935),2 vols.; R. H. Charles, editor, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in E'nglish (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913), 2 vols.; G. Vermes, The Dead Sea Scrolls in English (Revised edition; Baltimore: Penguin Books, Inc., 1965); F. H. Colson, G. H. Whitaker, and Ralph Marcus, translators, Philo and Philo Supplement, 12 vols.(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1950-1962); Eberhard Nestle, Erwin Nestle, and Kurt Aland, editorS, Novum Testamentum Graece (25th edition; Stuttgart: Wuerttembergische Bibelanstalt, 1963); Kirsopp Lake, trans­lator, The Apostolic Fathers, 2 vols. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, c.19l2). Sources used 'for the study of rabbinic writings were: C. G. Montefiore and H •. Loewe, editors, A Rabbinic Anthology (New York: Meridian Books, Inc., ~938J) ,j and Hermann L. Strack and Paul Billerbeck, Die Briefe des Neuen Te!)taments und die Offenbarung Johannis Erlaeutert aus Talmud und Midrasch, Vol." III of Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch (Muenchen:, C. H.' Beck I sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1926). Unless otherwise specified, English quotations of Old and New Testament passages which appear in the present 'study are taken from the Revised Standard Version of the' Scripture,s (New York:· Thomas Nelson alld Sons, 1946). , f i f I t t. I 1 I I I I I I , i ! f , , , 8 unbelievers. This fear can be aroused only in the hearts of followers of the Lord. It is wholly compatible with, indeed, complementary to, . the love 'for God as well as to the other motivat{ons for godly living of'which the apostle speaks. It is a holy emotion, which promotes sanctification. Paul doubtless assumed his addressees to be thoroughly familiar with all aspects of the concept from their reading of the Old Testament. ,He sought in his letters to build upon the Christians' previous understanding 0,£ biblical teaching, whe~heJ;'pertaining to' the fear of God or any 'other subject. .. CHAPTER II THE FEAR OF GOD AS ETHICAL MOTIVATION . IN THE OLD TESTAMENT A study of "The Fear of God As Ethical Motivation in Pauline. Theology" may properly begin with a consideration of. the root or source . . of this concept in the thinking of the apostle Paul.. A primary source was the Old Testament· with its prominent stress of the idea of the fe.ar of God. It is·the purpose· of this chapter to investigate salient features of the Old Testament view on this subje:ct;,·especially on the subtopic of partic;ular concern, the fear of God as motivation for ethical behavior, for the moral life. "Fear" in Its Primary Sense--the Actual Emotion of ,Fear The Hebrew root most frequently employed in the Old Testament to express the· idea of fear in the concept "fear of . God" iaX i." . It has the primitive meaning of trembling, shuddering, shivering, .-,. k' 1 qu~ver~ng, qua ~ng. Numerous other Hebrew terms,~ expressive ~f different degrees in the intensity of fear, however, are also found in 1 The· root .N -:l"1 appears in. the verb X ,I ., to fear; the nouns. 57.~ I. ~, fear, .:K. ~ i Y:J and Sl., i D' • ~o fear,. terror; the verbal.ldjective.S{ J, ., . T, afraid of; and the niphal participle s< "I 1 J , (used as'·'Bn, adJective), feared, fearful. ,. o T •. 2For a convenient listing of several score nouns, veJ;'bs, and adjec­tives·see Joachim Becker, Gottesfurcht im Alten Testament (Rome: .Paepstliches Bibelinstitut; 1965), pp. 7-18. • • 0 10 the Scriptural 'ifear of ,God" passages and help compr;lse, a rich Old Testament "vocabulary of fear." These words refer to' the human emotion of fear., Since fear in, thiS,. s~nse may be described as the "emotional, state characterized by anticipation of pain or great distress and accompanied by heightened autono~icactivity especially ,involving the nerv9us system," or' as "agitated foreboding often ',o~ some real or spec.ific peril, ,,3 "the fear of God," then, fa, primarily the emotion of fear aroused ~y an expectation that God may-or will cauSe one pain or distress., Circums,tances Under Which This Fear Is Aroused According to the Old Testamellt this "fear of God" is aroused in " different ways, under various circumstances. It is evoked, we may note initially, when people palpably experience the divine 'pre~ence' in . majesty, in the theophanies '(for example, "Ex. 3':1-6; 19:16-20; 20:18-20; ( . '. . Gen. 3':8-10) and in dreams and visions (Gen.' Z8:16-17; 15,:12-16'; Dan. 7:13-15; Is •. ~:1-6; Ezekiel 1). Fear of God ~8, produced also by the mighty works of the Lord in nature and history, and particularly by those affecting the lives of people in terms of punishment or blessing. 4 These acts are called "terrible," nix 11], in Deut. 10:21, . :T 3The!'le phrases are the first and fundam.ental meaning for fear, as' supplied in Webster's Third New International, Dictionary of the Englis'h Language Unabrid~ed (Springfield, Mass.: G. and C. Merriam Company, ~.1961), p. 831. 4Unless otherWise specified, the Old Testament terms and passages the writer cites ,in this chapter are quoted frqm the Revised Standard Ve~sion. Passage locations are given according to the verse numbering of,· the RSV. '\ ; , ( \ 11 2 Sam. 7:23, '1$. 64:3, Ps. 145:6; "terrors," TI':K, in, in 00 T Deut. 4:34. The adjective in the singular, Xil J , is employed T in Ex. 34:10 and Ps. 66:~. The fear-inspiring deeds of the Almighty w,rought in the realm of nature are either works constituting'a divine intervention in the normal course of nature, as when the Lord sent 'fire from heaven to con-, sume Elijah's sacrifice on Mount Carmel (l Kings 18: 38~39 ; similarly, Jonah 1:11-16) or God's ~ormal, regular operations involved in the preservation of the ~arth' s inhabi tan ts (jer. ,5: 22-24; Ps. 65: 6-9; " Job 37:1-24). The mighty act per excellentiam wrought by Yah~eh in the history of his people is their deliverance from Egyptian bondage , 5 ,at the Red Sea. Other powerful deeds of the Lord affecting the national life of Israel, and also pagan peoples roundabout, are referred to in PSo 65:5; Psalm 76; Is. 25:1-3; Zech 9:4-5; Ps. 9:19-20; Psalm 64; and Is. 41:23. Divine blessings bestowed upon an individual pious Israelite ·,"..,· .... ".<...j5The fear of God figures with exceptionai prominence in the Scriptural account of this miraculous rescue of the Israelite nation. The people of Israel are said to have feared the Lord as a result of their great deliverance (Ex. 14:30-31); other nation.s who hear of the Egyptian army's overthrow are filled with terror of Yahweh's outstretched arm (Ex. 15:13-18; Joshua 2:9-11; 1 Sam. 4:6-8). Interestingly, the Exo~us narrative reports that the Lord cau~ed a great fear of Himself also to overtake the Egyptians just prior to their destruction, when the' enemy force was passing 'over the sea bed and began to experience trouble with the chariot wheels (Ex. 14:25). Jeremiah rema~ks that God broughtJ.srael out of Egypt "with gr~at terror" (32:21); cf. 2 ,Sam. 7:23. (Such a "terror of Yahweh," it may 'be, noted--that is, a. terror sent upon an enemy by Yahweh, and one frequently connected consciously , and directly with Yahweh and his, power as its object--is the climax feature of the so-called "Holy Wars" ,fought at various times in' 1s~el' 8 . history. Cf'. Joshua 10:10; Judg. 4:15; . Judges 7; 1 Sam. 7:10 [5:11j; 14:15; 2 Chron~ 14:13; 17:10., See also Gen .. 35:5; Lev. 26:36.) 12 may arouse the fear of God, in others as well as in himself, as is indicated in the testimony of David in Ps. 40:1-4 and 22:23-25 • . Punitive judgmentsl,whici) ~xhibit Yahweh I s 'wrath against' the sins of hi. own nation, or its members, may do the same--as, for instance, when those who witness the earth swallowing up Korah, Dathall,and Abiram are filled with terror and flee for their lives from the area (Num. 16:31-35).6 . Certain persons and things in the creature world are particularly related to, or peculiarly associated with, the deity. They represent, the Lord" as it were, or his presence. For this reason they arouse al" human fear which is, in fact, the ~ear of God, though not specifica1l1'" labeled the fear of God in the Old Testament S,c.riptures. The presence of'an angel from heaven excites such fear, as in the case qfthe wife of Manoah (Judg. 13:6) and of the prophet Daniel (Dan. 8:11-18; 10:7-11, 15-19). Certainme~ of God 'evoke, this fear, asfo~ example Samuel (1 Sam. 12:18; 16:4), Moses (Ex. 34:30), and Joshua (Joshua 4:14); so also Saul, because of the sacred office of the king (1 Sam. 24:4-7; 26:9-i1; 31:4; 2 Sam. 1:14; 1 Sam. 1~:7); and Solomon, ,"because. .' . the wisdom of God was in him, to render justice" (1 Kings ,3:28) ',' Toe entire people of Israel will occasion such fear, according to Deut. .... 28:10.7 Israelites are to have fear for the, sanctuary, as'the Lord 6Additional examples are found in 1 Sam. 12:16-18; 2 Sam. 6:6-10;", 'P8. S2:1-~; also Job 6:4; 7:13-14; 9:34; 13:l0-11,21;·Ps. 88:15-16. 7ef• Is. 19:17 .and Neh 6:16. e", . , ' i· , i !. .' 13, . 8 . directs· in Lev. 19:30 and 26:2. Violators of the sanctuary, Nadab and Abihu, the'. sons of Aaron, are devoured by fire (Lev. 10:1-5). The .. .. presence of the ark of the .covenant should prompt ~his fear~ as the accounts of 1 Sam. 5:1-6:18.; 6:19~21; and' 2 Sam.· 6:6-U' plainly indicate.· The Word or the Lord occas.ionsthis fear, according to Ps. 119:161; Ez,ra 10:3;. Provo 13:13; Is. '66:2,5; and 1 Sam. 28:20. Finally, Yahweh's saints delib~rate1y . generate the .fear of th~ ·Lord in their· hearts by their reverent contemplation of, the Almighty's nature. Their fear is an appropriate,; God-pleasing response to the deity's. ho1~ness, will, and ·wrath against sin; to bis' righteous~ess and activity of judging,. as the just Judge of all mankind. It motivates to ethical behavior as. prescribed by the diVine will. This fear~ one consciously cultivated by the people of God as an aid to.sanctification, will be the focus of our considerati.on in this chapte·r •. This fear prompted Abraham to undertake the' sacrif,ice' of his son Isaac in obedience to the Lord's direc~ive (Gen. 22:12). This fear appears to be re'flected in Joseph's resistance to the adulterous advances ofPotiphar's wife and in his remonstrance, "How then can' I.do this great wickedness)~nd sin against God?" (Gen. 39:9); The same fear moved the Hebrew·midwive.s to . disobey. the commandment of the' . Pharaoh and let the Hebrew. male children live (Ex. 1: 17,21); prevented the le'aders of the. , C Is~ae1ite congr.egation from breaking the· oath' sworn 'to the Gibeonit,es by Yahweh (Joshua 9:20); enabled Job to turn Ilway from evil (Job 1:1,8; 2:3); 8 . Cf. Gen. 28:17'and Is. 8:14. ;. ! 14 ,impelled the Psa.lmist David to worship ·toward the Lord's· temple (Ps. 5:7). The sacred poet speaks to the Lord concerning this per-fective f~ar, saying, nMy flesh trembles for fear of thee," and then reveals a specific object of his fear in the wards: "I am afraid of thy judgments" (Ps. 119:120). Isaiah predicts that the "shoot from Ithe -stump of Jesse"shall have "the spirit of •• ~the fear of the Lord," this holy motivation to godliness resting upon Him, "And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord'~ (Is. 11: 1-3). God Himself, speaking prop.hetically of the new covenant He will establish with his people, mentions this fear as one of its blessings; He says "I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not tur~ from me" (Jer. Though no Scripture passage specifically enunciating this idea can be adduced, it may be as.Bumed that the perfective fear of God, as generated by pious Israelites, must have had in view also the final" . threatened ~nifestations of God's wrath and 'judgment on the universal "day of the Lord." The latter concept, while existing in popular belief prior to the time .of the Latter Prophe·ts~ 'was greatly illuminated by the s'tatements of these propheU.· . This is seen, for.·.example~ in Is. 2:10-21 and Zeph. 1:14-16 •. Genetal Instructions Concerning the Ethically Motivating Fear' of God 'Th~ Old Testament Scriptures record many directives that God's' people cultivate in their hearts the precautionary fear of the righteous 15 Lord which will lead them to observe the divine commandments. Moses instructs Israel, "You shall fear. the Lord your God; you shall serve him, and swear by his, name" (Deut'. 6:13; compare lO:1~-20; 13:4; Lev. 25:17,36). Joshua,directs the people: ,"Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness'" (Joshua 24:,14). Since it is true that "by the fear of the Lord a man avoids evil" (Prov. 16:6), the teacher i'l1 the Book of Proverbs admonishes his "san" to "fear the Lord, and turn away from evil" (3:7); to "c,ontinue' in the fear .of the Lord all the day" (23:17.). The leaders of the Lord's people, in particular, are to be filled with the fear of God in . the discharge of their official responsibilities, , as Scripture verses like the following indicate: 2 'Sam. 23: 3-4; 2 Chron. 19:5-9; Neh. 5:9,14-15; 7:2. In certain passages of the Psalms the .sacred writer looks beyond his pious countrymen and seeks the c'onversion and salvation of the rebelliously wicked in and beyond Israel •. David directs his evil oppressors: "Stand in awe [of Yahwe~ , and sin not" 9 (Ps. 4:4). He warns ·the kings and rulers of the earth: "Serve the Lord with fear, with trembling kiss his feet, lest he be angry, and you 9This is the translation of the King James Version and is to'be preferred over t~e re~der..J~ of the~SV, ~'B~ angry" but sin not"--despite the LXX translatl.on 0fl" '5E,p$c;. I<."'~ /-<'1 ~<)"''7-tv£'7"c., and Paul's ' citation of the LXX in 'Eph. 4:26. A basic meaning of r A -, is to be agitated, quiver, quake,' tremble with fear; this fits the corttext of Psalm 4 more satisfactorily than the idea of being angry, displaying righteous indignation. Cf. Herbert C. Leupold's discussion, Expositi6n of the Psalms (Columbus: Wartburg Press, 1959)',' pp. 68-69. 16 perish' in thewayj for'his wrath is quicklykindl~d" (Ps~ 2:l0~11). . . The aut~or of Psalm 33 exclaims: "Let all the' earth fear the Lord, let: all the' inhabitants. of the world. stand in awe of himl" (verse 8). The principal way in which the godly. can be led to exercise the obedience-fos,tering fear· of the Lord is through the attentive hearing of' the' divine wordso~ God's law which feve~ls the holy and rigbteo~s nature, will, and acts of tlle de~ty. Thi$ i.s indicate?,,-n D~"'t, 4:10. 6;1-2; 17;18 .. 19; Provo 2:l-5j .Jer. 36:1-3,'16'~ The proper-fellJ' ~f Gqd i8 .arouse~ .41so by a conside;4tiQJ\ of the s'tringept p1,lnhhmeflfft for gl'PS~ wickedqess which the ,Uvin" l~w instituted' in·lsra,l. rAJ' 8)Jamp1e,.tha man who entice. ph IQraelite brother f:o cpqun!,t ~40latry fear, and ll-.var agal-I) do aqy ,,~ch w~ckednasq .. 8S tbb atOpY'g YA"" (Pa\J.t, 1~:6-1.1; &tl"llarly l118-13). Other sttmuli tp goclUnes" wou14 1>' pl:ovided by4:lvill8 tq.·ophanie' J (locl Is perfo1:'iQflnce of p"",, own ftl:l~htY 4Qts, .aQd SQ Qn-"'a,. 4~S~"S8aa ahAve, In the ~Cfipt~re, g~e~t ple~a:lngs are qaid to »8 t" ,.~orp fQ~ tqos.e who fe~r the. . Lord, The 8041y, whose fear imp,1s tPIIIWl tp follow , . tqe Almighty'" wU.l. ,1'8 4:(.:'lipp~y assuredtllat it wil~ UP "el~ nth tqem and th_t, '*.~lcS~.n fqfeV" CP8\tt.5:29, compar. a~c:~. aq2';'ll). In the Book ot Pfove~~s it 1. rC!Por4ed tha~ "The felr of ~ne l-oJ'4 leads to I1f_; and QQ who A4' :l~ J'1~t" 8a~iaf:ledi b. wil~ nof: '~, viflited by ~~" (19:a3; comp.;, l4:27). AftlOng' "pt'Qific Q"ll~fit .. whlcll accr~e to thqle ~ho f.ar tn. ~r4 4re w~ .. ~~~ and .Qp4 pn4~'~f:4n4tnl (~s. 1~'1:10), lcnowleqae (Prp'i, lIn. lnlf,c:~ction '1" ~h~ 41Vitu,11 apPf~v.d 17 , way of life (Pa. 25:12), the Lord's friendship and knowledge of his covenant (Ps. 25: 14), happy family life (Psalm 128), riches and honor (Pr. 22:4). A sure visitation of evili however, is the threatened lot of all who spurn the fear of the Lord and the godliness to which it leads, as Moses warns Israel in Deut. 28:58-6'4; as Wisdom serves notice to those who re'ject her counsel, Provo 1:26-31;, and as Jeremiah informs his countrymen, Jer. 2:18-19.10 "Filial" and "Servile" Fear The perfective fear of which we have been speaking in the last section, it should next be stressed, is'pos,sible only to the true saints of the Lord. 'Its generation is altogether beyon!i. the capability of the ungodly in the world" who are at enmity with Yahweh; want nothing to do with Rim or his will; refuse to reckon with his attributes, wrath, and judgments; or trust his love., The author of 'the De ProfundiS explains in Qis prayer to the Lord: "There is forgiven'ess with thee, that thou mayest be feared" (Ps. 130:4). Compare 1 Kings 8:40 (2 Chron. 6:3); Mal. 2:5. Through faith in Yahwehls grace and in the Abrahamic , ' covenant promiSe of the coming, great seed of the patriarch who would establish pardoning blessing for the whole race o,f sinful men, the pious Israelite obtained the forgiveness of all his transgressions; the' gift of spiritual life; and with this the desire and power to set his mind upon the divine Word and self-revelation, the capacity to fear the 10 Cf. Jer. 44:10-11. t . , , f . , 18 ,holy, righteous God, and the ability ~o love and obey the Almighty's cOJMl8ndments. The Lutheran Confessions call the fear under present consideration ,lIfilial fear,"'which they define as "such anxiety as has been connected with 'faith, hl., where faith consoles and sustains the anxious heart.lIll The o'pposite of this filial fear may be termed IIservile fear.1I lilt is servile fear ,when faith does not sustain the anxious heart ~ear , J 12 without faith, where there ''is no~hing but wrath and doubtJ !II Such fear at times possesses, the hearts of t~e ',wholly ungodly, when they are compelled to listen t~ the voice of their own conscience, confront the punitive power of the d~ity, or face the prospect of death. It will fill their beings completely and const~ntly in that day when men will lIenter the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the .cliffs, from before the terror of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth"(Is. 2:21). God'~believing children, too, because 'of the sinfulness which still attaches to them, are occasionally afflicted with various kinds of servile fear. They doubt the goodness and promises, the love and providence of. God; they stand i~ dread of enemies', worry about impending trials, disaster, and death •. The many "fear not"-directives (-;;, ~ [ l, ,] X I.F) ) of the Old Testament, spoken to godly T •. llApology of the Augsburg Confe/ilsion, XII, 38, Triglot Conco'tdia: The Symbolical Books of the Ev. Lutheran Church (St .• Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921), p. 261. 121lli,. 19 individuals or the Israelites as a whole, give indication of the presence of some kind of servile fear in the believer's heart, forbid its continuance, and pave the way for the resurgence of confident trust and filial ~ear. This is suggested in Gen. 15:1; 21:17; 26:24; Ex. 20:20j Judg. 6:23; Dan. 10:1~; Ex. 14:13; Num. 21:34; Deut. 3:22; 20:1=4j Joshua 8:1; 10:8; 11:6; 2 Kings 1:15; 1 Sam. 12:20;18. 41:10, 13-14;43:1-2; 44:2,8. The generation of the proper fear of God brings with it freedom from all other fears; therefore it should be cultivated assiduously--this is the Old Testament ideal (Iso 8:12-13). '--""'--.../ Because the precautionary, filial fear of God .serves the Old. Testament faithful as a prime motivation to ethical behavior, a fur.ther consi~eration of this fear as featured in the Old Testament Scriptures will be of value to our study in this dissertation. To such an inves-tigation we shall proceed after first giving attention, in the next . sectiC)n, to some of the de·rived significances of certain of the "fear of God" expressions in these Scriptures. Derived Significan~es of the Phrase "Fear of God" The phrase "fear of God" (0' 5Y~ X f15'<.l ~ ) and the . . . similar fonnulations which employ words other than Sl.r \=fl and, its cognates are frequently' used to express the idea of judgment., A number of other Hebrew ,words reinforce and are likewise rendered by "judge"'or some similar expression~ This judging is essentially a dynamic process; the judge both discerns right from wrong in a situation and takes action as a "result. "Judgment" involves both discrimination and vindication; as, Leon' Mo'rr,is' observe,s: "He who'does mishpat Dudgmen~ ,seeks out the wrongdoer 'to puniSh him, , 18 and the righteous to vindicate his cause." All these thoughts apply to the divine activity of judging. Yahweh Himself says: "t the Lord , a~archthe mind and try the heart, to give to every man' according to his 18Leon Morris, The Biblical Doctrine of Judgment (Grand Rapids: Wm.' B. Eerd'mans Publishing Co., 1~60) t' p. 17. , , 25 ways, according to the fruit of his doings" (Jer •. i7: 10). This dynamic judgment is. in progress now, embracing every human being and his works: God continually surveys. the behavior of all men, punishes those who do wickedly, and rewards with blessing those who a~e obedient to his will (Ps. 62:12; Ezek.18:25-32; Jer. 32:19; Zech. 1:6). And the: ptesent divine. judicial dealing will culminate in an esehatolog.ical and final judgment with eternal dispensations for the evil and the good (Pe. 96:13). The godly are aware of the divine judging activity; produce in their hearts a fear of· God's judgments; s~rink from transgression; and strive . for holiness (Ps. 119: 120 and verses 67 and 71). God's judging is an expression of his righteousQess, or justice, . the. p ~ ~. or the 51 0 I' ~, of God (Jer. 11:20jPs. 7:9,11; IT T : . . 9:7-8; 98:9). The basic meaning of the root toa n~rm, It or' "the stat.e corresponding to· a p:-r ~ ts"conformity . ~,19· . . p. -,-,l...r. ~orm. .... I.? J furthermore, expres~esrelationshipJ "aconc~ptofrelati~n referring to .an actual relationship b'etween two persons and implying behaviour whichcc>rresponds' to, or is true to, the claims arising out of su'ch a . . 20 relationship." . . ~od's righteousness, or justice,'accordingly, may be defined as the disposition of' the deity"in his relationship to men as God and Lord, to deal with them in accordance with his holy will as norm. 19 Edmond.Jacob, Theology of the Old Testament, translated from the .French by Arthur W. Heathcote and Philip J. Allcock (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1958), p. 94. 2 . .' ". . . Owalter Eichrodt, Theology of the Old' Testament, translated from . the fifth German edition by John·A. Baker (London: SCM Press, 1967), I, 240. 26 The e·xpression of this will is provided in law, na.tural and revealed. The action to which his ·righteousness moves the deity is the dynamic pro~edure of· judging, which results in ·the reward of blessing for . obedience and· punishment for disobedience ,to the divine commandments. Because the divine righteousness moves the Lord to Judge and punish .• Yil. tt, too, lsthe object of godly. fear, of. a holy dread which is productive of a subservience to Yahweh in. the life ·of the believing follower of God. In summary, it maybe ·stated that according to the Old Testament . Scriptures, the fear which the pious in Israel direct toward Yahweh is . arou.ed by their consideration specifically and simultaneously of th.e divine. holiness and wrath against sin, and the divine righteousness and judg-ing.activity-.!:o£ all these in conjunction. The Almi~hty, because of his holiness and wrath, is fiercely, relentl~ssly opposed to a11sin; because of his. justice, is disposed to deal with human beings iil .. accordance'with the norm, the threats, and the promiaesof his holy· law. He is continually engaged in surveying the works of all men--including those of his own people--and bringing punitive judgments upon such as violate his will. He it is, with his retributive ju~gments, therefore, towarcl whom the ·godly direct a filial fear. And this fear prompts the. pious to avoid sin and live the life pleasing ·to the Lord. A Closer Look at the Divine Punitive Judgments A listing of th~ kinds of wrathful, p~nitive visitations which the righteous and holy God br~ngs specifically upon h{S own people when they 27 transgress his commandments clearly reveals why these.judgments are to be greatly feared and earnes.tly avoided •. Penalties for transgression are administered in the spiritual sphere. Since sin always constitutes, a resistance of the' indwelling Spirit of God,2l ()ne phase of the divine judicial reaction to wrong-doing is the withdrawal of that Spirit to a cer·tain extent from the sinning child of God and the weakening of his .piritual life. David was con~ernedabout. this dangerous consequence'of 'his own sinning, when he besought the Lord in his great penitential prayer, "Take not thy Holy ~pirit from me" (P~. 51: llb). In the case of certain gross or repeated sins, the punishment is the complete re-moval of God's Spirit (compare the case of King Saul, 1 Sam. 16:14) and the lossof.spiritual and eternal life. David, therefore, aware of the ,2IAs for the identification of the "Spirit" of God mentioned " in the Old Testament, there are many ex~getes today who agree with the view of Maimonides, the noted medieval Jewish scholar,that, while the "Ruach E10him" 'is the 'same as 'the "Ruach ha-Kodesh," the Spirit is not a p~rson but only a power eminating from God. N. ,Friedmann, however, in an article titled "The Mystery of the Trinity," . ",hieh appeared in the Concordia Theological Mon,thly, XV (November 1944), 721-729, shows conclusively that the Old Testament in.a number­of passages teac:hes the personality of the Spirit of God a·nd his Godhead. As the title of his essay suggests,'Friedmann maintains that the doctrine of the'Trinity is presented in the Old Testament Scriptures, arid that there were ancient rabbis who accepted 'and taught this doctrine.. . It is likewise the assumption of the Lutheran Confessions that in certain references to the "Spirit" (of God) in the Old Testament the sacred writers are designating, the Holy Spirit, the,Third Person of the Trinity. 'Cf. e.g., Formula of Concord, Thorough Declaration, VIII,72, Triglot, p. 1041; and tI, 26, p. 891. '28 heinousness of his sin. prays Yahweh, "Cast me not away from thy ,presence" (Ps. 51:lla). Ezekiel warns, "The soul that Sins shall die" (Bzek. 18:4). If a 'man through transgress~on loses his spiritual life and is not reconver,ted to Yahweh prior to bis. physical death, then he goes to death' in Sheol (Ps ~ 49: 14,19),; Surely these spiritual judg-'. menta are a source of deepest concern and dread to the faithful in Israel •. There are, however, additional punitive c~>nsequence8 of sin. These may be called the "psycbical'~' or . the "physical'" or the "circumstantial" counterparts of· the spiritual jud~ents, which the Almighty frequently sends the pious' along with the latter.' These are the afflictions and sufferings of many kinds which Yahweh brings upon his people~ There is the burden of the troub1:edconsc1ence (P~. 38:4,8; , '" . . '. . Then there are the mental upsets, the physical sicknesses of 'all types, and also 'earthly reverses, privations, los'ses, . and sorrows; failures of friends, oppressions of enemies, <;lnd the .like (Ps. 38; 39:11; 102:2-10; Lam. 3:l~20; Psalms 74 and 89). Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 record long lists of temporal judgments which the Lord threatens to bring upon. Israel, if t:hey.walk contrary to the divine-commandments. There;Ls abundant Scriptural evidence that these" ·threats were carried out against the people as a whole or against . -. individual, or grbups within the nation in periods of disobedience. $0 many of the divine visitations overtake the godly in the course of their lifetime that Moses observes in Psalm 90: "All our days. pass 29 away under thy [God's] wrath" (verse 9). The' culminating physical judsment is, of course, death (Ps. 90:3,5-8). While the spiritual penalties for transgression mayor m1iY not always ,be perceived by a ,sinner, he frequently does not remain oblivious to the physical, psychical, and circumstantial counterparts of the spiritual judgment~. A feature of the di'Vine visitatio~s upon those sinning ie, that in , , many instances these judgments are meted out to the, p(!nitEmt,or are allowed to continue on for'them, even after they have 'r~ceived 'for-givenessfor the sins which called forth the punishments. A case' in , , point is David's experience of troubles after committing, adultery with Batbsheba and ar~anging the murder of her husband Uriah (2 Sam~e 1 11). : When the Lord sent Nat~an the prophe t, ,to rebuke David for these flagrant transgr¢ssions, this man of God also brought the penitent king an announcement; of divine pardon for his. evil, 'assuring him, "The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die" (2, Sam. 12:1'3). At the same time, however, the prophet served notice that a number of divine, retributive' judgments would nevertheless" overtake David as a result of his sins: the child th~t Bathsheba bore the king would die (verse 14); the sword would ne,ver depart from David I s ,house '(verse 10); evil would be raised up agai.nst him out of his own house; the Lord would' take the king's wives before his eyes and give them to a neighbor who would lie with these wives in the sight' of' the sun (verse 11). All theae grievous visitations ~ome upon him preCisely as predicted, according to the account of 2 Sam. 12:15,-18, the record of events in subsequent chapters (13 to 18) of the same book, and the first two "; 30 chapters of 1 Kings. The king was himself punished with sufferings of a ki~d like to those which he had inflicted upon others. Numerous other exainples of the divine adminis~ration of affliction to pardoned sinners' in direct consequence of theit transgressions can,' , , ' 22 be found in the biblical record.' A pious IsraeUte' s' recognition of this aspect of the'divine judicial procedure would serve to impress tbe Soclly individu~l with the seriousness and the fearfulnes.s of the Lordls retributive judgments, and intensify in, him the dread of the divine displeasure and the sincere .desire to walk in the way of righteous.ness. J. The Relationship of the Fear of God and the Love .for God Before leaving the ,consideration of the fear of God as ethical motivation in Old'Testalfient theology, it will be" well briefly to con-sider the relationship of the fear of God to the love for God,which is a180 presented in Old Testament theology as a motivation for godli-ness. The two emotions are sometimes regarded as antithetical, as ,impossibly existing together in the human heart. This, however, is not the view of the Scriptures. The fol~owing points'may be noted. First, it is clear that God's people are enjOined in t~e Old Testament ~ to fear and to love God. " ,Passages directing ltrael " 23 to fear God have been cited previously. Among those inviting the 22E•g., Num. 20:1-12; 14:20-23; Ex. 21:23-25. , 23supra', ' pp. 14-15. 31 people to love Yahweh are these: Deut. 11:1,13-~4j Joshua 22:5j Ps. 31:23. A ScriJ)ture verse designating theteato ~fG~d and the love forGocl together ~s .d.uties of the faithful is Deut. 10: 12-13; .. compare 6:1-5; 13:4. Secondl,y, .the true believers in Israel do love the Lord, in addition to fearing Him •. Their genuine loving of Yahweh.(as expressed, (or example. in Ps. 73:25-26) is portrayed as .,a loving in grateful response to the Lord • s own primary love for Israel (Jer .•. 3l: 3) • God's· love established the covenant and is opera:tive in bestowing the blessings of the covenantal relationship upon ~he pious .in the nation. . . Such blellsings are the forgiveness of sins and fellowship with God (Psalm 32); the Lord's.attendance upon their prayers (Ps. 116:1), prelervation of the,ir lives (Ps. "31 :23), deliverance in time of trouble . (Ps. 18:1). To love the Lord their God with, all their hear.t, with all their soul. and with all their might (Deut. 6:5); and to live the lives. which please Him, is the delight of the sa,ints. Thirdly, the Word of the Lord instructs the faitnful.that the divine love directed toward them is educative, and at times necessarily corrective (Prov. 3:11-12; Ps.119:67; Job 51:17). God,in his love is seriously concerned, when through sinful folly, and espec,iaIIy repeated sinning, his people damage their spiritual lives and resist,~is Spirit. He is not pleased, when inconsequence of their ~ransgression He 'is .. , compeUed to remov. the Spirit's influenc·e from them to some extent. It is on this accou~tthat his love se~d8afflictions upon the erring which bave'as their.purpose :to bring th8l1l'to,their spiritual senses, 32 restrain. them from sinning and prompt them to righteous behavior. Lov. in· effect joins with the justice and holiness (and wrath) of God to provide punitive judgments for sin; but they are to be seen as penalties which are salutary and corrective chastisements .. 24 That the pious in Israel un~erstood the trIals and afflic::tions which they e~erienced as. evidences of Ya~weh's love (as well as of his holines·s, wrath, and justice) and as beneficia~ chastisements. is plainly indicated in the Old Testament record (Prov.3:11"12; Deut. 8:1-6; Job·23:10; 36:7-15; Ps. 8~:30-34). The people of the Lord gladly testify to theble~sings that have come to them through trial: Pa. 119:67,71,75; 94:12-14; Job 5:17-19. Perhaps the chief benefit of afflictions is the realization they impress upon the hearts of the pious that God Himself is their highest good in life--not the temporal gifts and bounties He bestows. Through trial. God's people,come to .~" .. cling to lY:m with ever increasing tenacity, with more ferVen"t love. They even are able toe~ress spil;itual joy in the very midst of trouble (Bab. 3:17-18). They find an approach to the solution of the age-old ·and perplexing question as to why the righteous are called upon to suffer while the wicked by contrast are frequently allowed to prosper (Psalms 73 and 37). 24Tbe term "chastisement" is a noun derived from the verb "chastise"; the latter comes. from the Latin castigare (from castus, pure, and agere, to drive) and Signifies to" correct by punishment; to inflic·t punishment with a view to reformation or amendment. To "punish," on the other hand, means simply to inflict penalty, suffering or privation, for wro~g-doing, irrespective of a purpose to reform. 33 Furthermore, when additional troubles overtake them, the faithful in Israel show their continuing ,trust in and love of ·the Lord by humbly submitting to, required suffering (Lev. 26:41; Is. 57,:.15; Ps. 10:17). 'rhey recognize the merciful restraint with ,which the Almighty visits chastening judgments upon them (Ps. 103:8-11; Lam 3:22) and 'seek the divine presence and succor in the midst of trial. They confidently appeal to the Lord for deliverance from affliction (such prayers are' found in most of the 'Psalter), <,is He has bidden them, (Ps. 50:15), and patientlywait for the relief (Ps. 33:20; 27:13-14). It will be seen, then, that faithful Israelites in no way regarded the fearing of God and the loving of God as incompatible emotional exercises. 'They endeavored, rather, to generate both these gO'dly emotions in their hearts~ simultaneously. The pious viewed Yahweh as a God of holiness (and wrath), justice, and love, believing that these three attributes (along with the others) existed co-ordinately in the deity. Their fear of the Lord they saw as a proper response to the divine holiness '(and wrath) and justice; their love of the Lord, as the response to 'the divine love. As for the punitive, divine judgments for sin ,in their lives, they regarded these' as Fatherly.chastisements, resulting from the interplay of the three attributes of the deity mentioned previously~ 'They bel~eved that divine love transformed the just. holy, wrathf~l judgments into salutary. chastenirtg experiences for the L()rd I s people. The righteous. chastening judgments were to be fe'ared and if at all ~ossible avoided (Ps. 32:8-9; Prov.23:17; 28:14); but, 34 when tribulations did come, the goodness and love of God involved in their sending were also to be considered. Sufferings were to prompt the response of repentance, gratitude, continuing trust and love of the Lord in the hearts of the affli.cted. CHAPTER . I II THE FEAR OF GOD AS ETHICAL MOTIVATION 'IN THE .LITERATURE OF THE INTERTESTAMENTAL PERIOD AND IN THE ,PRE-PAULINE CHRISTIAN CHURCH While there is little evidence in the epistles of St. Paul to demonstrate his familiarity with the writings of the intertestamental period,l there is no reason to doubt that he had access to many of .1The question of Paul's knowledge and use of non-canonical, Jewish, intertestamental writings has long been debated. There are a few apparent parallelS in Pauline thought or terminology to certain con­cepts or expressions found in some of the Jewish literature. Examples of terminological similarity are phrases like "pass the flower of her age" (Sirach 42:9; 1 Cor. 7:36); "treasures of wisdom" (Sirach 1:25; Col. 2: 3) f "pain • . • as on a woman in 'travail" (The Book of the Secrets of Enoch 62:4) and "destruction ••. as travail upon a woman with child" (1 Thessaloni,ans 5:3); "the wrath of the Lord came upon, them to the 'uttermost'" (The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs--Levi 6:11; 1 Thessalonians 2:16). The theme of the power of God vs. the nothingness of man' appears in Wisdom of Solomon and in Paul; also the themes of God's patience toward his enemies, though He knows they· are not profited by it, and of the contrast between ,the fate of God's enemies and his children •. Congruities between the two writers--beyond termin­ological resemblances--can also be found in 4th Ezra and in Pauline epistles. Investigation of the various parallels, however, leads to the conclusion that these correspondences do not indicate Pauline .dependence upon apocryphal and pseudepigraphical works. They suggest, rather, either a common tradition, often originating in the Old Testa­ment, or common employment of idiomatic expressions in general use. See E. Earle Ellis, Paul's Use of the Old Testament (London: Oliver and Boyd, 1957), pp. 76-84. Ellis 'states, p. 82:. "Because of it,s emphasis on placing Scripture in its historical environment modern biblical scholarship has often tended to convert parallels into influences and influences into sources • Further, the limited number of extant coritem-.· porary documents has sometimes resulted in an exaggeration of their importance and in an underestimation of the generalcur.rency of a particular phrase or concept. Too often, also, the investigator has uncritically assumed that the Biblical Writer must have a 'source' but that the apocryphal literature can be taken as pure spring water. In comparing Pauline correspondences with the apocryphal literature it has 36 them •. This is true especially of the literature of both hellenistic and Palestinian .Judaism, surviving work~ of which are known as the Apocrypha' and Pseudepigrapha. Paul was also aware of the beliefs of • groups who participated in the various religious movements in his Jewish environment.· Literary documents from one of the Jewish sects, the Essenes, who headquarte~ed at Qumran, have been discovered ne~r the ruins of, this ancient site near the Dead Sea. A consideration of "The Fear of God As Ethical Motivation in Pauline Theology" therefore should include an i.nvestigati~n of the occur~ence of this term in representative theological literature of t~e intertestamental period. This invest·igation may be extended to an examina tion of the writings· of Philo. Chadwick expresses the viewpoint "that of all th.e non-Christian writers of the· first century A.D. Philo is the one ·from .. . l whom the historian .of emergent Christianity has ·most to lear·n." been the writer's impression throughout that they· pointed not so much to a direct source· of influence as to current· th.eolo umena and· tradi­tional concepts or interpretations. • •• [w. L .. Knox's observation ... is appropriate: 'Gonsequently, it is never possible to be certain how far a similarity of ideas and even language may not be due to the fact that two writers are borrowing from a common source. Further, since all .Jewish wri ter~ appeal in the ias t resort to the OT and use it in accordance with a more or less conventional system of interpret~tionJ it is manifest that there are always wide possibilities of the occurrence of striking ,similarities which have no further relation to one another than a common use of the same passage of the OT.'" 2Henry Chadwick, St. Paul and Philo of Alexandria (Manchester: John Rylands Lib~ary, 1966), p. 288. (This booklet is a lecture,by Chadwick'. reprinted from the Bulletin of the John Ry1ands Library, XLVIII (1966). 37 Various passages in Philo do provide analogies to the New Testament; and there are certain correspondences between Philo and Paul, as , 3 Chadwick (for one) has shown. While any hypothesis of a direct or indirect Pauline dependence on Philo should be ruled out, 'the possi-bility ought to be allowed, as the Oxford professor suggests, that both writers "draw on a conunon stock of hellenistic Jewish tradition.,,4 The ,questions of interest to us are these: Does the concept of ethically motivating fear appear in philo's works, and how is it treated? Does Philo's usage afford evidence that Paul's understanding of this fea~ has been influenced by the same hellenistic Jewish tradition which helped shape Philo's thinking? Moreover, since the apostle surely was acquainted with the practical religious teaching of the earlY,Christian community in the years before his own conversion, it will be of importance for our study to determine the prevalence of the concept of the ethically motivating fear of God in the theological thought of the church during the first years of its existence. The sources of information in the latter regard is Acts, particularly the first half of this work. The third chapter of our study, then, proposes to consider the subject of the fear of God as ethical motivation in the literature of the 3Analogies and correspondences are indicated in the previously cited work. 4Ibid., p. 290. 38 intertestamental period, in Philo, and in the pre-Pau:J..ine Christian Church as described in Acts.5 . The paragraphs that follow are few, because a survey of Acts, Philo, and of surviving theological works w~ich were written between the testaments uncovers little of significance for our study. For, whereas the fear of God is one of the prominent concepts of the Old Testament, as we have shown. it may be generally stated, conversely, that this idea assumes no comparable prominence in the literature of the intertestamental period as a whole, in Philo, or in Acts. A few remarks will substantiate this observation. The Fear of God in the Intertestamental Literature' A pQrusal of the Apocrypha, the Pseudepigrapha, and the Dead Sea Scrolls reveals that this literature contains very few references to the fear of God, or the fear of the Lord. In many of the intertesta-mental works these phrases a~d parallel expressions are missing altogether; in others they appear but once or twice. Only in the apocryphal books of Sirach and Tobit and in the pseudepigraphical' Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs and Psalms of Solomon is the fear of God mentioned with a greater frequency. The concept by no means stands out in the intertestamental works taken as a whole. FurtherII,lore, wherever these work~ present: the, concept of the fear of God as ethical motivation, the significance of this idea is not 5A consideration of ethically'motivating fear in the teachings of Rabbinic ~udaism will be reserved for Chapter IV. 39 developed beyond what is offered in the Scriptures of the canonical Old Testament. The ethically motivating fear is directed toward the wrathful judgments of God.6 This fear is presented and inculcated as a virtue of the peopi~ of God.7 It'is depicted as a prime deterrent , 8 to sin and as conducive ~o the obedience of the Lord's ,commandments. 9 The blessings to which it leads are enumerated and extolled. 6Cf. lQH X. 34, as presented, e.g., in G. Vermes, The Dead Sea Scrolls in English (Revised edi'tion; Baltimore: Penguin,Books, Inc., 1965), p. 185. Also: The Sibylline Oracles--Fragments, i.1-4--in R. H. Charles, editor, The Apocrypha and Pseude'pigrapha of the Old Testament in ~nglish (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963), II, 377; and The Story of Ahikar 2:91, ibid., II, 739. 7 (The material in pseudepigraphical and apocryphal works to be referred to in this and succeedin~ footnotes will be lpcat:ed in Char~es, according to volume [Roman nllmera!j and page number, bpt:h supplied in parentheses, Materi~l in th~ Qumran liter~ture will b~desi~nated according to the stapdard abbreviations for this, liter~ture.) See The Testaments of the Twelve Pa\:riarchs--Reuben 4:} (II, 298); Levi 13:6 (II, 3~1); Judap 16:2 (II, 320); Zebulun 10:5 (II, 332). Dan 6:1 (11,335); Naphatali 2:9 (Il, 337); Gad 5:5 (II, 341); Jpseph ll:l (n,350); Benj~min 3:3 (Il, 355)--; The Book of tpe Secrets of Enoch 2:3 (lI, 432) ~nd 43:3 (Il, 457); The Sibylline Oracle,-­fragments, 3:29; The Psalms of Solomon 2:37a (n, 634); [4:24 (II, &37)J; 12:4 (II, 644); 18:8,10 ,II, 651); The Story of ~htkar (Arabic) 2:14,20 (Il,. 731); apd lQll XII. 3. BThe Book of ToPit 4:21 (I. 213); Slr&ch 1:30 (I, 32,); 2:15-17 (I, 323); 3;7 (I, 324); 15:1 (I. 369); The Letter of Arls~ea8 1~9; l89 (II,' Ha); The T~StamEHlt:fl of tpe Twelve Patriarc\la~;'Stmeon 3:4 (II, 301); G&d 5:4"S' (U, ~4n; 'Th~ fsallllS of Solomoll 18:9 (p, 651). ~8: 13-14 (+1, 652)J. . , . 9The'BQok of Ta~it 4:~1 (r. ~l3); Si~qch 1:11-27 (i, 319-321); 2:7-11 (I., 322); 6:1~-1.7 (I, 335)~ 25:10-11 (I, 40n; n:16 (1.427); ~3:l (I, 42&); 34:1].17 (I, 435); The Testaments ot th~'T~e1ve Ratri~rchs,;,.,Joseph 214 (II, 346)-.. ~ Th~ i30qk of th~ ~ec:+ets tlf EOQch 48:8 (II, 4~9); The psalms of Sq1o(lloQ 2s37b (II, 634); 3:16 (n, q3Sr£ 4: 24-~7 (II, 637); 5; 21 (II! 63~) i 6:& ,(Il, 639); p: q. qr,' 645); . , 15:15 (II, &46)'; ~D VIII. 19-20, l(~Sb 'X. 1; lQSb v. 25, 40 This Fear in Philo The fear of God as such, and as ethically motivating, is mentioned infrequently in the writings of Philc. In Decal. 12:52 the fear of :> If..? . ., .:> I God (t l.J" Erc.i...«...). is said to be "the beginning (~):"7 ) of the virtues.1I H. A. Wolfson sugges ts that Philo's assignment of leadership 10 to this fear is probably based upon Prov. 1: 7" which may be translated I from the Septuagint: "The fear of God ( fo/8os iJ-E o{) ) is the beginning ::> ••• cl..S of wisdom . ;) ,-and godly fear ( E l/ C; Ep £ LO<-is the beginning of discernment." Philo does not, however, regard the fear of God that prompts godliness as the highest of virtues.· He writes, Quaest. in Ex. 2:21: There are two reasons why men honour the Deity, (namely) love and fear, and love ,is later, being in the elder ones [that is, mature persons], while fear comes ,earlier, so that: not ineptly is it said that fear is the leader,' for love, which comes after, is also acquired later. And may it not be that one who fears does so rightly and properly? For just as tmprudence is younger than prudence, so is fear (younge-r) than love, since fear is born in a worth-less man while love (is born) in a virtuous one.11 In Philo's thinking, followers of the Lord may be separated into r;ofAOL' !tJ-£0;} and cfOU.AOL j)c.:OV (Mig. 9:45). The latter may be regarded as having the fear of God and as engaging in a lower form of worship of God. The former have a love for God and practice 10 .. Harry Austryn Wolfson, Philo (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1948), II, 215. 11 . Philo Supplement II, translated by Ralph Marcus (Cambridge: Harvard UniverSity Press, 1953), XII, 60-61. 41 a higher form of worship_ Philo writes in,Quod Deus ~4:69: For" I pbserve that all the exhortations to piety , [of 1/GE;8E'-«J in the law refer either, to our loving or our fearing the Existent. And thus to love Him is the most suitable for those into whose conception . of the Existent no thought of human parts or passion enters, who pay Him the honour'meet for God for'his ' own sake only.-To fear is most suitable to the others .12 The author speaks ·of "three classes of human temperaments'.' in Abr. 25:124, and makes God address Himself to three corresponding groups of worshippers, .' as follows (128): My first prizffiwill be set apart for those who honour Me for Myself alone, the second to those who honour Me for their own sakes, either hoping to win blessings or expecting to obtain remission of punishments, since, though ,their worship is for reward and not disinterested, yet all the same its range lies within the divine pre-cincts and does not stray outside.13 . These three classes, it is clear, refer respectively to. those who worship God from love, to those who worship Him in expec'tation of a r~ward, and to those who worship Hiin from fear. The preceding paragraphs present all that 'is significant (and distinctive) in the works of Philo on the subject of godly fear. The ; Jewish philospher has relatively little t!' say regarding this fear. Of particular note is the fact that, though the writer calls the fear of God toke beginning of virtues,he regards that emotion as inferio~ to l2Ibid., translated by F. H. Colson aridG. H. Whitaker (1954), III, 45-:--13.!EJ...!!., translated by F. H. Colson (1959)" VI, 67. .. 42 the virtue of love for God. The latter estimate'of ethically motivating fear is not found in the Old Testament Scriptures. It will be seen from the study of the Pauline concept of God-pleasing fear" in the next chapter" that the apostle reflects no such view in his epi,stles. The judgment cannot be substanti~ted, then, on the basis of evidence in Philo's writings tha,t the hellenistic Jewish tradition on 'which the Alexandrian philosopher drew influenced Paul"'s understanding of the fear of God. This Fear in the Book of Acts Some recent exegetical scholarship has returned' to the traditional view that Luke is the ,author of Acts.14 Much critical d,iscussion'has concerned itself with the sources employed ,by Luke in the writing of Acts. There is, however, little pOSSibility of success in defini~g these to the complete satisfaction of even a majority of critics. The d~fficulty in identifying sources in the telCt.is due to "the literary 'work of the author." Jacques Dupont explains: the writer "is not satisfied with transcribing his sources, he rewrites the text by putting 15 the imprint of his vocabulary and his style everywhere." " Martin Dibelius seeks to discov~r the traditional elements incor-'porated in Acts py applying the procedures of form critical analysis to 14 ' See Jacques Dupont, The Sources of Acts: The Present Position. translated from the French by Kathleen Pond (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1964). 15lli£.., p. 166. ' " 43 16 the Lucan text. He claims that in Acts "Luke' has not only fitted together, joined and framed fragments of tradition, as in a mosaic, but • • • there is a • [ :l d th f .. 1 .." 1 7 greatj ep 0 orLgLna composLtLon. ,According to Di~elius, all the speeches in Acts are Luke's work. Of Lucan composition also are the different generalizing introductions to specific narratives rel~ted in the text, particularly those in chapters 1 to 12; the independent, connective "pragmatic interpola-tions" (many of them indicating how the early Christian community developed-~for example, 2:42; 4:4; 5:42); and other sentences which li'nk together complexes of traditional material. For the missionary journeys of Paul, Luke had a IIguiding thread," probably an itinerarY' of stations where the apostle .stopped. This contained also Paul's notes on his journeys, the founding of congregations~ and results of evan-gelizing activity. Underlying information for the remaining' sections of Acts, Dibelius suggests, was supplied Luke directly by Paul or his associates; or it came to Luke's attention in the form of .small,.· "closed," "well-knit" units of tradition, fragmentary accounts which were originally' handed down independently in Christian communities. For the purPJJses of the present analysis, the writer assumes .that the reports of events and speeches found in Acts are all authentic; l6the resul ts of his form critical investig~tionof Acts a're . presented in Dibelius I essays gathered by editor ',Heinrich Greeven and translated from the German by Mary Ling and Paul Schubert in the volume' Studies in the Acts of the Apostles (New York: 'Charles Scribner's Sons; 1956). 17 . Ibid., p. 3. 44 that, whatever the background information on which Luke drew in the first twelve chapters of Acts, he gives us a true description of , ' the life, beliefs, and teachings of the pre-Pauline Christian Church. What, then, it may be asked, about the concept of the fear of God in Christendom's earliest peri~d? There are several references to the fear of tod in the first part of A~ts (chapters 1 to 12). That fear as occasioned by an Old Testament theophany is mentioned in 7:32; by an angel of God, in 10:3-4; by a mighty act of God, in 2:43 and 5:5,11. But the fear of God as motivationfor,a·way of life is spoken of only in 9:31, a Lucan sununary statement which reports: "SO the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was built up; and walking in the fear of the Lord and ,in the comfort of ,the Holy Spirit 18 it was multiplied.1I Godly fear is to be at least remotely associated 19 with the d'erived IIfear 'of God" expressions in 10:2,22,35. Ethically motivating fear, it w~ll be seen, hardly enjoys prominence in the Lucan account of Acts 1 to 12,. If the investigation of Acts is completed, the same can be said for the rest of the book, which presents material pertaining to the church after Paul became an apostle. The fear of God (Jesus), induced by a divine act, is re'ferred to in 19: 17 (also per'haps in 24:24-25, l8Revised Standard Version. 9 ".4 I' \ 0" , 1. PtJ~oljU£roJ' 70y If7cfJ'" in, 10:2 'and 22 is, technically, a phrase designating a IIproselyte of the gate.1I 45 where the act in question is future). Ethically motivating fear is / (remotely) involved only in the derived usage of ~i;9~L , which . 20 is found at 13:16,26,43,50; 16:14; 17:4,17; 18:7. On the basis of these findings· we may conclude that any formative influence on a Pauline conception of the fear of God as ethically motivating is less likely to have come from the intertestamental literature and the religious teaching of the early church than from the canonical Old Testament itself. It is not apparent from a study of Philo that, in the matter of this fear, Paul ~as in any way informed by the hellenistic Jewish tradition which influenced the Alexandrian philosopher. We must now proceed to the investigation of Paul's views themselves. 20 / These expressions employing participial forms of (p £f3~o(l..-designate proselytes of the gate. CHAPTER IV THE FEAR OF GOD AS ETHICAL MOT'IVATION IN THE PAULINE COR~S The apostle.Paul was born to Jewish parents in Tarsus of Cilicia and given the name Saul. Apparently his family moved to Jerusalem at at early date in Paul's life. Paul states (Acts 22:3) th~t he received his upbringing at Jerusaleml and was in that city also instructed in lW. C. Van Unnik, Tarsus or Jerusalem: The City of Paul's Youth, translated from the Dutch 'by Geor~Ogg (London: Epworth Press, 1962) has convincingly demonstrated that Paul spent the years of his youth, with his family, completely' in Jerusalem, and not in Tarsus as many scholars have supposed. Van Unnik asserts, p. 55: "in biographies of the· apostle all emphasis ought to fall on the fact ~hat he grew up in the centre of Judaism, where the Torah 'prevailed. in the home and in the street and determined both thought and action, in a strictly Pharisaic-religious environment, and that he, as it were, imbibed that atmos.phere. He grew up not as a typical Jew of the Diaspora cut off ftom all that • • • but as a mati for whom there was only one possi­bility, one ideal and one delight, namely the fulfilment of the law and will of the Lord." For an understanding of Paul, he adds, it is important to realize that "Paul's main knowledge of Hellenism was gathered • • • after his conversion, and thus from the beginning it was seen in the light of the revelation in Christ. It makes radical difference whether he was, as it were, drenched through with Hellenism unconsciously in his early years, as (contrary to Acts 22 and 26) is most often suggested, or consciously learned to see it first with the eyes of a Jew learned in the ·law and after that with the eyes of a Christian" (PI'. 57-58). . , Paul later was exposed to the thought currents and religious ideas of Diaspora Judaism and of the Gentile world of his day. He came into contact, 'for example, with the Hellenistic· mystery cults. Scholars have debated for decades the effects these and other environmental factors may 'have had upon the apostle's theology and proclamation. However, the diffe·rences in the Judaism of the Diaspora and that of Palestine have often been exaggerated, as shown in W. D. Davies, Paul. and Rabbinic Judaism (2nd edition; London: SPCK, 1965). The effect of the mystery religions on Pauline thought was remote~ . Davies asserts· (p.' 98): "All that we can safely as·sume as to the impact of the mysteries on • • • Paul is that the mysteries quite definitely formed part of the milieu 47 the strict manner prescribed by ancestral law, as a Pharisee, at the feet of no less a teacher than the learned and distinguished rabbi Gamaliel. In the course of his education Paul had not' only become thoroughly conversant with the Old Testament Scriptures but also well versed in the substance, techniques, and subtleties of rabbinic interpretation.2 The training he had received from Gamaliel 1ikewise had deepened the hold upon him of the tradition of the elders, the hedge of 613 commandments whi~h rabbis of the past had erected around Old Testament law, and for which Paul was "zealous" I, in later years (Gal. 1:14). As an ardent supporter and promoter of the Judaism of his day, Paul was present at the stoning of Stephen and a tireless persecutor of th~ early church. , Ethically Motivating Fear in the Teachings of Rabbinic Judaism Fear of God as ethical motivation appears in the surviving literature of Palestinian Judaism. A consultation of standard works into which Paul brought his gospel; that 'Paul undoubtedly would therefore be, open to ,their influence, and that many of the terms he used would have an undertone of meaning which would strengthen the appeal of the gospel to the Hellenistic world. Further than thi!;~however, we cannot go •••• " The only contemporary religious force which might be expected to, have exerted any considerable, discernible influ,ence upon the apostle Paul's theological ideas and terminology is the religion of Rabbinic Judaism. . 20n Paul's familiarity with rabbiniC interpretative methods, cf. E. Earle Ellis,Paul's Use of the Old Testament (LQndon: Oliver and Boyd, 1957), pp. 38-76. 48 . --which present in English or German the pronouncements of, and reveal the theological views he'ld by, the Jewish rabbis during these years suggests, however, that the fear of God which promot~s sanctification was not a subject of great interest or extensive comment on the part of these religious leaders. Billerbeck adduces very few-rabbinic remarks regarding this fear in his treatment of the Pauline epistles, in the Kornmentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmudund Midrasch.3 Montefiore and Loewe's A Rabbinic Anthology,4 though it has a chapter titled "The Importance 6fMotive or Intention. Kawanah, and Lishmah. 5 ' The Love, the Fear, and the Praise of God," records only a few rabbinic references to the fear of God. Expressions of Pre-Tannaitic 6 scholars and Tannaitic scholars from Periods I to III (10-140 A.D.), according to-the classification of editors Nontefiore and Loewe, are extremely scarce. It will be well to take cognizance of a, few repre-sentative statements in preparation for the 'study of the Pauline view 3Hermann L. Strack and Paul Billerbeck, Die Briefe des Neuen Testamentsund die Offenbarung Johannis Er1aeutert aus Talmud und Midrasch, in Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch (Muenchen: C. H. Beck'sche Verlagshuchhandlung, 1926) III. On the citation of this work as "Billerbeck" (alone), see the HVorbemerkung" by Joachim Jeremias (pp. 1-2) which appears at the head of "Ein Tempelgottesdienst in Jesu Tagen" by Paul Billerbeck, Zeitschrift fuer' die neutestament1iche Wissenschaft, LV (1964), '1-17. 4C• G. Montefiore and H. Loewe, editors, A Rabbinic Anthology (New York: Meridian Books, Inc., [193~). 5Ibid., Chapter X, pp. 272-294. 6The teaching of rabbinic scholars only from 'the Pre-Tannaitic Period (c. 200 B.C.-IO A.D.) and those from TannaiticPeriods I to III can be presumed to have influenced Paul--certainly not those of a date later than Tannaitic Period III. 49 of the fear of God. This will enable us later to determine whether the rabbinic concept may have had an influence upon Paul's thought. ·A number of extracts from A Rabbinic Anthology are indicative of t.he. type of rabbinic comment on the fear of God that is infrequently provided. Each of the following' citations is anonymous, except Extract 1362. Extract 735 follows: God said to Moses: "Do not fear" (Num. xxi, .34), and yet it says in Provo xxviii, 14, "Happy is the man who fears always." It is a quality of the righteous that, although they have received God's assurance, they never cast off,the fear of Him.7 A related thought appears in Extract·l004: One verse says: "Thou' shalt love the Lord t~y God," and one verse says: "Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God." So act both from love and from fear. Act from love; then, if thou wouldst hate, know that thou lovest, and no lover hates; act from fear; for, if thou wouldst rebel, no fearer rebels •.•• 8 Extract 540 reads: "If they had been wise, they would have understood this" , (Deut. xxxii, 29). If the Israelites had understood the words of the Torah which was given to them, no people or kingdom ~ould have ruled over them. And what did the 7Montefiore and Loewe, p. 285. 8 . Ibid., p. 378. Cf. R. Travers Hereford's statement on the fathers' and the rabbis' view of the fear and love of God, in his edition of Pirke Aboth, (New York: Schocken Books, 1962), p. 23. Commenting on a saying of Antigonos of Socho (1,3), he writes: "Service of God for love' was' always the ideal service in the Rabbin.ical teaching. The dictum of Antigonos ~And let the fear. of Heaven be upon you 'J • • . is added in order to remmd us that if we serve God from love, we must also serve him from fear. He is the Father in Heaven, but he is also Lord of the worlds, Sovereign and Judge." • l . .r , , l .so Torah say to them? "Take upon you the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven, and excel one another in the fear of God, and do deeds of 10vingkindness one towards the other. 119 Extract 541: Let all your doings be done for the sake of God. Fear God and love Him. Feel reverence and joy towards all the comrilandments·.10 According to Extract 1395, genuine fear of God characterized ancient Jewish patriarchs: God said to the Israelites, "You must not think that you are permitted to swear by my name even truthfully. You are not permitted to swear by my name unless you have the character·of one of those who truly feared God~ Abraham, Joseph, and Job."n The rabbis held the doctrine, of the two yetzers, of the good inclination and the evil inclination in man. The evil yetzer urged man to all sorts of sins. The best defense against this impulse, according to the Jewish teachers, was the study of the Torah. Extract 1406 suggests, however, that the fear of God also serves as a preven-tative against following the evil inclination: Moses said to Israel, "Remove the evil inclination from your heart, and be united in one fear of God and in one counsel to'minister before Him; as He.is unique in the world, S9 let your service be unigue before Him, as it says: 'Circumcise your hearts .. ,,,lZ 9Montefiore and Loewe, p. 200. 10Ibid• llIbid. , p. 492. 12Ibid., p .. 497. cu1arly the first half 306. Cf. also Davies' On the doctrine of the twoyetzers; see parti~ of Montefiore and Loewe's Chapter XI, p'p. 295-discussion, pp. 20-35. 51 Finally, the fear of the judgment of God at the end of time is enjoined. Extract 1621 records the instruction: Fear the earthly .tribunal, even though witne.ses against· you can be bribed: fear yet more the heavenly tribunal, . for pure witnesses will testify against;: you there, and, moreover, they proclaim continually, '''If you have' fulfilled my words with joy, my servants will come to greet you, and I myself will go forth to meet you, and say to you, May your coming be in peace.,,13 The same emphasis appears in Extract 1362: When R. Johanan b. Zakkai was ill, his disciples went in to visit him,. On beholding them, he began to weep. His disciples said to him, "0 lamp of Israel • • . Wherefore dost thou weep?" He replied to them" now, when I am being led into the presenc'e of the Ktng of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, .who lives and endures for all eternity, 'whose anger, if He qe wrathful against me, is eternal, whose imprisonment, if He· imprisoned me, would be everlasting, whose sen:tence~ if' He condemned me to' death, would be for ,ever, and whom I cannot appease with words or.bribe with money--nay, more· when before me lie two ways, one towards the Garden of' Eden and the other towards Gehinnom, and I know not towards .which I am to be led--shall I no·t· weep?" They said to him "Our master, bless usl" He said to them, "May it be His will that the fear of heaven be upon you . [as great a~ the fear of flesh and blood." His disciples exclaimed, "Only as greatl" He replied, "Would that it be ~s greatJ; for know, that when a man intends to commit a transgression, he says, 'I hope nobody will see me. ,,,14 Witl). these citations, the range of rabbinic. thought concerning the ethically motivating fear of God has beEm ind.icated-:"as far as it is possible to determine this from a study of A Rabbinic Anthology. If Montefiore and Loewe's work indeed sets forth representative rabbiniC l3Montefiore and Loewe, p. 587. 14 . Ibid. J p. 478. 52 teachings, in~luding the religious thought of early first-century Palestinian Judaism, as it purports to do,15 then the following summary observations may be made. The ra~bis of the period a century­and-a-half before and a like period after'Paul do not frequently men-tion the fear of God which promotes holiness in living. Nor do they explain or elaborate upon this ~ear. One reason for this may have been tha~ the fear of which the writers speak is the fear about which the Old Tes tament te'aches .. and with which they assumed t;heir Jewish readers were acquainted. ,As in the. Old Testament·, the fear which the rabbis inculcate is a response of the pious heart 'to the righteous wrath and judgments of the holy. God, which are visited upon sin and sinners, both in this life and in eternity. It functions to restrain sinning and foster godliness of behavior. It is to be generated in the heart along with the ethically motivatin,g love of God. Paul Speaks of This Fear as a Christian 16 Paul, ~ho was first known as Saul, may have been thirty years old, when he experienced his conversion to Christianity. On the way to l5Montefiore writes, p. xi, in his "Introduction" that in A Rabbinic Anthology he attempts "to put the main facts about the religious concep­tions of the old RabbiS, in as simple a form as possible, before the public." Loewe, who worked with Montefiore in the compilation of the Anthology, is agreed that the selected extracts do present the chief aspects of rabbinic thoug~t; cf. p. Iv. l6Acts begins to designate Saul, the apostle; as Paul at 13:9. Paul is in Paphos on Cyprus with Barnabas, on the First Missionary . Journey. 53 Syria with letters from the high priest in Jerusalem for the synagogues in Damascus, '''so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem" (A~ts 17, ' 9:1), Saul suddenly saw a blinding light from heaven, which caused him to fall to the ground. He heard a voice from above and began to speak with the glorii;ied Christ, against whom, he was told, his activity as persecutor of the church had been directed. The stricken man then began to realize that he had been utterly mistaken in his bitter opposition to the church and its message; that, con-versely, it was the Christians who were right before God in their testimony to, and worship of, the living and exalted Christ, the Son of God. This heavenly Lord was now calling him to faith, to forgive-ness, to life, and to a career of missionary service in his Kingdom. Saul arose sightless and was led into the city of Damascus nearby. Three' days later he was baptized, recovered his vision, and began to proclaim the Christ whom He ,had learned'to know in the dramatic, trans-fo~ing encounter on the Damascus Road. There followed in due tim~ the ministry in Anti.och, the missionary journeys, and Paul's letters to various Christian congregations and to pastoral assistants in the work of the Lord. For the rest of his life Paul contemplated the grace of that Lord who had called him to faith and the apostleship. He surrendered his ' l7Unless otherwise specified, the New Testament passages, phrases. and terms the writer cites in the English in this chapter are quoted from the Revised Standard Version. 54 life to God. Paul never forgot his wicked past" however. Writing to the Corinthians, for example, he stated (1 Cor. 15:8-10): Last of all, as ,to one untimely born, he Christ appeared also to me. For I am the l~ast of the apostles, untit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the con trary, I worked harde'r than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me. , Conscious of what d,ivine grac:e had done for him, Paul went into the world of his day and'proc1aimed the Gospel of the crucified and risen Christ to everyone who would give him a hearing, Jew and Gentile, , Greek and barbarian, learned and illiterate, slave and free alike. He,sought to bring men to a saving trust in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. Now this same Paul, who rejoiced to present the great themes of God's love for all people, the atonement, j'ustification 1?y' faith,. and . the blessedness of being "in Christ" by faith, was also the apostle who pointed to the necessity of Christians' standing in a holy dread of the Almighty.. The proc1aimer of divine grace emphasized the fear of God as a factor in the motivation of,the obedience of the faithful. What was his. teaching in this regard? We proceed now to an investigation of the concept of the fear of God as ethical motivation in the Pauline corpus and come to the heart of our study. A word should be said as to the extent of ~he corpus. The I writer of this dissertation acceptt the view of those scholars who hold that the thirteen New Testament ePistles which have been traditionally ! ., I 55 18 ascribed to the apostle Paul as author--including Ephesians and the three Pastoral Epistles19_-are Pauline. Accordingly, t~ese l8Feine, Behm and Kuemmel list as a sampting of modern supporters of the genuineness of Ephesians the Catholic scholars (of whom Alfred Wikenhauser is a.prominent representative); also Appel, Albertz, Henshaw, Lo Bue, Michaelis, Rendtorff, Simpson, J. N. Sanders in,Cross, Cornelius Sehille, Dahl, Klijn, Percy, and Guthrie. Among those ,who deny the authenticity of Ephesians are Sparks, Heard, Beare, Masson, Dibelius and Grennen, Maurer, Allan, D. E. Nineham in Cross, Kaesemann, Pokorny, F. Lang, C. K. Barrett, Harrison, Bornkamm, Conzelmann, Mitton, Goodspeed, Riddle and Hutson, Lake, W. L. Knox, S. G. F. Brandon, and J. Knox. For the sake of completeness, Feine, Behm, and Kuemmel call attention als'o to a number of scholars who leave the question undeCided, namely, Juelicher, McNeile and Williams, and Ca,dbury; and to others who combine the suppo­sition of authenticity with ,the li~itation that Paul entrusted a pupil wi th the finishing touches of the writing, namely, Appel, Albertz,' . Benoit, and Rigaux. See Paul Feine, Johannes Behm, and Werner Georg Kuemmel, Introduction to the New Testament, translated by A. J. Mattill, Jr., from the 14th revised German edition (New York: Abingdon Press, 1966), p. 252. I agree wi th the' summary statement of Martin H. Franzmann in The Word of the Lord Grows: A First Historical Introduction to the New Testament (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1961), p. 136: "In general it may be said that the arguments [against the authenticity of .Ephesians] have often been overstated in the eagerness of debate; that the differences in vocabulary and style are in themselves far from being conclusive proof that the letter is not authentic, as is being ~ncreas­ingly recoghized by most scholars; that the alleged differences in teaching tend to disappear upon closer examination and that the novelties supposedly introduced by.the imitator are seen to be fresh and original restatements of genuihely Pauline themes; that the connection between the Letter to the Colossians and the Letter to the Ephesians is so intricate and deep-rooted that the most natural explanation is that both letters were written by one man, Paul, at approximately the same time .... " The 'most important argument in favor of the genuineness of Ephesians is the very fact .that in all manuscripts of the epistle the writer gives his name (at 1:1 and 3:1) as Paul. The ~ounter­argument that EpheSians is a pseudepigraphical work is pure conjecture. 19 The group of modern scholars convinced of the Pauline authorship of the Pastorals in their entirety include, in addition to the Catholic theo­logians, men like Albertz, de Zwaan, Schlatter, Jeremias, Feine and Behm" Michaelis, Guthrie, Klijn, and L. Goppelt. Among those rejecting Paul's' authorship are Juelicher, Goodspeed, Dibelius and Conzelmann, Bultmann, W. Bauer, Gealy, Maurer, 'v. Campenhausen:~ Mueller and Bardorff, Schweizer, Kasch, and·Wegenast. Scholars who hOld the intermediate position, the 56 thirteen letters "constitute the primary source material for the inves'tigation in this chapter, The apostle expressly refers to the ethically motivating fear of God, fifteen times, in as many passagel!l ~cattered through'sevenof' the thirteen letters. These pa~sages are the following: R?m',3:l8j 11:20-21 (taken together as one passage)? 13:7; 1 Cor. 2:3; 2 ~or. 5:11; 7:1,11,15 (three passag7s); Eph. 5:21,33 (two passages); 6:5;',' Phil 2:12-13 (one passage); CoL 3:22; 1 ~im. 2:10; 5:20., tit 'them God (or the Lord, Or Christ) is either expressly named,or'implied as the object of fear. We shall consider each of these passag'es in ,succession, taking into account their immediate 'and wider' context. in the epistles where they are found. We shall study, spe~ific feat~res of the fear of God they present and other ,Pauline ,material related to and illuminating the apostle's understanding of 't~is ~oncept. Then it will be possible 'to offer some summary statements ,regarding Paul's supposition of the incorporation in the Pastorals of genuine Pauline fragments, are these: Appel, Goguel, Harrison, Falconer, McNeileand Williams,' Henshaw, Heard, Sparks, Easton, Scott, Michel, Schmithals. Feine, Behm and Kuemmel, p. 262~ As in the case of Ephesians, satisfactory replies have been, and continue to be made to the arguments against the authenticit'y of the Pastoral Epistles--the arguments based ,on the peculiarities of' vocabulary and style in 1 and 2 T,imothy and Titus; the presupposed historical set~ing of these epistles; the highly developed organization of t,he Church they reflect;, the heresies they combat; and their theology. The early and practically unanimous testimony of the whole Church until the beginning of the nineteenth century has been that the Pastoral Letters are Paul's, Not enough evidence has'been adduced by later scholars to negate this view. The chief argument for the , genuineness of the Pastorals is that in the first verse of each of 'the letters', a~cording to all manuscri'pts containing the texts .of 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, Paul is named as the writer. . , 57 view of the fear of God as motivation for ethical living. Conclusions as to'the source(s) for the apostle's concept of this fear will be provided. Because the matter of motivation for godly living is a p,rominent concern of Paul's theology, the relationship of the ethically motivating fear to the other motives for sanctification indicated by the apostle will also be noted. Romans 3: 18 There is no fear of God before their eyes. It will be cbnveni~nt for our purposes to take up those Pauline passages in which reference is made to the ethic~lly motivating fear of God, in the order' of their occurrence in our Bibles, beginning with those in the epistle' to the Romans • Our first meeting with a "fear of God" phrase is at Rom. 3 :18, where we read the words: "There is no fear of God before theit: eye a ," The Nestle and Aland Greek New Testament gives the sentence: tJ~K ~~'(lV'~cfj30.5 AhllV ::> . i .,.... :> ().. \ ___ ;> --.. 20 d1T£ Vol-v"-t.. 7w Y OjJ4 o<..~w V oO)'(w y.' This verse is ~ quota~ tion of PSt S6:1(b)21 in its Sep~uagint ~endering,22 except fpr the p~mber of the personal p~onoun ip the genitive. In Romans th~ plural 20 " Ebe~hard Nestle, Erwip Ne~tle, and K~rt Aland. edito~s, ~ovum Testamentum Graece (~~th eqition, Stuttga~tl WuerttemberBiscne Btbelanstalt, 1963). This t~~t fsthat fl='om which al~'l'lllcCetldillg G~e,lc New Testamen~ quotatipns in this chapt~~ will be ta~en. 2+The v~rse numbering is th~t of tns ~~V. 2.See ~lfred Rah~fs, editor, Septu~gi~ta, II (StutF~att; Wqerttembergische Bib,lanstalt, 0.1935), ad loco :> appears in place of the Septuagint's singular, dV70V the latter in turn, accurately renders the Hebrew (at Ps. 36:2).23 24 In Chapter II, Ps. 36:1 was listed with passages under the category "Derived Significances of the Phrase 'Fear of God'" (in the Old Test,ament). It was there indicated that in Ps. 36: 1 the expression "fear (or dread) of God" ( D'" :51·7.r<. i-TI ~) signified not the . . .. ~o"tion of fear as directed toward God but, by metonymy, the ~unitive judgments of the Almighty which inspire fe~r and are the objects of human dread. <;l) /; pes »&o;} has the identical "derived" meaning of "punitive divine judgments" in Rom. 3:18. . ;­The reason for adopting the figurative interpretatf , and ot'h~r related in meaning. T: . --nouns 66 According to Paul, what or whom is the Gentile Christian to keep on ~earing? Indication of the object of the required ·fearing is given ·in the words: "For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you" (vex:se 21). God, therefore, is to be feared. In order to understand Paul's point clearly, it will be well to note the significance of. his imagery pertaining to the cultivated· olive· tree, its root, and several kinds of branches, as the apostle employs this in 11:16-24 •. Principal features of the Pauline picture are the following: The cultivated olive tree represents the believing Israel of Paul's day, in fellowship with Jesus Christ as the Head of the Church. At the base of the olive tree are the Jewish patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (called the "fathers" in verse 28), who in .. combination constitute its root (verse 16). It was to Abraham that God promised a vast progeny, a believing people who would be drawn from Israel and from many other nations so that he might be the father of· many nations (Romans.4). This covenant promise was confirmed to Isaac and Jacob, who with Abraham were regarded as ·patriarchal "fathers. " The natural branches (verse .21) of the cultivated olive tree are ethnic Jews of the period in which Paul lived. They are physical descendants of Abraham who began their lives as members of God'~ cove~ant people and comprise the believing progeny of the fathers, that is, the spiritual Isr~el of God living at the middle of the first century. 67 That some of these natural branches "were broken off" (verse 17), as Paul states, is indica~ive of the fact tfiat certain of the Jews who had earlier helped comprise the,existing Israel of God had, after this, been separated from connection therewith and reverted to a condition of spiritual death. The reason for this is given in verse 20: "They were broken off because of their unbelief." As the result of the fact that some natural branches had been broken off the cultivated olive tree, there was room for an en-grafting of "wild olive s~ootS." The latter symbolize contemporary Gentile converts to the Christian faith, who became members of the true Israel in Paul's day. One such is the Gentile believer, a representative of the whole class addressed by the apostle in verses 17 to 24. As an engrafted shoot he is said now to share the ri~hness, or sap, of the olive tree.' That is, he together with the believing Jews, is now made partaker of the great covenant gifts God had " originally given to Abraham and the two succeeding patriarchs. There is a third type of branch which the cultivated olive tree is able to bear,:, a natural branch which had been broken off but which is then, surprisingly, grafted back again into its own olive tree (verses· 23 to 24). The apostle makes it clear that it is possible for some of the Jews of his day who had become unbelievers to return to the saving faith and be reinstated in spiritual Israel. The same possibility of Jewish conversion 'exists throughout the New Testament era (1l:25-32). 68 Paul warns the Christian addressed in 11:20-21 not to become 31 proud in connection with his newly established status in the true Israel of God. Let him not entertain feelings of superiority with reference to, or vaunt himself in any way over, the Jewish believers with whom he has been placed into fellowship. Such vainglory is both foolish and extremely dangerous. It leads to false security and threatens faith itself. It amounts" indeed, to a repetition of the fault of the Jews who became unbelieving because they inordin-ately prided themselves on their nationality and supposed moral excellence, and in the process failed to "submit to God's righteous-ness" through faith in Jesus Christ (10:3-4). "They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast only through faith. So do not become proud For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you." The same God who broke off natural branches 'from the olive tree could and would under provocation " speedilY'sever an'engrafted branch. Escape from such a tragic eventuality, suggests Paul, is to be sought in fearing God. The Gentile Christian is to fear the. judgment of the Almighty which cou~d remand him again to a condition of cl ,3l.The verb cG'I>lKot5 is employed in 11:20. Otto Michel in Die Brief an die Roemer, Fourth section in Kritisch-exegetischer Kommentar ueber das Neue Testament begruendet von Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer (11th edition; Goettingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1955), p •. 246, comments: "der Pneumatiker 'steht,' dann nur durch seinen Glauben. Das 'Stehen' ist ein bekannter, von PIs uebernommener Ausdruck .( 7'"f 'Q)!.. ), der den bestaendigen Heilsbesitz zum Ausdruck bringt." Cf. the concept. of "standing" in Rom. 5:2; 1 Cor. 7:37; 10:12; 15:1; 2 Cor. 1:24. . spiri tua1 death. His fear should exert a restraining i'nf1uence on his behavior, lest by sinning he antagonize the deity. It should, according to the context, prevent him from allowing a reprehensible attitude of superiority to arise or remain in his heart. 'The fear, the arousal of which is required in verse 20; is, we may then observe. a precautionary, moral~y perfective emotion. It is to be directed toward God and his death-dealing judgment on sin. ~2 It may be classified as ethically motivating fear, since it fosters ethical behavior 'as prescribed by the divine will. Paul implies that God' B people can, indeed, generate this fear~ , Romans 13:7 Pay • ~ • respect ~ea~, to whom respect [fear] is due. The next passage containing a reference to the ethically motivating ;) I r of God is Rom. 13:7, and 'specifically the words: 0<.7/000 Itt:. I~S 01EL)..,jS •• ,'. 70 'T~V 1cJ3ov "Thv 10/30 V. This directive, issued to the Roman congregation, is found at the end of Paul's discussion concerning the Christian's behavior under secular government, Rom., 13:1-7, which occurs in the "practical" section of the epistle. The apostle, from 12:1 to 15:13, in the fifth major division of Romans,is presenting admonitions with regard to various 32That spiritual death i.s the stringent, terrible divine punish-' ment meted out upon believers who continue in sin without repentance has been previously taught'or implied by Paul in Rom. 6:23; 7:7-13; 8:13; and 9:30 to 10:4. 70 aspects of the godly life which those who possess the righteousness of God and its blessed effects which are mentioned in Romans 5 to 8 should cultivate. Paul states that "governing aU'thorities,,33 at every level. of administration in the state have been placed in their ruling positions by God. To obey government is to obey the command of God. Any resistance to authority and to the r~gulations issued by those who administer it, on the other hand, in very fact constitutes resistance of God himself. It makes everyone who resists liable to divine judg-mente The judgment from God with which those who disobey governing officials are threatened is frequently executed by the Lord through the agency of government itself, by way of the penalties for "law-breaking" which the officials inflict upon wrong-doers (13:2-4). Now it is natural for everyone to desire to escape punishment, and, therefore, in one's interest to avoid violating the law of the state, so as not to incur retributive pena'li ties at the hands of governing 33::>E S O-VGL~L5 in Rom. 13: 1 means civil authorities •. Cf. C. E. B. Cranfield, who states in his A Commentary on Romans. 12-13, No. 12 in the series of Scottish Journal of Theology Oc6~sional Papets edited by T. F. Torrance and J. K. S. Reid (London: Oliver and Boyd, 1965), p. 65: "It is, of course, quite clear and agreed by all .scholars that the civil authorities are referred to." Cranfield proc::>eeds. to/ call attention to the dispute as to "whether. there is . in c 5 oVtC~",us a double reference--to the civil authorities and also to angelic powers standing behind, and acting through, the civil authorities." Proponents of this idea are K. L. Schmidt, G. Dehn, K. Barth, O. Cullmann, and others. The suggestion, whi'ch has come to be especially closely associated with Cullmann, has met with a generally unfavorable reception among commentators. The case for a double reference has not been proved. 'Arguments pro and con are . summarized by Cranfield, pp. 66-68. 71 authorities. This is legitimate and enl~htened self-love. The Christian, however, says Paul, should be moved to obey government additionally by a higher consideration. His behavior ,should be especially controlled by the realization that in observing the law of the state he is complying with the ordinance of God. He gave rulers the right and responsibility to provide and enforce legislation,on behalf of the citizenry. Conversely, if a citizen is disobedient to the authorities whom the Lord has placed over him, he acts contrary to the divine will, he' resists an institution which God has established. In the words of the apostle: "Therefore one must be subject, not only to avoid God's wrath [government's punishment, which amounts also to an execution of the divine wrat~ but also for the sake of conscience" (verse 5). It is in this context, then, that Paul offers the concluding admonition of verse 7: IIPay all of them their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is du~, respect [literallY, fea~ to whom respect [£ea0 is due, honor to who,m honor is due.,I1· Our interest is in the third of these "dues" to be paid. The apostle instructs: "Pay •••. respect to whom respect is'due"; or, rendering the original more literally than does the Revised Standard Version, we may say: Direct fear toward him to' whom this stance is due. the reference in the, designation "him to whOm fear is due" is; of course, in view of the previous verses, to any official in the state who is charged with the duty of law enforcement and the punishment of evil-doers. He is representative of all such officials in authority. This individual is to be feared. 72 The fearing here involved is evidently of the godly, virtuous k" d 34 " '"" "" d bPI ~n, s~nce ~t ~s enJo~ne Y au. According to the context, it is assuredly evoked by a recognition of the divinely revealed rela-tionship of God to governing authority. The definite implication is that one who rules is to be feared, because he serves as God's agent in ,the administration of civic justice and punishment; he is, as it , were, to be a recipient, in part, of the fear that is continually due God and his divine wrath. Fearing the official who has authority in the state is thus the equivalent, to an extent, of fearing God. This is ethically motivating fear, inasmuch as it f,?resta1ls sinning along the lines of civil law violation. Combining these thoughts, we may say that Paul bids the Roman Christians to fear divinely ordained earthly ruling authority. 1 Corinthians 2:3 And I was with you in weakness and in much fear and trembling. There are students of the New Testament who hold that Paul's· words (1 Cor. 2:3) 34This virtuous fear, which the apostle enJo~ns, must not be con­fused with the other kind of fear referred to previously in this section) c ~I ,:;;;' \ /A "'""'" i_~ the .~ol~:s)win~ e::>x~:>r,;ssio~: 0'-',-..' • Dyo ):OY7£S OliX t'-./.;u'" >7'CJc,~ S ~L.f eX vol}.) If' c;r'Olf' 0( AAOl 'ltt' kol. k: ~ (verse 3a); »~A ct s [ ¬.~)? o LJ -/I \:> l': I .:> \ d" \ \ { C/CI .. /J~~(6;trolL 72"Y Es (,.~lJ(:;'-~y (verse 3b); and €.;tv E 'To !<"tK'() v 7fOl)!S I p"opcJ v (verse 4). Such fear is aroused because of anticipated punishment at the hands of government in consequence, of evil which'has been perpetrated. This may be classified as a secular, fear which accom­panies wrongdoing. 'J;t is not God-pleasing. Its very presence in the heart constitutes a part.of the divine judgment for'sin and is demon­strative of a frequently employed divine judicial.procedure, namely this, that God punishes sin with sin. . 73 describe a personal shortcoming, a 35 moral failing, of the apostle. Therefore they would not adduce this passage as one containing a refe~ence to the ethically motivating fear of God. There nevertheless are significant considerations which lend support to the view that the apostle does, ind,eed, have the latter fear in mind in 2:3. These we shall note after first picking up the thread of the apostle's thought in the prior context. Chapters I to 4 of 1 Corinthians present Paul's response to the party contentions in Corinth which had been brought to his att~ntion by "Chloe's people" (1:11). Probably four groups had formed within the congregation, with members of each claiming a particular adherence to a specified leader. The apostle writes: "Each one of you says, 'I belong to Paul,'or 'I belong to Apo1los,' or 'I belong to Cephas,' or 'I belong to Christ'" (1:12). In attaching themselves respectively to Paul, Apollos, and Peter, the people of the first three parties manifested an undue admiration of mere human beings' and of their achievements in the Church. They esteemed their teachers and leaders in unwarranted degree. Those who composed the Christ-party were probably persons who had come to Corinth from the outside and brought with them attractive, persuasive kinds of liberalism and rationalism, 35E•g., F~ W. Grosheide, Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians, in The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, c.1953), p. 60. 74 the influence of which is reflected in both Pauline epistles to 36 the Corinthians. One reaction of the apostle was to regard all this factionalism, and the ideas which prompted it, ~s representa-tive of a kind of "worldly wisdom," a wisdom of this age, which had gained currency in Corinth and which could only work to the detriment of the Gospel in their midst. After offering an introductory appeal for like-mindedness in the congregation instead of contentions (1:10-17), Paul enters upon an extended discussion in which he contrasts" the wisdom of God (the Gospel centering in the message of the cross) and the wi"sdom of men (the wisdom of this age) (1:18-2:16). The antithetical character of, and results of adherence to, the wisdom of God "and the wisdom of men are shown (1:18-31). Then Paul takes them back to the beginning of his ministry in their midst and calls attention to the cpntents, style; and goal of his missionary preaching and teaching, through which they were brought to faith. He writes 'in 2:1-5: When I came to you, brethren, I did not corne proclaiming" to you the testimony of God in lofty words or"wisdom. For, I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in much fear and trembling; and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of 36This characterization of the "Christ party" in C"orinth is based upon Martin H. Franzmann's reconstruction in The Word of the Lord Grows:" A First Historical In traduction to the New Testament (St. Louis": Concordia Publishing House, 1961), pp. 81-87. Cf. C. K. Barrett, "Christianity at Corinth," Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, XLVI (March 1964), 274-275. 75 the Spirit and power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. When Paul came to·Corinth and presented his Gosp~l'message, he was, for one thing unable to rely for success in his effort to evangelize the people upon any natural personal appeal he might have had for the Corinthians: he happened to be physically sick after arrival in their midst. Furthermore, he deliberately did not have recourse to the device. of eloquent, persuasive oratory so as to gain acceptance for his message; nor did he, in order to achieve .this purpose, endeavor to render his proclamation plausible by appealing to arguments of the Greek philosophical (or other) wisdom of the day, tempting as the use of this technique might have appeared. On the contrary, he followed one course exclusively and continually; namely, that of thinking and preaching Christ and Him crucified. He reveals additiOnally that he spent his time with the Corinthians and conducted 37 his ministry to them "in much fear and trembling." This activity of 'fearipg and trembling appears to be best under-stood as referring to a fearing of, and tre~bling before, God which motivates.to godly behavior. Now it is true that the phrase ;) EY ff~/3't' \ ::> I 7To )..>'W , ke>{L cV7~f is joined closely, by a Kd..l (. ;. ;')) I to the phrase fV 0<.(, . ~VE(o( in 2:3. Furthermore, there is the l. 37 ::> / ;. I The Greek text has ~ V ~CJj3't'. koLL £JI' ~~[....\ lToA), itJ , literally, "in fear and much trembling." The RSV rendering, "in fear and trembling" may be adopted, however, as. smoother, while correctly conveying the Pauline.thought; much. still 76 ::> f) I possibility that, since the term P«("/i7E.VEl.t, I illness of some kind, the designations jPbj3~ suggests a physical I and '1fc;?-'-;! might be construed as descriptive of a moral failing of the apostle's, of an undue anxiety on his part over his personal safety in the face of existing dangers. Acts 18:9 might be cited as corroborative evidence for this interpretation.38 Nevertheless, it is equally possible to suppose that Paul gave himself to a particularly intense and pre-cautionary fearing of his Lord, when he came to and labored in Corinth, so as effectively to carry out' his divinely commissioned apostolic work amidst the challenging conditions in that city. Such an interpretation is supported by the following consider-ations. First of all, nowhere else in 1 Corinthians or in the rest of Paul's letters or in the account of his activities in the Acts is there an indication, that the apostle, who was exposed to countless dangers throughout the course of his missionary ministry, was on occasion given to cowardly fear 'for his life. Nor do hostile environmental circum-stances in Corinth appear to have been of a kind uniquely threatening to the safety of the apostle's person, so as to excite in him an extraordinary fear and trembling. On the contrarY,'many passages in the Pauline corpus indicate that, when Paul did contemplate the prospect 380ther possibilities have been fuenti~ned by commentators--e.g., fear of the Gospel, or the message of the cross, ,which Paul had to preach; or "a trembling anxiety to perform a duty." See Archibald Robertson and Alfred Plummer,A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on' the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians in The International ·Critical Commentary (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1911), pp. 31-32. 77 of his dying, he thought of departure from this life in terms of desirable blessing (Phil. 1:21-23, 2 Cor. 5:1-9, and 2 Tim. 4:6-8). Secondly, in the immediate context, 2:1-5, Paul is speaking to the Corinthians concerning the manner in which he had discharged his apos·tolic ministry to them. In verses 1, 2, 4, and 5 he recalls and mentions approvingly the goals he had established for himself and the procedures he had employed in first presenting his message and procla-mation to them. It is because he regards these methods as having been . right that he rehearses them for the benefit of the Corinthians. There is, then, a likelihood that, when he mentiorts his fearing and trembling in verse 3, he does so approvingly. Paul would thuse.ndeavor to inform the congregation of the godly motivation' which posses'sed him a:s he . .' pursued his' course' at Corinth. The only fear and trembling known to Paul as virtuous is that which has the Lord as its object. With fear of God and trembling before Him, as the apostle puts it, he lived among the Corinthians and endeavored to serve their spiritual needs. That the apostle's inward motivation should be an intense fear of God is :::> :> 0 I '.consonant with his condition o-f weakness or illness (Ev cLb;V€'yCt."", , (. Esp,ecially in circumstances of physical' infirmity would he seek to avoid the Lord's displeasure and make application for divine help in h k d h" . C . h 39 t e wor assigne Lm at orLnt. Thirdly, there are three .other verses in the· Pauline corpus in I which a form of the noun TI'~OS is joined in a single phrase with a 39Compa~e the apostle's statements in 2 Cor. 12:9-10. ) . , 78 / . form of the noun / "f?~ 02/. This expression clol?e1y resembles, C v fP"f3tt I-C:...!~, iv r;o~vr 7ToA)..r;; of 1 Cor. 2:3. God appears as the object of the fear and trembling in the three verses which offer " 40 phrases with PQ/3"5 and ..,-~~os in the genitive., This will be shown in the discussion of these passages which is y~t to fo1~ow. Since this is the case, there is a reasonable probability that God is ~he object of the fear and trembling which Paul mentions in 1 Cor. 2:3. The apostle's usus loguendi o~ the J'loj3os-'7r~OS combination outside of 1 Corinthians suggests this conclusion. , For all the above-stated reasons, we conclude, then, that Paull speaks of fearing God and trembling 'before God'in 1 Cor. 2:3. Trembling is the physical counterpart and consequence of fearing. It is indicative of intense fear and refers to the phys{cal tenseness ot slight quivering of the body which accompanies this fear. When Paul in'forms the Corinthians ,that he was -with them and conducted his ministry to them "in much fear and tremb1ing," he means to say that he proceeded to present the message of divine Gospel-wisdom to them 40 All four of these poj3()S -'CI'! iP OS phrases ~ , in which God appears as the object of the fear and trembling, may have·a common d~rivatio~ in the, we..rd~ o'f,Ps. 2:'11. The Hebrew here is: : ~ 1 Y..l ~ ~ (I ~ l' Sl ~ -r~ ~ Sl+ 51 ~ -n ~, ~ I:r-)! Tl1eLXX has: dOaJ.A€V,oL'r£. 'li:J I ""'" ~ ('-'( ( . ol.q~ 'A)., of' A/'c, ""11 'eLf. &V' T/~'t. 79 in precisely the way God wanted this tq be proclaimed, so that it might take effective root in the hearer's hearts. He con~inually reckoned with the righteous God who punishes sin in his wrath, feared and trembled before Him, and accordingly avoided doing or saying anything displeasing to the Lord which would evoke negative, or punitive, divine judgment on his own person and on his apostolic work. For, if such judgment were meted out, it would mean among other things a setback to the progress of the Gospel in Corinth. The dread that possessed Paul while he labored among the Corinthians wa~J indeed, the ethically motivating fear of God. 2 Corinthians 5:11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men • • • • Paul's statement in 2 Cor. 5:11, "Knowing the fear of the Lord, , ...J we persuade men," has an import which closely parallels a central point of his remarks in 1 Cor. 2:1-5; a group 'of verses briefly treated in the previous section. The exegesis of 2 Cor. 5:11 tends to corroborate the interpretation given ,the words in 1 Cor. 2:3. B . f h" d" 1 he" h" 41 Y means 0 ~s secon ep~st eto t e or~nt ~ans Paul ~eeks to complete the healing of the breach between the congregation at Corinth . 4lIt " " 'h 2 C "h" " " ~s my assumpt~on t at or~nt ~ans ~s,a un~ty; a single, . authentic Pauline letter. The integrity: of the epistle has been challenged, however, in the most diverl'1e ways. Feine, Behm and Kuemmel offer this summary of the scholarly debate (p. 212): "inasmuch as there . • • comes to light in 1'1 10-13 a completely different position 80 and himself. In the process he calls attention to the kind of ministry he and his assistants had rendered in their midst. Let the of Paul in respect to the' church from that in II 1-9, since the time of J. S. Sem~er II 10-13 has been viewed as an independent epistle or as a fragment of an epistle, that was written either later than II 1-9 (so Semler, and recently Windisch, and Pherigo, who re­moves this epistle .to the end of Paul's first stay in Rome, and hesitatingly Jue1icher), or between I and II Corinthians ("inter­mediate epistle, II first by A. Hausrath [}.870J, recently, e.g. , Gogue1, de Zwaan, Hering, Filson, Cleary, T. W. Manson, Dodd, Dean, Sparks, Bu1tmann, Dink1er, Schmithals, K1ijn, and others). Many scholars go yet a step farther and point out that in 2:13 the discussion of the settlement of the untoward incident is interrupted by a long defense of Paul's apostolic office and not 'resumed ~ntil 7:5, where once .ag~in we find clear linguistic harmony with 2:13 •... the general exhortation in 6:14-7:1 produces the effect of an extraneous inser­tion into the personal address to the congregation (6:11-13; 7:2-4). And both appeals .in behalf of the collection (chaps. 8, 9) seem not to have belonged together. originally. Consequently some declare as unavoidable the supposition that not only II 10-13, but also II 2:14-7:4; II 6:14-7:1, and II 9, stem from one or more other epistles of Paul, whereby either 2:14-6:13; 7:2-4, tog~ther with chaps. 10-13, . are regarded as fragments of the intermediate epistle (Bultmann, Dean, Dink1er), or 2:14-6:13 and 7:2-4 were drawn from an epistle preceding the intermediate epistle (Mitton ... Bornkamm, Schmitha1s), whereas ch. 9 represents an isolated epistolary fragment (additional hypotheses in Gogue1 . . . and Guthrie . .'. ). II Feine, Behm and Kuemmel reject these literary-critical hypot'heses on two basic grounds: the transmitted text compels no 'supposition ·of a secondary combination of Pauline letters or fragments to form 2 Corinthians; and no convinCing motive for such a combination can be suggested. The authors .state, p. 214: "Viewed as a whole, the best supposition remains that II Corinthians as transmitted forms an original unity. . . • PreCisely when we understand II Corinthians as an actual epistle out of the uniqueness of a developing historical situation does it become comprehensible as a historical entity. And there are not lacking in it connecting threads between the varioqs parts." 'Cf. also Franzmann, pp. 107-108. Other :scholB.rs who accept the integrity of 2 Corinthians are Wikenhauser; and Dibelius, Munck, Lfetzmann, and Guthrie, accordi'ng to the report of Feine, Behm and Kuemmel, p. 213. . 81 facts fdrm the basis on,which they judge and evaluate him and his assista'nts, Paul counsels. In the first five chapters of the second letter Paul declares that the apostolic ministry in Corinth had been marked by a holy sincerity on the part of the ministers and also by a notable God-given success. Appreciation for the divine mercy they have received, joy over the glory of the Gospel ministry itself, hope of the heavenly life to come, the fear and love of the Lord, and faith in the regenerative effects of union with Christ--all these motivations, Paul says, have sustained and encouraged him and his co-workers and, impelled them faithfully to discharge their Gospel ministry. Now the fear of God as ethical motivation in the labors of the apoitle and his associates is plainly referred to in the passage before us (2 Cor. 5:11a). S' OUv , / 70'1 popov The words in the original read: Paul and companions have a deep consciousness of the fear which should possess their hearts as they proceed with their Gospel ministries. It is a fear, we may note, which is specifically directed to "the Lord," that is, to the Lord Christ (in context). Furthermore, it is a fear which concerns it~elf in particular with the Lord's judgment. 'S' The OIJ v in verse 11 introduces a conclusion drawn from the previous verse. There the apostle asserted: "We must all appear bef.ore the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or, evil, according to what he has done in the body." The last judgment is, of course, here referred to. Then every servant of Cod in the pro-fessional ministry, as well as every other Christian, will be required , 82 , 42 to give an account of his stewardship to his Master and Judge. Awareness of this fact has taught Paul and his assistants constantly to fear the Lord, ,to let' this fear control their private lives and the public ministries through which they seek to persuade men to embrace Christ and his Gospel in saving faith. By this fear they are ,led to go about their tasks wi-th utmose care, seriousness, and sobriety. They shrink from offending Christ, who is God, and calling forth his retributive judgment upon themselves and their ministries. In the consideration of 1 Cor. 2:3 it was observed that Paul feared God and presented his Gospel message ,to the Corinthians in the divinely directed manner, so as not to evoke the punitive judgment of the Lo'rd on his own person and his apostolic work. Such judgment, if 'it were meted out, would negatively affect him and the progress of the Gospel in Corinth. We perceive that the apostle's fear as mentioned in 1 Cor. 2':3 was concerned particularly with the present judgment of the Lord, which deals in on-going manner and continuously with the activities of his people, apostles included. Paul dre,aded divine" judically assigned, penalties which had to be endured already in the course of this eart~ly life.43 It is likewise the emphasis of,the ,42For similar thoughts on t'he final judgment as comprehending also God's Gospel ministers and their work, compare 1 Cor. 3:10-17 and 4:4-5. 43Manypassages in the Pauline corpus teach that God constantly administers justice. They indicate that He metes o'ut divine punitive judgments upon his own believing people already in the course of their earthly lives (long before Judgment Day» if and when 'they are given to sinning. Compare, for example, in addition tO,those which have been or are yet to be considered in this treatise, the following: the verses listed in Footnote 18--Romans 6:23; 7:7-13; 8:13; and 9:30-10:4--; Rom. 14:23; 1 Cor. 8:10-11; 9:27; 10:5-12; 11:27-32; 2 Cor. 1:8-10; Gal. 5:4, 83 ' Pauline teaching, we have seen, in Rom. 11:20-21 and 13:7 that the ethically motivating fear of God is generated by Chris'tians in response to threatened, divine, punitive judgments for sin which are visited al-ready in this life. Now in 2 Cor. 5:11, the passage at hand, the fear of God is spoken of in relationship to the last judgment. The conclusionL .. ,.../" may be drawn, then, that the fear of God as ethical motivation is aroused in a believer I s heart both "when he contemplates his Lord as the righteous God who judges men throughout the course of· their lifetime on earth and when he considers th~ prospect of having to stand before God on the las·t day, as the divine Lord pronounces final judgment upon the universe ~f . men. The perfective fear of God concerns itself with the entire range of divine judicial operation. 2 Corinthia~s 7:1 Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse "Our­selves from every' de.fi,lement of body .and spirit, and make holiness perfect in the fear of God. That the proper fea~ of God promotes sanctific·ation is stated clearly by Paul in 2 Cor. 7:1. In the partiCipial phrase E7TLrt.)..oVV'TES ~tu"j-I :> I n Gov9.Y EV ?oj3'L' t1TE.0v" the apostle 'bids the Christians to "bring holiness .to its goal in the fear of God." He says that each member of 19-21; 6:7-8; Eph. 5:3-6; 6:9; Col. 3:5-6; 1 Thess. 4:3-8; 2 Thess. 1:4-5; 1 Tim. 1~19-20; 5:11-12. A study of these pas~ages reveals that the negative divine judgments mentioned are of several kinds. Some are visi­tations which afflict a man I s physical or psychical natu're, occasioning physical illness, for example, or mental and emotional 'distress. Some are visitations destructive of an individu~l's spiritual strength, or even of his very spiritual being and life. Some are. visitations which affect a person'i external· circumstances and are recognized in t~rms of monetary and property loss '(as in the. time of persecution), and the like. 84· the congregation is to bring his own state of holiness to completeness. This ·is t,o take place in the sphere of or in connection wi th the fear of God. The Revised Standard Version translates: "Make holiness perfect in the fear of God." 2 Cor. 7:1 is the concluding statement of the paragraph that began at 6:14, as is indicated in Nestle and ~lahd and in the paragraphing used by the Revised Standard Version. Together with 7:2 it rounds out the admonitory section of the epistle which extends from 6:1 to 7:2. All that Paul has been saying from 3:1 onward to 5:21 about himself, his assistants, and the kind of ministry they had rendered among the Corinthians comes to a climax in his appeal of 6:1 and the appeals which follow in 6:13,14,17; 7:1.and 2. Paul and his associates have opene~ their mouth wide to the Gorin-thians (6:11). They have told them (3:1 to 6:10) all about the inner feelings and motives of the apostle and his assistants, as they con-ducted their Gospel ministry. These missionaries have indeed expanded· their hearts to take the Corinthians into them. ·Let the Corinthians, in.· turn, now reciprocate and open their hearts in loving reception of Paul . and his helpers (6:13). Such recip-rocation, however~ includes the obli-gation that the Corinthians completely and finally separate themselves from all persons who are ranged in opposition to the founder and first minister of their congreg:ation. Thus Paul pointedly delivers the direc~ tive: 111 J'/ve GJ}c... 8'Cc.f> 0 S-"'5ovrrrE.5 ~7T(~70lS' which may be rendered "Do not be incongruously yoked up with unbelievers." He asks the Corinthians to ". separate themselves from the fellowshi·p of those who do not believe. They are to withdraw from any and 'every association with unbelievers, which 85 involves a participation in their unbelief.~t in the unfruitful works p,roceedingtherefrom. The unbelievers in question are those found in the world generally. Some may turn out to be found in the Corinthians con-gregation, namely, Paul's opponents who are perversely seeking to under-mine his influence· and authority there. If the members of the church will do this, then God, according to his promises, will continue to be their God and Father, to be with and bless his people. Here follow, thEm, the words of 7: 1: "Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, and make holiness perfect in the fear of God.1I The apostle in-cludes himself in this exhortation. Heartened by the ~ivine promises just given, Paul says, let God's people cleanse, themselves from every-thing that would defile either body or spirit. Let each strive to bring his own state of holiness nearer to completeness with the aid of the fearing of God. The reference obviously is to the fear of God which motivates to ethical living. This promotes the progress of Christian sanctification. It is the fear which reckons with the div~ne retribu-tion ·for transgression as meted out in the spiritual sphere, and evident in the deterioration of spiritual life and strength. Such fear prevents participation in any sinful associations and activities which would re-suIt in th~ defilement of flesh or spirit and could result in a loss of the grace of God altogether~ 2 Corinthians 7:11 and 15 Verse 11: For see what earnestness this godly grief has proauced in yoo", what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm ~earJ, what longing, what zeal, . ~hat punishment! . 86 Verse 15.: And his [Titusj heart goes out all the more to you, and he remembers the obedience of you all, and the fear and trembling with which you received him. Verses 11 and 15 of 2 Corinthians 7 are the next two in the series of Pauline passages which contain an explicit reference to ethically motivating fear. As a·matter of convenience we may look at these verses together. Both are found in the same unit of context, consisting of verses 5 to 16, and both refer to the same fear of God aroused in the hearts of the Corinthian Christians after their reception and reading of Paul's so-called "severe" letter to Corinth. The apostle had instructed Titus to determine the reaction of the Corinthians to the severe letter Paul had sent them and then report the same to him. Titus was able to rejoin Paul in Macedonia. Much of what the former 'had to relate was good. It is over this that Paul rejoices and is comforted, as he relates in chapters 2 and 7. The Corinthians had repented in accordance with the 'directives of Paul's letter; they had diSCiplined the man who had offended the apostle; when that individual. had subsequently repented, they were ready to forgive him, pending Paul's approval. They had fully submitted themselves to Paul's authority and expressed a longing to see the apostle again. It ·is this response and evidence of genuine repentance on the part of the membership that Paul has. in mind as he writes in ~:ll: "For see wha~ earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm [fear], what longing, what zeal, what punishment!" 87 . These words suggest that the Corinthians had for some time treated the offender and his offense against Paul with careless indifference; that they had been unconcerned about the hurt done Paul, the damage the sinner had wrought in his own spiritual life, and the unwholesome effect their inaction was having upon themselves as a congregation·. Now, however, ·after they had read Paul's severe letter, all this had immediately changed. Thoroughly ashamed, they had arous~d themselves to earnest and busy activity, with the .intent of correcting their :behavior and clearing themselves. In righteous anger they h::td administered the required qisciplinary penalty upon the man who had injured Paul (probably expelling him from the congre-gation). It is at this point that the apostle mentions the Corinthians' fear. . )1 [o~ r~(JcL{;'T6 'TlJvrro T'O 1Ta~ ~vJ l<oLTr;.(/~rJ..6ulrro ~Lr 1<0£ '7";, })£ '0 V ~ v7T7 j) i VoLt.. / f0j30.t/ This may be literally translated: "For this very thing, your being grieved in God's way--see what fear it worked ip youI" Here is another fruit of repentant grieving in God's way, to pave fear. The fear in question is mentioned with approval; it is represented as virtuous. Fear of wpom, and of what? it may be asked. H~r4l~ of Paul, with regard to wpom, as the next noun indicates, the pprinthians are said to have had , • I;r .,.1" an , a "longing.". li is rather--since their Their fear was prompted by '" , the thou&ht Qfthe ~p~d, his will ~p~ th~if lives, his judgments; specifi~~Hy ht13 puniapments for ~lpggisqnes,s and . lethargy in the 88 matter of attending to spiritual responsibility. This fear would serve to spur them in their activity of producing the fruits of repentance. It ,would impel them the more earnestly to put away from themselves all wrong-doing in the way of omission or commission. It would lead them in the present situation to a most careful self-examination, as to whether everything had been done in terms of the rectification of con-gregational behavior that ought to be done. The fear signified in verse 11 is the fear of God which motivates to godly living. The same fear is, referred to in verse 15. A part of the cheering news Titus brought Paul from Corinth had to'-do with the fine reception the Corinthians had accorded the former as the representative of the apostle and bearer of the latter's severe letter to the congregation.' On the way to the city Titus had been uncertain'and uneasy about the treatment he might experience there. All his misgivings, however, had been quickly dispelled. He had found a people ready to, accept severe, admittedly deserved rebuke and correction from Paul, the founder of' their church, who, they knew, spoke for the Lord and to ,whom they now clearly held in firm allegiance. The members of the congregation had been eager, furthermore, to welcome Titus into their midst as the apostle's delegate and.obey all the Word of God he brought from Paul. The latter in verse 15 happily makes a point of mentioning Titus' fond recollection of lithe fear and ·trembling with which you [the :l c. \!a \ I CorinthiansJ received him," ('vS,/"-''E:rot. 1t)/", ~v Kolt.. '1;o;yu-o ~ ;, ('/~ Il ::> I C 06. 5c;>t..~,1;I£" ot.2F7()V'. It would seem that the intense fear expressed 89 in the phrase rE:q-~ y¥av K.,l~ Tf~ov44 has as. its object not Titus' person as such (in consideration, for example, of the fact that as the Lord's minister he is'a representative of God), but rather God Himself, whose instruction, given through the apostle Paul, Titus had brought to Corinth. Their fear had to do with offending Him in any way--even through a slig~test mistreatme~t or disrespect of his Gospel emissary temporari1yresidirtg with them. It was ethically motivating. Ephesians 5:21 and 33 Vers.e 21: Be subje~t to one another out of reverence for [fear of] Christ •. Verse 33: Let the wife see that she respects [fea~s] her husband. The letter to the Ephesians provides Paul's revealed understanding of the church. In the ·second half of the epistle, Paul refers to the obligations devolving upon members of the church in Ephesus. A group of. directives is presented in the section extending from 4: 17 to 5: 21. These, together with all supporting material, may be arranged into four paragraphs, which begin, respectively, at 4:~7; 4:25; 5:1; and 5:15. Then there is a further group of admonitions (a Haustafel) in 5:22-6:9, containing directives for special classes in the church:' for 44As has been pointed out,. the combination in one phrase of the word "T{l ~o 5 with the word f,/;3 oS , is found four times' in . the Pauline corpus, here .and in 1 Cor. 2:3; Eph~ 6:5; and Phil. 2:12. , For a discussion of the significance of ~I'~DS as thus joined by Paul to f~j.3DS , see pp~ 78 and 79 of this Chapter IV. 90 wives and husbands, 5:22-33; for children and fathers, 6:1-4; for slaves and masters, 6:5_9,45 A closing admonition encouraging all the Ephesians to stand. fast in the strength of the Lord against the powerful enemies of the church is recorded in 6:10-20. It will be s.een that the two passages whose locations (5:21 and 33) have been placed at the head of this section belong, respectively, to the fourth paragraph of general directives for the entire church (5:15-21) and to the. group of admonitions intended for wives and husbands (5:22-33). The passages may be considered together because of their proximity in the text of Ephesians and their close relation-ship in the developing thought of Paul in the closing section of the ( fifth chapter. The latter observation will be substantiated in the 45It should be noted that some scholars--probably without gram-c. .-matical warra1;lt--begin a new paragraph at vTTtJ 'r~GG O/-, .. E. VOl 1..n 5:21, regarding the participle as an imperative. Ernst Gaugler writes in Der Epheserbrief (Zuerich: Evz-Verlag, 1966), p. 207: "Dieser Vers [21J stellt den Uebergang zur christlichen Haustafel dar. Formal (grammatikalisch) gehoert er noch zum Vorhergehenden, sachlich aber fuehrt er einen neuen.Gesichtspunkt ein, den des Verhaltens der Christen untereinander und zueinander. Darum ist er mit dem Folgenden sinngemaesz zu verbinden." Heinrich Schlier in his Der Brief an die Epheser (3rd revised edition; Duesseldorf: Patmos-Verlag, 1962) states, p. 250, t~at 5:21 is "eine Ueberschrift ueber dem ganzen naechsten Abschnitt,'enthaltend das allgemeine Prinzip, welches der Apostel im folgenden auf die einzelnen Verhaeltnisse des haeuslichen Zusammenlebens anwendet' (Bisping) ••.. Das trf70Td-f,G,0usvC/... reicht als . Ueberschrift ueber die folgenden Ausfuehrungen so weit nach vorne, dasz aus ihm sogar fuer V. 22 das Verb zu ergaenzen ist.". If the view that 5:21 is the topic sentence for the Haustafel is adopted, then it could be observed that Paul is here explicitly urging his addressees to employ the fear of Christ as motivation for obedience to all the ad~onitions o~ the Haustafel (5: 22-.6: 9) which are governed. by initial V7TOToL{,~O~£Vo~ • succeeding paragraphs. Both 5:21 and 33' contain a reference to the' ethically motivating fear of God. The one is explicit and the other implici t. The paragraph in which 5:21 is found (5:15-21) may be titled, "The Apostle's Admonition to Exercise Wisdom." Paul tells the Ephesians to behave as wise people, and this by making the most of the time at their disposal for service of the Lord; by becoming thoroughly acquainted with his will for their lives; by avoiding drunkenness; by each having his spirit filled with the divine Word and Holy Spirit to such an extent that the spirit simply causes heart and voice to overflow in songs and hymns of joyous praise and thanks-giving to the Lord, while the Ephesians at the same time subject themselves to one another out of a fear of Christ. Verse 21 in the Greek is a participial phrase, r~ading: We may note three things regarding the fear here spoken of. First, that Christ is named as the person toward whom the fear is to be directed (compare 2 Cor. 5:11). Secondly, the implication in the immediate context (5:18-21) is that this fear is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. It results from his operation in the regenerate' human spirit (lTV£. 0/-0'-..-, verse 18). Thirdly, this fear supplies an impulse for godly conduct. It prompts a Christian's humble sub­jection of himself to his fellows in the' faith. 'The readers are to glorify the Lord as indicated in the immediately previous verses, while in a relationship of God-pleasing harmony with one another. 92 None is to engage in self-exaltation, rivalry, a "lording it over" the rest of the members, or in the exhibition of any behavior which might prove' destructive of the unity of the church. Members are mutually and reciprocally to serve each other. The fear of Christ which aids in this process should be classified as ethically moti-vat{ng. It has in view the Lord's will (5:17) that governs the matter of Christians' relationships with one another, and the retributive divine judgments which threaten transgressors of that will. With verse 22 the Haustafel begins. Paul continues to stress the virtue of subjection, but not 'the qualifying feature of reciprocity. Wives are instructed to be,subject to their husbands (vers~s 22 to " , 24), but not husbands to their wives (verses 25 to 33). In the same way children and s,laves are directed, respectively, to obey their parents and masters, although the latter are not asked to obey their children and slaves (in 6:'1-9). Wives are voluntarily to subject them-selves to their 'husbands, because, Paul explains, according to divine arrangement I'the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body" (verse 23). Therefore, "As the church is ' subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands" (verse 24); and this self-subjection, says the apostle, is to be rendered "as to the Lord" (verse 22). It is to be consciously entered upon and maintained in cieliberate obedience to the Lord's will, in order ultimately to please Him. 93 What is said in verses 22 to 24 prepares us for an understanding of verse 33. After Paul exhorts husbands to love their wives "as Christ loved the church ·and gave himself up for her" (verse 25) and elaborates this ~dmonition in succeeding passages, he concludes his . remarks regarding husbands and wives with the words: "Let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband." c/ t VoL The Greek for the second part of verse 33 is elI VoL c. '7 the subjunctive is occasionally employed in the .New Testament as a and b· f h' .' 46 su st~tute or t e ~mperat~ve. Verse 33~b, accordingly, may literally be translated: And let the wife fear her husband. The translation of f~/>jToLt. as "fear" is accurate, not unduly harsh in context, and to be preferred over the weakened Revised Standard Version rendering "see that she respects," for the following reason. Wives are to be subject to. their husbands, ~ the Church is subject to Christ (verse 24). A part of the Churcn's subjection to Christ,. we have just noted, is the Church's fearing of Christ (verse 21). In the same way every wife, Paul says inverse 33, 'is to fear her husband--specifically to fear offending him through insubordination and dis~ obedience, through perpetrating any violation.ot his witl in defiance of his headship in . the conjugal relationship. And this, b.ecause a 46 F. Blass and A. Debrunner, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian:Literature, a translation and revision of the nint,h':'tenth German edition incorporating supplementary notes of A. Debrunner by Robert W.Funk (Chicago: University o:f Chicago Press, c.196l), p. 195, 387(3). 94 refusal to be subject to' the husband amounts to an unwillingness to be subject to 'Christ, who has sanctioned the div{nely established arrangement of the husband's being the wife's head and of whom--to be precise--the husband is representative in the estate of marriage. This being the case,; we may infer that the fear a wife is asked to have for her husband is to be of the same kind as that which she has for Christ; to be prompted by her fear of Christ; is to be the con-comitant of, and to an extent. indeed coincident with, her fear of Christ. In other w9r,ds, for a Christian' wife to fear her husband is for her to fear the Lord in the sphere of the marital relationship. This fear of hers is nothing less than the ethically motivating fear of Christ, spoken of in verse 21 (and discussed above). Ep~esians 6:5 and Colossians 3:22 Ephesians 6:5: Slaves, be obedient to those who are your earthly masters, with fear and trembl~ng, in singleness of heart, as to Christ. Colossians 3:22: Slaves, obey in everything those who are your earthly mast'ers, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing the Lord. Eph. 6:5 might have been treated in the preceding section together with Eph. 5:21 and 33, since it appears in the same section of the ~pistle. We have elected, rather, to examine Eph. 6:5 together with Col. 3:22, and to study in combination the .references to the ethically motivating fear of God both verses contain. We do this 95 b h d' f h ., '1 47 ecause t e wor ~ng 0 t e two passages ~s very s~m~ are They are obviously parallel directives to Christian slaves, which appear in similar admonitory sections of the letters to the Ephesians and to the Colossians. The two verses, as well as the immediate sections from which they are taken, are also complementary and mutually illuminating. Colossians emphasizes the glory, completeness, and·all-su££iciency of Christ and of the Gospel. Paul seeks to crush a Gnostic type heresy that had arisen in Colossae. The letter has its own plan'and details and thus differs in basic theme, purpose, and minor particulars from the.epistle to the Ephesians. It will not be necessary, however, for an understanding of Col. 3:22 (or its relationship to Eph. 6:5) to trace at any length the larger context of this verse in the Colossian epistle. The immediate context in which this passage.is found . . , affords sufficient background information for its correct interpreta-tion. That context, Col. 3:22-25, reads as follows! Slaves, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in' singleness of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever your task, work heartily, as serving the Lord and not men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheri­tance as your reward; you·are serving the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoe~ will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality. 47Ephesians and Colossians are very clo'sely related epistles. It has been calculated that "some 70 percent of the Colossi~ns Lette'r has parallels in the Letter to the Ephesians" (Franzmann, p. 135)" The likelihood is that both epistles were written by Paul at approximately' the same time, during a certain imprisonment experience. 96 We may compare with this the words of Paul's full charge to slaves, in Eph. 6:5-8: Slaves, be obedient to those who are your earthly masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as to Christ; not in the way of eyeservice~ as men-pleasers, but as servants of Christ~ doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatever'good anyone does, he will receive the same again from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free. The correspondence of Eph. 6:5-8 to Col. 3:22-25 in many points is striking. As the preceding translation shows, Eph. 6:5 begins one long sentence which continues through verse 8. The single, main directive c / V TIel k. () lJ E 'TE verse 5 governs the whole. It is qualified by the series of preposi-tional and partiCipial phrases in all the verses comprising t~e sentence. Three of the modifying phrases are ,found in verse 5: the \ slaveS,are to keep obeying those who are their earthly masters rC'ToL )po~ov Kd~ -rp~ov EV ~7TA;717;( ''TiS KfO};.:x.s ~/Jy", and c.~s 'T;;, Xf (6(,;;;. The third is of broadly encompassing signi-{ ( ficance. Much more is meant by than is suggested by some commentators, namely, that slaves are to serve th¢ir masters with ,the conviction that 'by their obedience they are serving and obeying Christ. 48 When Paul asks the Christian slaves to be obedient to their 48This is the explanation of von Hofmann, who is quoted with approval by George Stoeckhardt in the latter's Commentary on St. Paul's Letter to the Ephesians, trarislated from the German by Martin S. Sommer (St. Louis: Co,ncordia Publishing House, 1952), p. 251. Cf. the c,omment 97 earthly masters "as to Christ," he is directing these slaves to obey. masters in the same way as they are obedient to Christ, the one who sustains social structures as a way of preserving life and existence. The Pauline requirement, understood in this way, opens up a wide spectrum of responsibility. For example, according to the apostle's instructions given elsewhere, slaves, like other Christians, are to render obedience to Christ with unswerving allegiance to their divine Lord (2 Cor. 10:5); with an earnest, sincere desire to do his will perfectly (Rom. 1:9; 12:1,11; 2 Cor. 1:12; 2:17); and with the single aim in mind of pleasing Him. In their se~vice they are to employ the proper, divinely appointed motivation for all sanctification (fa'ith in the self's death and resurrection with Christ; fear and love of God; and trust in the divine promises of blessing upon godliness) • Now the two phrases preceding~ c (A) 5 specify and thus stress two particular features of the way slaves are to render obedience to earthly masters as they render obedience ~o Christ. Paul requ~res· that they serve and obey of T. K. Abbott, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistles to the Ephesians and to the Colossi~ns, in The Intern~tional Critical Commentary (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1905), p. 178: IISO that your service to your m'aster is regarded as a service to. Christ." Also that of S,. D. F. Salmond, The Expositor's Greek Testament (New York: George H. Doran Company, n.d.), III, 378: ,"with an obedience regarded as rendered to Christ Himself." 98 49 masters "with fear and trembling" before: God, or Christ; and with the single purpose of heart to please the Lord. Verses 6 and 7 amplify: ,"Not in the way.of eyeservice, ,as men-p1easers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to men." That the fear and trembling in question is the one which is directed to God, or Christ (here in co~text), is to be inferred from the consideration that this is the one kind o'f fear and trembling which is acceptable to Christ (compare '5:21); it is the on1r kind the apostle Paul e1se-where sanctions and inculcates. Christian slaves are always to keep in faith1s vision the divine Lord whose they are, whom 'they untimate1y serve and whose will it is that they obey their earthly masters. They are to set their thoughts ,upon his wrath against, and his threats of punishment for" sin. With an intense fear (fear accompanied by ,physical trembling) of his holiness and majesty they are' to carry out meticulously the tasks which their masters assign and to which'they are, therefore, also appOinted by God. If there is any question as to whether the ethic~lly motivating fear of God ,is referred to in the phrase . / ,7p~o2)" it should be set; aside when this expression in 6:5 is compared with what Fau1 writes in Col. 3:22: "Slaves, obey in every-thing those who are your earthly masters, n,ot with eyeservice, as 49Cf• 1 Cor. 2:3;' 2 Cor. 7:15; and Phil. 2:12. The significance of 'ff~OS as joined to y¥o.s is discussed on p.p. 78 and 79. 99 men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing the Lord." The point of signifitance here is that the slaves are directed to render their masters complete obedience "fearing the Lord"; C I ,,/ "U rr 01-1< 01.1 E rrf.. 1<01... T of. 7Tot.v701----. , "T 0 LS kbL. 'r oL. / \ I rp 0 ;J, 0 v,u.. £. J/N_ ToY (-(. U fJ L (j V. .1 ~ ~ f The Lord Christ is expre~sly men-tioned as the object of the fear with which slaves are to discharge the obligation of obeying their masters. And the reason for fearin~ the Lord is indicated in verse 25, his punitive judgment. Whereas Eph. 6:8 and Col. 3:24 stress the favorable divine judgment and blesSing which follow upon slaves doing the Lord's will in the matter of obeying masters', in Col. 3:25 Paul declares: "For ,the wrongdoer [in the same matteJ will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality." The agent in this "payin~ bac~" is obviously God, or Christ, who is no respecter of persons in pronouncing judgment and meting out rewards or penalties corresponding with his verdicts, whether these are rendered in this lifetime or at the end of the world. Philippians 2:12-13 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, :vork out your own salvation with fear a.nd trembling;, for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Phil. 2:12-13 is the third passage in the Pauline corpus where " I the phrase r £. I( oL.. fPopov appears as 100 indicative of the iear of God which motivates to ethical behavior.~O An interesting feature of Phil. 2:12-13 is the phraseology of the Pauline directive that the Philippians work out their own salvation with fear and trembling; also the reason assigned for this, namely, that God was at work in them causing them to will and to work in behalf of his good pleasure. After his opening remarks to the Philippians in 1:1-11, the apostle writes them some good news concerning himself and the cause f h ro 1 1 12 26 Th h h' '11' . 51 h f' o t e \.:Jospe, : -. oug e ~s st~ ~n pr~son; t e ~rst stages of his trial appear to have turned out favorably for him; he expects eventually to be released and to visit the congregation in Philippi again. In the next paragraphs, from 1:27 to 2:18, Paul offers the membership a series of general admonitions. His basic directive is that the Philippians continue to conduct themselves in 50In 2 Cor. 7:15 the Corinthians are said to have received Titus "with fear and trembling." Paul directs slav~s in Eph. 6:5 to obey their earthly masters "with fear and tre'mbling. II As waS pointed out in the discussion ofl Cor. 2:3, in which the words "fear" and "trembling" are combined as modifiers of the preposition "inll (EV yt'o/l"l! leeL;' },V ,,(P~c...u 7To).Aw), trembling is the , f L ( physical counterpart of fearing, It is indicative of intense fear and refers to the physical tenseness or slight quivering of the 'body which accompanies this fear, 51The location of·this imprisonment is either Ephesus, Caesarea, or Rome" probably Ephesus. The questions as to where the "Captivity Letters" (Colossians, Philemon, ,Ephesians, and Philippians) were written and whether they were all written during the same imprison­ment experience has been, and will continue to be, extensively debated by scholars. 101 a manner worthy of the Gospel of Chrfst (1:27a). They are to do thiS, he says, in unity of spirit, especially in the face of p~rsecutions they presently are enduring, when they are required to stand firm and jointly to contend for the faith of that Gospel (1:27b-30). Each member should cultivate the humility and self-effacement which Christ exemplified, and which make true Christian unity possible (2:1-11). By pursuing such a way of life, the apostle indicates, the,Philippians will be working out their own salvation. He urges them to ungertake the' latter, responsibility continually, and with fear and trembling be'forethe Lord (2:12-13). harks back to the entire preceding admonitory context and marks 2: 12-18 as the last paragraph in the hortatory section ' presented in 1:27 to 2:18. The reference in verse 12 to Paul's pre­sence with, and his absence from, the Philippian churchr,ecalls ,the phrase f,~/'TE. ~)j}-~y I<~i ' Z t J; V ~;2s £~/'C£' j7T~ V in I 1:27. The reference to the Philippians' obedience ( 7TolV"rro'r£, C I i.JIT11< ()V6o(/(iJ is related to the mention of Christ's obedience in C / 2:5-11 (V77ljKOQS in verse 8). 102 / The reference to salvation (~wrOl;OLo(.V) in 2:12 is connected to the same term appearing as a genitive / (GOJT"l fLcL5 ) in 1:28 •. "So then,l1 says Paul, in effect signifying: As I have given you directions for conduct in the previous paragraphs and as you have always obeyed my words for you from God in. the past, so now follow all these instructions diligently. Keep on in this way working out your own salvation. Two expressions in verse 12 point out the manner in which this "working" shall be done. One is "with fear and trembling." This is fearing and trembling before God (as ve~se 13 makes cl~ar). The other expression is the subordinate clause,· "So now, not only a~ in my presence but much more in my absence." Its intended meaning in relation to the main clause of verse 12 is: Keep on working out your own salvation with fear and trembling; not just as you do this when I am present with you but do so also now that I am absent 'fro~ .you--and 110).)1 f; ,;u-2'A'>... 0 y, with even grea ter care and zea 1, and with un in ter­rupted c·onstancy. What precisely is the significance of the directive· '(1 v ./ '. / ~ W'T7?LoL is a concept rich in meanirig in Paul's writings. For Paul, salvation denot~s not only the Christian's anticipated .enjoyment of heaven in the condition of eternal glorification but also the saved state into which he is ushered by faith at the moment of his conversion and in which he remains throughout his lifetime on earth, prior to his final glorification and .residence in heaven. It signifies his rescue from all the destructive forces which before his spiritual rebirth held 103 absolute sway over him and which still oppose him in this life even after his coming td faith. It includes the blessings and the forgive-ness of sins and liberation from God's condemning wrath; peace and fellowship, with God; eternal life; sonship with the Father; union with Christ; the power to overcome the sins of heart and behavior for which Christ's cleansing has been received, together with the righteous life, itself which results from the use of this power; freedom from the law; the Holy Spirit's guidance; the supply of all real personal needs through life, help in time of trouble; hope for the hour, and delive.r-ance in the moment, of physical death. All these aspects of salvation, which follow upon justification by faith, are the subject matter of Romans 5 to 8. As was indicated above, one of the blessings of salvation is the Christian's delive~ance from the dominion of sin, through union with Christ (compare Rom~ 6:1-14); his possession of strength to overcome , recognized transgressions and enjoy the freedom of living a life of righteousness to the glory of God. It is this freedom from sin and for obedience to the Lord which Paul has in mind, as he urges the Philippians to work out their salvation. He means that, using the V powers of the new Hfe received in their baptismally established union with Christ, the members of the congregat:i-on are fully to exploit their God-giv~n potential for spiritual fruit-bearing, for the 'production of the good works which please the Lord. To proceed from the possession of a potential for obedience to actual living the godly life itself is for a Christian to "work out" his salvation, and to enter more fully 104 intb his salvation. Thus, if the Philipp{ans in obedience to Paul's admonition would put forth effort, in Christ, to carry out all the· apostle had asked them tb do in 1:27-2:11, then it could rightly be 52 said of them that they were working out their salvation. To the evangelical directive, "Work out your own salvation," Paul ha~ added the qualifying phrase "with fear and trembling" and ~' the following explanatory statement: "For God is the One who is working among you both the willing and the working in behalf of his good pleasure" (my translation). The ~ c ,....., E Y with V;U-UI in the phrase C:> /""' J,c: .... O .. ¬VE~t()JV f:,V y;U.l( might be regarded as local, if consideration were. to be given on ly to the f6 llowing an inrier operation •. Because of the companion expression however, which refers surely in part to external behavior, the 52There is no hint of "work righteousness" in Paul's exhortation "Work out your own salvation." The apostle is speaking of a working which takes place exclusively after conversion, after justification by faith alone and the reception of salvation by the free grace of God. This is sometimes referred to as the synergism of the Christian's new man, who is brought into being in regeneration. The good works per­formed by God I s people have sav·ing faith as their principal constitutive element. To suppose that Paul is in· Phil. 2~~2 issuing a directive to perform works which are done with a view to earning salvation is preposterous in .the light of the context; and in view of what the apostle writes in Phil. 3:7-9 and his entire discussion in Galatians and in the first eleven chapter.s of the Epistle to the Romans. The truth as regards good works~ according to Paul, may be e~pressed as follows: Christians do good works, not in order to be justified, but because they have been justified. Through the performance of these works they wish to glorify God and enter into· th'e enjoyment of an ever increasing freedom from the presence, power, and consequences of. sin. 105 is better translated, as suggested, "among you" (and understood in the sense of "in your casell) • The divine ., J / C U 0 kc.e/-, or"good pleasure," is God's gracious, saving and sanctifying good 'will; his free determination to save (now and hereafter), as directed toward his own people, the elect, the' :=> r I members of the church. This meaning of EUOPK~c<.. is clearly established by the use of the term in Eph. 1:5,9. For the Philippians, to will and to work "in behalf of" or "in the interest of" God's good pleasure, .:.-) is for them to live a holy life (which"/ is, the same thing as working out their salvation). It is for them to live in such a way as to ~~t the saving and sanctifying divine will have its way in their lives, allowing it to lead them on paths of righteousness here on earth to ultimate perfection and joy in heaven, that is, to eternal salvation. The opposite of willing and working in behalf of the divine good pleasure is sinning. The latter inter-feres with God's saving purposes and determination; it constitutes a resistance of the Lord. Now it is apparent why Paul admonishes the Philippians to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling. They are to realize"/ that God is the One who is bringing them to obey his will and who is intent upon their being obedient continually and increasingly. He is the One who is constantly supplying them with the power for godly' living. The inference to be derived is that failure to work out salvation is to oppose and resist God, which, in turn, arouses his anger and calls forth his righteous retribution. Elsewhere the apostle 106 indicates that protracted and unrepented disobedience can result for Christians in the divinely ,inflicted penalty of spiritual death (Rom. 8:13; 1 Cor. 9:27). which is the precursor to eternal death in hell. The implication of Paul's directive then is that the Philippians ought have regular recourse to the forgiving and empowering grace of God. They should in his might arouse in their hearts an intense, filial fear of the holy God and maintain consistently godly conduct in a progressive 'sanctification of their lives. They must beware lest ~y indifference and sluggishness in the matter of spiritual performance they displease the Lord. incur divine judgments of various kinds, and ultimately forfeit their salvation.53 The fear and trembling which the apostle recommends to his readers in Phil. 2: 12 is unquestionably that which motivates to ethical behavior. 1 Timothy 2:10 [Women should adorn' themselves] by g()od deeds. as .befits women who profess religion [fear of God]. ' 53 It should be pointed out that. although the main reason for Paul's offering the explanatory statement of verse 13 is to make clear the necessity of the Philippians' working our their salvation with fear and trembling and to warn them against indifference as re­gards their sanctification. the same statement viewed from another standpoint would supply these Christians with strong comfort and encouragement. They would be heartened by the realization that God was intent upon sanctifying and saving them, his people; that"He was graciously' and continually operative in the inner being of each one, supplying impulses to godliness, so that his divine determination to save them. in time and eternity, could and would be 'progressively realized. By yielding to his divine working continually. they would assuredly be brought to heavenly 'blessedness. 107 As we proceed to a consideration of the verse above, and next 1 T· 5 20 ';t '11 b 11 t t t t h ' . 54 to ~m.;,. w~ 'e we 0 s a eat e outset once aga~n that the writer regards the Pastorals as Pauline. In the first verse, of each of the letters, according to all manuscripts containing the texts of 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, Paul is named as the writer. The early and practically unanimous testimony of the \'lhole Church until, the beginning of the n~neteenth century has been that the Pastoral Epistles are Paul's. The arguments advanced by later ,scholars against their genuineness are, in my opinion, not persuasive. The Greek text of 1 Tim. 2:10 is: .-.. (( l.JVcLL koJ.S verses 8 and 9D .I)c.o c; Ej3E~'o<. V, .-.. c " ;< 0 ~ ~ ~ L v E. 0( "V 7" cJ. S" • • • (from 'd .11--;t-'[7T£·L i(l.JlI'dt: 5'(.'v 17T~{"'{c 'AAoril/~o?LS r,:>/ ' ~ (l,"", CJ (.:> EfifwV O e f:J f s is found only in John 9: 31.) "Fear of God" is its fundamental 55 meaning and the one which may well be selected as preferable for the rendering of »£ 0 G! f3.£-L 0<: Y in 1 Tim. 2:10. 54See 55 f' t t 19 p. , 00 no e • 55 G " E 00 Ef3 <:,,-0<.. , to which Liddell and Scott give the meanings "service or fear of God" and "reli iousness" (r, 791), evidently comes from the combination of .~ u"s with (C {;9o/-'-C>lL. .. (cf.Thayer, p. 288). To the latter word these lexicographers assign the basic significance "feel awe or fear before God," stating that the verb's probable original meaning was "I shrink from." Then in the passage of time" they indicate, . "t.j3 cyo.~'-also took on the derived meanings of "revere" and "worship." The original and fundamental idea 108 In the first epistle to Timothy, Paul, writing from ~~cedonia, sums up again in written form the instructions he had a short time before given his younger assistant orally for the conduct of the Lord's work in Ephesus. He ~rovides directions, in particular, for an effec-56 tive attack upon an early kind of Gnostic heresy which 'was threatening the church in that city (1:3). As an apostolic communication, the le tte'rplaced Paul's authority behind the' ac tion Timothy would take at the apostle's request. A part of the guidance Timothy receives is in the form of sugges-tions pertaining to the worship services of the Ephesian congregation of the compound »E.O~!.!3Elo(.., it will thus be seen, is "fear of God." I . It may be noted, as a matter of interest, that the LXX employs the word )2-£.0 ",ij}£l.ol.. . twice, once as the 'translation of the Hebrew. D ") .S)'? ~ Jl ~ I. ~ (Gen. 20 :'11) and once as the rendering of ., J;-T)~ n~ 1 ~ (Job. 28:28). 560n. a ch~rac~~ization a~d the classification of the heretical teaching Paul combats in 1 Timothy, c.L Feine, Behm and Kuemmel, pp. 266-268, and Franzmann~ pp. 152-155. The former authors call it a "Jewish Christian, Gnostic heresy"; the latter writer, "a form of 'Gnosticism. '" Franzmann's view is concisely expressed in the following statement, p. 152: "Paul, on his way to Macedonia, has left Timothy at Ephesus with instructions to 'charge certain persons not. to teach any different doctrine' (1 Tim. 1:3); Paul do~s not describe this 'different doctri'ne' systematically; but from his attacks upon it in 1:3-7; 4:1-3,7; 6:3-5,20,21 and. from the tenor of his instructions for the regulation of the life of the church, it is clear that TimOthy must do battle with a form of 'Gnosticism,' an early stage of that heresy which was to become in its fully developed form the most serious' threat to the church in succeeding generations. Gnosticism is not so much a system as a trend or current of thought which produced a great variety of systems, often by combining with some. already existing religion. It was therefore present and,active as 'a corrupting force long before the great Christian-gnostic systems of the second century' appeared • • • ." 109 (chapter 2). The dress, adornment, and the conduct of women wor-shippers at church services, is the subject of Paul's remarks in 2:9~15, the section in which the passage we are considering occurs.· Paul begins his instructions by telling Timothy., "[r desire] also that women should adorn themselves modestly and sensibly in seemly apparel, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly attire" (verse 9), adding "but by good deeds, as befits women who profess"--and here we now provide the translation suggested as preferable for ffE.tJ (;. (jJ£LolV --"fear of Godll (verse 10). The apostle means to say: go.od taste, a sense of modesty and sobriety, and the principle of having external attire and adornment reflect genuine humility of· heart, should guide wo~en in their choice of apparel for church, since this be~its formal appearance in the presence of the living God at public worship. To dress, display jewelry, or have the hair done up in such a manner as to ·attract undue attention to her person is unbecoming of any Christian woman. In the matter of preparing themselves 'for worship, the best thing women can do is to be busily engaged in doing good works. These glorify the Lord and serve as the highest adornment. Such activity eminently befits all women members of a Christian congregation who profess fear of God. "Fear of God," an optional translation of as has been menti~ned, appears to be the desirable rendering of this . word in verse 10,. because it is coupled with the participle ~1TeLor£)..­A~~ £.Vd. I.S--to which the meaning "professing" or "who profess" is cor-rectly assigned here. Most frequently, when a "profession" is made, 110 it is made concerning what is in the heart. It reveals a way of thinking, feeling, or "willing," which it is otherwise impossible for others to perceive. In the case of a Christian's profession of jCJEo~if3ELa<.... the prominent activity in the heart as the term suggests, may be considered that of fearing; fearing God (as object). To let EE 0 G /;9 E cJ:'( refer to this suffices. There is no need of offering a metonymical rendering of the word, 'such as "religion" or "godliness" (King James Version). The Revised Standard Version's 57 translatio.n of "religion" may include in this broader: term also the idea of fearing God, but it does not precisely specify this concept, as the combinationo.f f)-EO&t.pS~<:lV with would seem to require. Paul's thought in verse 10, then, is this: If Christian women profess to have the fear of God; if they affirm that they have a holy dread of displeasing the Lord through sinning, then let them demonstrate the presence of this virtue in their hearts. Let each one employ this holy motivation to godliness for the performance of all kinds of good works which please the Lord--and·, in the process, invest her own person with the most attractive possible adornment. thus understood has a significance practically the equivalent of the concept of in the Pauline 57perhaps following G. Bertram, who thus translates P-£o~ff3E."x. in Gerhard Kittel's Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, edited and translated from the German by Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans.Publishing Company. 1965), III, 126. . . 111 passages which we have previously considered. It is employed in I 1 Tim. 2:10, we may conclude, as a synonym of p0j30S J}EoU and designates the ethically motivating fear of God. 1 Timothy 5:20 As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear. Chapter 5 of the first letter to Timothy contains further instructions for Paul's younger assistant. Timothy, is told how to deal with various age groups and classes in the church, including widows and the elders who labor among the Ephesian Christians. In verses 17 to 25 Paul treats the matter of honoring, correcting, and selecting elders. The apostle says in part (verses 19 and 20): Never admit any charge against an elder except on, the evidence of ,two or three witnesses'. As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear. Timothy has just been advised (verses 17 and 18) to see to it that the office of elder and ,those who occupy it are held in honor by the church at, Ephesus., Verse 19 charges h~m with the responsibility of protecting the honor due the eldership in a specifi"c way. It could occur ,that someone in the church's membership might out of personal ill will or vindictiveness trump up a charge against an elder and desire to present this to Timothy. To prevent anyone's pressing such a charge, which would to some extent damage the office and work of an accused elder, Timothy is in,structed to accept no accusation 112 against an elder except on the basis of evidence presented by two or three witnesses. On the other hand, if and wh~n an elder has sinned and witnesse~ substantiate this fact as Paul has prescribed, then verse 20 directs Timothy to rebuke the offender~n the presence of all his fellow-elders, with this ,purpose in mind, literally, "that also the rest may go on having fear." This verse in the original is: . C / oLrot..;D '7:~ YOV/(cX..S ~ / / £ YW/TLO'/ 7T~V'TWV To~s c/ l. VoL k"'-~ OLe. A () C 'iT o~ For the interpretation of verse 20, the following points may be noted. Paul is speaking about elders in verses 17 to 19 and again in verse 22, where he touches upon the matter of their ordination or induction into office. So it is best to see references to elders in / \ the 7ToL V'lw V and C I ~ ot. A()LlldL-of verse 20, as has been suggested in the precedtng paragraph. The context of verse 20 is determinative of ,the fact that Paul does not have in mind members of the congregation generally, as' some commentators 58 have ~uggested. The sinning of certain of the elders could·not be wrong-doing of the gravest kind, then, such as would necessitate the disciplinary procedure of bringing the elders' cases before the whole congregation and require their expulsion from office (or even from the church)~ 58E•g., Newport J. D. White, liThe First and Second Epistles to Timothy," The. Exp-ositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (New York: George H. Doran Company, n.d.), IV, 136. 113 The directive • "rebuke," furthermore, connotes a chiding that brings shame upon an offender ~nd, accordini to Paul's usage of the verb elsewhere in the Pastoral Epistles (2 Tim. 4:2; Titus 1:13; 2:15), brings about the prompi rectification of behavioi. What Paul is saying, then, ,is that, if an elder is actually found to be gUilty of sinning, Timothy is not to accord him the pro-tection afforded by being reproved in private. Timothy is rather to administer a "public" rebuke, that is, one in the presence of the rest of the elders. The reason for this is supplied: ,"So that also the rest may go on having fear," says the apostle. The present tense of has a durative connotation. The Revised Standard Version for some reason does not translate \ ko<..L , which should be rendered as "also" in context. This word is important for an under-standing of Paul's meaning here. Not only are the other elders, who observe Timothy's rebuking the erring elder, ,to gain an incentive for continued fearing, but so, indeed, is the elder himself to whom the reproof is administered. He is the one who has had to endure the humiliation of being censored in the presence of fellow-elders and this by Timothy, an assistant of the apostle Paul and supe'rintendent of the church's work in Ephesus. The shame of this experience coupled' with the admonition and warning of God's Word which Timothy would doubtless have applied in his rebuke would affect the elder who sinned first of all, moving him to repentance and to the exercise of a pre-cautionary fear, lest he fall again into transgression through indifference and carelessness. 114 The fear here meant can be none other than the fear of God which affords motivation for ethical living. In the case of the offending ~nd reproved elder, this fear would be aroused by his realization that the very shame and embarrassment Timothy's rebuke occasioned him were really a part of the divine punitive judgment for his pas.t wrong-doing. The unpleasantness of experiencing this penalty, as well· as contem-plation of the graver divine judgments for repeated sinning, wo~ld prompt the cultivation and maintenance of the perfective fear of God in his heart. The other elder.s, perceiving the seriousness ·in the Lord IS sight especially of sins committed by the church's leaders, would likewise be impelled to "go on having fear," to keep cultivating the ethically motivating fear of God in their hearts as a deterrent to 59 heedless transgression on their own part. 591 Tim. 5:20 is the last of the fifteen passages in the Pauline corpus in which t~e apostle expressly refers to the ethically motivatin~ fear of God. Now this godly fear would appear to be a requisite prompting factor in Christians' obedience to many of the Pauline ethical direc­tives in which 1'0;005 or one of its deri,Yatives is not/mentioned--such as those with the imperativesj3>'E.1Tc.'Cw and ,8AE17'E-rr.s as in 1 Cor. 3:10; 8:9; 10:12; Gal. 5:15; and Col. 2:8; those with the ~ , . imperatives p£u(f£' a~d pcuO£'Tf. , as in 1 Cor. 6:18; 10:14; and 2 Tim. 2:22; and others.. The same ,fear, too, would be a basic consideration leading Paul to act as he relates, e.g., i~ 1 Cor. 9:19-23, 26-27. The fear of God as ethical motivation is an· implied concomitant, it: may .be assumed, of virtues described or enjoined in many verses and contexts of the· Pauline letters; it is expressly referred to only in the fifteen passages indiea,ted and discussed above." Forms of the noun ~of3as or i;:he verb y;q<3CU./LoI.L or derivatives of these words are found also in other passages of Paul's epistles. These words have not been treated in this chapter, because they refer to a fear other than the ethically motivating fear of God. Thus) the· fear mentioned in Rom. 8:15 is sinful, $ervile fear or dread of the Almighty, the· kind of fear that is divo·reed from faith in the Lord. That signified in the following passages) is Sinful, servile fear of 115 . The Fear of God As Ethical Motivation in Pauline Theology We now have reached the point in bur study at which we· may draw together the o~servations made in previous page.s concerning Paul's understanding and use of the concept oj the fear of God, .and off~r a . number of summary statements and conclu5io.ns re&,arding· the fear oi God as ethical motivation in Pauline. theo~ogy. ·They fo~low herewith. First, ,the fear signified in the apostle I s "fear of· "God" expressions is the· human emotion of fear. The fear of God mentioned in four passages (l Cor. 2:3; 2 Cor. 7:15; Eph. 6:5; and Phil 2:12) is one that is, or is to. be~ accompanied by trembling, ·the physical counterpart of.the emotion of fear. This indicates that the fear which Paul has in mind in these verses, and n.o doubt also whenever he speaks of the ethically motivating fear of God (as is suggested by Phil 2:"12), is an intense emotion of dread. This emotion is aroused by an expecta­tion that God may or will cause pain or distress.60 men or things (negative Circumstances, punishments, etc.): Rom.13:3~4; 2 Cor. 7:5; 10:9; Gal. 2:12; Phil. 1:14; and 2 Tim •. I:} (the noun O£ t.. ).. L~.>L. , "cowardice," is employed in this last verse). The. fear referre.d . to in 1 Cor. 16: 10; ·2 Cor. 11: 3; 12: 20; and .Gal. 4: 11 "is fear in the sense of strong concern, born of love fo~ and it'l.,terest in others; a legitimate. feeling of· uneasiness . or misgiving regarding fellow Chr"istians, as prompted by circumstances threatening their spiritual well being. (It 1.8 possible that in both 1 Corr· 16:10 and·2 Cor. 7:5 there is a reference to two kinds of fear--th·e sinful,· servile fear ~f· men and the str0r:tg concern for the welfare of others.) 60· . The fear of God in the New Testament is the same as that in the Old Testament. Cf.the characterization of the Old Tescamentfear, supra, Chapter II, pp •. J·IO. t· 116 Secondly, Paul refers to the fear of God als9 as the IIfeat of . the Lord" (meaning Christ) or the "fear of Christi! (2 Cot. 5:11; Eph. 5:21). He does this because for him Chrtst is God. Thirdly, this fear is presented asa virtue. pleasing to God •. Paul inculcates it in his epistles. It is to be distinguished from ". the Sinful, servile fear of God (and of men and things as well) which 61 is also mentioned in the·apostle's writings. The proper fear of God is ethically motivating (as 2 Cor. 5:11 clearly shows.);' it promotes sanctification,. as will be mentioned again below. Fourthly, the on~y persons in whose heartl? the ethic·ally motiva-tingfear of God can b.e aroused are God's people,· th·e converted Christians. whom Paul directs to exercise this fear continually. The fear of God (or Christ) is presented as a fruit of godly g.rief and repentance (? Cor. 7: 10-11), of· the Holy Spirit, in the life of the believer (Eph. 5:21). It is a fear of God which is connected with, and flows from. faith and which may therefore 'be designated filial fear. People who are not under the Spirit's sanctifying in£luence have none of the holy fear o.f God in their hearts (Rom. 3: 18) •. The latter deficiency Hes at the root of the general sinfulness of humanity. . .. Fifthly, the fear of God which prompts· godliness concerns itself specifically with the punitive judgments which the just an~hol~ God administers in his wrath against sin and sinners. The <;1ivine penalties feared are of several kinds--some meted .out to m~n during the course of 61see the first half of the second paragraph of footnote 59. '117 their earthly life; others, of infinitely greater severity, in eternity. As far as Christians are concerned, the most serious temporal divine judgment for sin to be feared is the gradual removal OT loss of the Holy Spirit's influence and power in a child of God's inner being and spiritual life which leads ultimately to spiritual death and separationfrorn.God. Every sin, constitutes resistance of ( . h 5 19 h 4 __ 3062), God or his Holy Spirit; compare 1 Tess. : ; Ep • who is constantly trying to work in his believing people both the willing and the working in behalf of his good pleasure (Phil. 2:13). Paul warns Christians (Rom. 8:13) that if they keep living in accordance with the flesh; the unregenerate nature which still attaches to them even after their conversion; if they keep satisfying its desires and transgressing the commandments of God, they will die (spiritually). 63 Nor is the apostle himself immune from this punitive judgment of the Almighty. He states (1 Cor. 9:27): "I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myseH should be disqualified, II literally "be disapproved" (by,God), or "become reprobate." Other temporal visitations of the Lord in consequence of sin, which are to be feared by the Christian, are ,the whole wide range of what may be called the "psychical," the "'physical~lI and the "circum-,stantial" counterparts of the spiritual judgments God frequently se,nds along with the 'latter. Paul specifically mentions or refers, for 62Also, Acts 7:51; Heb. 10:29. 63Cf• Rom. 6:23; 7:7-13; 9:30-10:4; 11:20-21. 118 example, to such chastisements as the public rebuke and corresponding embarrassment and shame experienced by an erring elder (1 Tim. 5:20); punishments for law-breaking imposed by God through the agency of government (Rom. 13:1-7); the withholding of divine blessing upon apostolic missionary labors, (1 Cor. 2:3); perilous circumstances (2 Cor. 1:8-10); persecutions (2 Thess. 1:4-S);physic~1 weakness, sickness and death (1 Cor. 11:27-32); and so on. These visitations include the many kinds of afflictions and sufferings God brings upon his people, earthly reverses, disappointments, privations, losses, sorrows, and other judgments. Whereas the penalties for transgressions administered in the spiritual sphere may not always be perceived, those meted out in the phYSical, for example, cannot'escape the notice of the sinning believer. The Christian's fear of God is concerned ult~mately i;.iith the day of 'final divine judgment and the punishment of eternal condemnation . , for the reprobate (2 Cor. 5:11; compare Rom. 1:32; lCor~ 3:12-17). It thus has in view as its object the entire range of divine judgment' . 64 for s~n. Sixthly, as ethically motivating f.ear. the fear of God prevents sinning (in the way of omission or commission), prompts to holiness of living, and perfects sanctification. It thus helps preserve spiritual life and s~rength and prepares for divine blessing in' the life on earth and that in heaven. These observations are suggested by Rom. 11:20-21; 64Cf• Col. 3:25. 119 13:3-4,7; 1 Cor. 2:3; 2 Cor. 7:1,11,15; Eph. 5:21; 1 Tim. 2:10-­in fact, all the passages previously studied in this chapter, 'and Qany more in the Pauline corpus which speak of divine blessing for godliness, the purpose of the Lord's chastening, and so on. Seventhly, sin'ce the Lord regards as especially serious the sins which are committed by leaders in the church, such leaders should take particular care constantly to fear God and his punitive judgments. This is a conclusion which may be drawn from Paul's admonition in 1 Tim. 5:20. Eighthly, fear is to be ,directed to certain persons whom God has placed over Christians in positions of temporal authority or headship, such as officials of government and the husband as head of the wife (Rom. 13:7 and Eph. 5:33), Christians' fearing of such persons is actually an extension or equivalent of their fear of God. ~inthly, Paul's understanding of the fear of God that fosters the sanctified life appears to be derived chiefly from the canonical Old Testament. The primary source of the Pauline concept doe~ not appear to be,the literature of the intertestamental period, the hellenistic Jewish tradition upon which Philo drew, Or the religious teaching of the early (pre-Pauline) Christian Church. Of the theological literature and traditional teaching to which Paul had access, the Old Testament alone--we have 'shown--had an elaborately developed doctrine of the ethically motivating fear of God. These Scriptures, it may also be added, were the 'literature he studied devotedly not .only before, but with special diligence after, his 120 conversion. They were of paramount influence on his theological thought, as all his writings reveal. We have noted various particulars in the Old Testament doctrine , , of the fear of God in Chapter II. There it was 'stated in summary that According to the Old Testament Scriptures, the fear with which the pious in Israel stand in dread of ' 'Yahweh is concerned specifically and simultaneously with the divine holiness and wrath against sin, and with the divine righteousness and judging activity-­with all these in conjunction. The Almighty, because of his holiness and wrath, is fiercely, relentlessly opposed to all sin; because of his justice, is disposed to, deal with human beings in accordance with the norm, the threats, and the promises of his holy law. He is continually engaged in surveying the works of all -men--including thbse of his own people--and bringing punitive judgments' upon such as viol~te his will. He it is, with his retributive judgments, 'therefore, toward whom the godly cultivate a holy, perfective, filial fear. And this fear prompts the pious to avoid sin and live,the life pleasing to the Lord.65 It is this same holy fear 'of God which Paul inculc~ted and extolled in his epistles and whi~h he himself practiced. The fear ,of God in Paul's writings has a,s its object or focal point the same categories of wrathful divine judgments, as does the fear of God in the book$ of the Old Testament. In both the Old Testament and in the Pauline,corpus ,the fear of God is one which is aroused only in the hearts of true children of God, who have received the forgive~ess of their sins and enjoy peace with God through faith in the 'Gospel. It is wholly com-patible with, indeed it is complementary to, the love for God which his 65 Supra, p. 26. " 121 people likewise cherish in their hearts. It is a precautionary, morally perf~ctive emotion, which promotes sanctification. Whi],e i't must be observed thai: the ethic'ally' mo·tivating fear of God does not enjoy the same relative prominence in, Paul's epistles that it has in the Ol,d Testament Scriptures, the apostle's matter-of-fact introduction of this concept into his l~tters without further . explanation, or without any extensive discussion, for example, of, th~ advantages, or disadvantages a.ttaching to the practice thereof (such as is found in the Old Testament), suggests the conclusion that Paul presupposed his readers to be thoroughly familiar with all aspects of the concept from their reading of the Old Testament. ]t may be assumed that Paul sought in his letters simply to build upon his addressees' understanding of the will and Word of God. The apostle's main purpose in his oral and written presentations was, after all, to relate the facts concerning the fulfilment of the Old Testament Gospel predictions in the person and work of Jesus Christ and then to apply the whole counsel of God--both that long perceived and that recently learned--to the church and its spectficneeds and problems on the contemporary scene. Tenthly, an allowance should be made for some, though probably not a considerable" influence of rabbinic thought on Paul's concept of the fear of God as ethical motivation.66 At, the beginning of the 66This judgment runs counter the verdict of the Jewish scholar Hans Joachim Schoeps, who in his Paul: The Theology of the Apostle in the Light of Jewish Religious History, translated from the German by Harold Knight (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1961), goes so far as 122 chapter it was observed that the fear which the rabbis inculcated was the virtuous fear recommended in the Old Tes~ament. But they spoke of. this fear only infrequently and in most cases, it appears, almost incidentally. A reason for this, no doubt, was that much of Palestinian Judaism during the century-and-a-ha1f before Paul, and at his time, wa's "work-righteous." Jewish religious t.eachers and writers believed themselves to have merited favor and an acceptability with God through their observance of ordinances of Old Testament law and . Jewish tradition. 67 Posse~sed of a convi9,tion that they were worthy in the Lord "s sight, they would not be disposed to become overly con-cerned about the possibility of divine punishment for sin in their lives and about the exercise of the holy, precautionary fear of God which the Old Testament enjoins'. Such an attitude would carryover into their theological writings. The mention of this fear would be regarded as necessary, because of the Old Testament's emphasis on this virtue--but not a repeated or extensive reference to the same. to allow for absolutely no influence of the rabbis upon Paul's under­standing of the ethically 'motivating fear of God. Schoeps offers the startling observation, pp. 187-188: "Judaism has always held fast to the' tenet that man was created to do the will of God, as it is presen.ted in the Torah •••• The right.fu1filment of the law, of course, always implies the creature1y situation of the fear of God ( ., I Jl}( I' ), which the doing of the la~y ever renews. But Paul does not seem to know this idea of the fear of bod'.. " 67Cf• Davies', pp. 268-273.. A person's obedience to the Torah was conceived of as providing' merits which benefitted not merely him­self, but also his contemporary Israelites, those who preceded him, and those who would follow him. 123 Now, as a former Pharisee and rabbi, Paul would certainly have been acquainted with rabbinic views concerning godly fear, just as he would also have learned of this fear from his study of the Old Testament. In view, however, of what has been said about the relative and generaily prevailing Jewish disinterest in the fear of God, and of the paucity of reference to this fear in the literature of Palestinian Judaism available to Paul, it would be incorrect to conclude that the rabbinic teaching had a strong or decisive moulding influence on the apostle's concept of the fear of God. It should not be supposed that his later Christian understanding of this fear, and his apostolic instruction on the subject, ought be traced in par­ticular to his background in rabbinic Judaism. There is no discernable indication in the Pauline teaching of any definite dependence upon the doctrine of the fear of God as presented in the rabbinic writings. A more accurate supposition is that, once Paul had encountered the living Christ and learned to trust his grace, he then for the first time came to a full understanding of the real meaning, and his personal need, of fearing God. He realized the terrible seriousness of the divine wrath and judgments for sin and how narrowly he, in his . unbelief and wilful opposition to the Lord, had escaped the penalty of condemnation. In fervent, grateful ,devotion to Christ, his Savior" and drawing on that Lord's power for godly living, Paul began in earnest to practice the precautionary and perfective fearing of God. His was a dread, lest through any sinful folly, on his part he should 124 lose the blessing of the salvation now possessed. As a man lIin Christ," the apostle contemplated God as He realiy was--righteous, holy; full of wrath against sin, and therefore to be feared; yet, at one and the same time, also loving and gracious, with pardon for transgressions, supplying strength for the sanctified life, and therefore to.be loved. Christ had placed his approval on the Old Testament as the Word of God, and Paul studied the sacred text, its historical record, precepts, and promises, with renewed zeal and determination. He wanted to derive the most comprehensive under-standing prossible of all its truths, particularly now from the point of view of a Christian. It was here in the Scriptures of Moses and the Prophets that the apostle reviewed--and in the study of them intensified his grasp of--the prominent concept of the fear of the Lord as ethical motivation. In accordance with the Old Testament stress on this virtus, Paul through his sermons.and epistles urged fellow-Christians to generate the holy fear of God. The Relation of the Fear of God to Other Motivations for Ethical Living Precautionary fear of God is but one of the motivations for sanctification which the apostle presents and inculcates in his 68 "ethical, system. II There are others, principally three others--the 68Strictly speaking, "Paul has •.• little concern for ethics in a systematic sense"; Victor Paul Furnish, Theology and Ethics in Paul (New York: Abingdon Press, 1968), p. 209. The designation "ethical system" is used above in a.general sense;' as indicating lithe study, 125 love for God; the hope for reward, arising out of trust in God's promises as recorded in the Scriptures; and faith in the Gospel assurance of the Christian's baptismally ~stab1ished union with Christ ~nd spiritual participation in the latter's death and resurrection. A brief consideration of these additional motiva-tions, and the relationship of the fear of God to them; will help us to see this fear in proper perspective in the theology of 69 Paul., first of a14 of the theological convictions which underlie Paul's concrete exhortations and instructions and" secondly, of the ways those convictions shape his responses to practical questions of conduct,lI p. 212. Cf. Furnish's discussion, Ills there a 'Pauline ethic'?11 pp. 208-212. ' 69 Some commentators point to a variety of ethical motivations in the Pauline writings. Rudolf Schnackenburg,e.g., in his The Moral Teaching "of the New Testament, translated from the 2nd revised German edition by J.Ho1land Smith and W. J. O'Hara (New York: Herder and Herder, 1965) speaks of lithe great motives of God'? saving wo:::-k" (p. 300); of "the plentitude of motives flowing from the wealth of the world of' Pauline theological ideasll (p. 273). He mentions "union with Ghrist ..• divine election and vocation, reconciliation with God, the gift of the Spirit" (p. 273); IIjoy and gratitude," "liberty •.. gained from justification by God" (p. 275); "judgment according to works" (p. 279); "hope" of "full inheritance and final justification" (p. 282); a conviction of the ultimate vic tory of the Lord and the forces of right"eousness over all opposing IIsuperhuman spiritual powers, angelic-demonic forces" (pp. 284-286); "consciencell (p. 289); the awareness of being lithe community of salvation of the last times, the true 'Israel of God'" (pp. 178, 181); love for the' neighbor (pp. 218-219); and others. A careful consideration of the many specified motivations, however, will ind{cate that each one ultimately can be associated with one of the chief motivations designated above--the fear of God, the love for God, hope for reward, and faith in the believer's baptismally established union with Christ. Our concluding discussion, accordingly, will briefly treat of the latter three motivations and of their relationship to the fear of God. 126 The love for God as ethical motivation is mentioned, for example, in Phil 1:9 and 16; 1 Thess. 1:3; 2 Tim. 1:7 and 13. It is the . believer's grateful response to Christ's love and saving blessings, or to the love of God for him in Christ (2 Cor. 5:14; Rom. 8:28) . This .::> / rX.([0/..1/'7' directed by the Christian toward God, is patterned after God's love for men. It is a love which· moves the lover to keep God and his will continually in mind, to have the constant purpo'se of doing that which is pleasing to and glorifies the Lordj and to serve Him even at the expense of persqnal sacrifice. It is at one and the same time both a good work--in fact, the greatest of good works, the supreme obedience rendered God--and also a motivation to other works. This love prompts the loving of fellowmen. Frequently, when Paul -:> / mentions d (foL 117' the love both for God and fellowmen (the latter flowing from the former) are referred to; or, if the latter is primarily indicated by the context, the former is at least connoted.70 Hope may be defined as desire accompanied by expectation of fulfillment. The ethically motivating hope for reward which appears in the Pauline writings is one which arises as the heart's response to, especi,lly frbm its trust in, the various promises of blessing found in the divine Word. These blessings range from the eternal heavenly inheritance to bounties and benedictions of many kinds for the life here on earth. -Hope as prompting (an aspect of) godliness is 70 2 Cor. 8:7,8; Eph. 1:4; 3:17; 6:23,24; 1 Thess~ 5:8; 1 Tim. 1:14; 6:11; Philemon 5. 127 expressly mentioned in 1 Cor. 9:10; 1 Thess. 1:3; 5:8. This hope is indicated by the verbs in Rom. 8:25. It is presupposed in passages like the following: Col. 3:23-24; 1 Cor. 9:25; 15:58; 2 Cor. 4:16-5:9; 9:5-12; 1 Tim. 4:7-8. As in the cas~ of the love for God, this hope of reward is pictured both as a good work itself and also as a stimulus to other good works. Both these aspects of hope should be kept in mind, whenever it is mentioned in the Scriptures. In 'passages like Rom. 5:2; 12:12; 2 Cor. 3:12; Eph. 2:12; Col. 1:5; 1 Thess 4:13; Titus 2:13, hope in the objective sense (that which is hoped for, the object of hope) is referred to, but the "subjective hope" (the emotion . 71 in the' heart) is always also connoted. The Pauline passage which presents in extenso the apostle's teaching co'ncerning the union of the believer with Jesus Christ is Rom. 6:1-14.72 In the first ten of these fourteen verses Paul explains that in the sacrament of Baptism a person is joined to Christ.and participates (spiritually) with Him in his crucifixion, death; burial, resurrection, and continuing life. In the sacrament's washing his "old man" (verse 6), that is, his old "self" is killed off and is immediately . 7lAdditibnal passages having to do with various aspects of the ethically motivating hope of reward are: Rom. 2:6-7; 1 Cor. 3:10c, 14; Eph. 6:7-8; and 2 Tim. 2:8-12. 72 The paragraphs which follow present a short summary of the writer's interpretation of the theology of Rom. 6:1~14. For an extensive exeget-· ical study and discussion of these verses (including presentation of other interpretative viewpoints), see the writer's S.T.M. TheSiS, liThe Chris tian Under Grace,. According to Romans 6: 1-14" (unpublished Mas ter' s Thesis, ,Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, 1967). 128 replaced with,a newly created "self,!' which like the resurrected Jesus is "living to Godll (verse 11) . Application of these ,Gospel facts is made in verses 11 to 14. Paul instructs the Romans first to "r~ckonll ('\ 0 r[ S;;.~$E) themselves to have died once-for-all to sin but to be continually living to God "in [that is, lin union with~ Chris t Jesus .11 Secondly, they are told that for' this very reason--because they have died and risen and are living in Christ--they are not to let sin reign in their body or its members but to yield them-selves, their body and its members to God for service of the Lord. The apostle provides assurance that the believers can do what Paul here directs them to do, in the declaration: IISin will have no dominion' over you, 'since you are not under law but under grace.1I Thus it wi 11 be seen that 'in Rom. 6: 1-14 Paul inculcates a IIfaith-motivation" (llreckon," IIconsider,1I verse 11) for sanctification. The Christian in effect is to believe essentially two things concerning himself. The one is that by virtue of his baptismally established union with Christ and participation in the Lord's dea,th, resurrection, and continuing life he himself is continually alive to God "in Chris,t.1I This means that despite all contrary inclination arising from the still unregenerate part of his person, his still sinful nature or "flesh,1I he himself really and constantly wants to do the whole will of the Lord (Rom. 7:18-22). Confidence in' this fact supplies him with basic motivation for ethical living~ If he should ask "Why ought I to avoid sinning and cultivate, godliness?", he then may respond in the, assurance of faith: "Because I myself really don't want to sin; in my r,eal inner self I tr,uly and continually desire to please the Lord." 129 Then secondly the Christian is to believe that through his union with Christ he is always possessed of the power sufficient to devote himself, his body, and the body's "members" (eyes, ears, tongue, hands, feet; intellect, emotions, will,73 and so on) to the service of the Lord. To reckon in faith with this fact provides him with ultimate power for ·sanctifica.tion. Employing the motivation and pow~r for ethical living which Romans 6 brings to his attention, every followei of the Lord can proceed resolutely to the doing of the divine will, in full anticipation of vict6ry over sin. Paul presents similar teaching in Eph. 4:17-25 and·Col. 3:1-10. There are allusions ·to Romans 6 theology in many occurrences of the ::> x o (t;.'(;;; .:> / :> :> E/ formula and its variants ( EV /-( u;a L Lf' ' EV o{'U'LV; , I L and others), as these appear throughout Paul's writings. Exa:nples are found in Eph. 6:1; phil. 4:1,4,13. Two sections in Paul's epistles bring all four of the motivations for ethical living--fear of God, love for God, hope for reward, faith in the Gospel facts revealed in Romans 6--into close proximity in the apostle's presentation. One is 2 Cor. 4:13-5:21: Hope is presupposed in 4:13-5:9; fear is referred to in 5:10-11; .love, in 5:13-15; and the "in Christ" motivation, in 5:16-17. Another is Eph. 6:5-10: fear is referred to in verse 5; love is presupposed in verses 6 and 7; hope, in verse 8; and the "in Christ" motivation is mentioned in verse 10. The 73Justification for an inclusion of these three components of the human psychical nature among the "members" of the "bodyll (Ro~. 6:12-13) is furnished in ibid~, pp. 90-95. .130 · apostle's placing of the four motivations in juxtaposition in the ~ame context, as he does in 2 Corinthians 4~5 and Eph~sians 6, is certainly iridicativeof their total compatibility, according to the thinking of PauL The question arises, however; what else can be said about the relationship of these motivat~ons· to o~e a~other? And, with specific reference to our st~dy, it may be asked: whac is the relationship of the fear of ~dd to the other motivations for sanctification? It has been stat~d that the fear of God, the love for God, and · the hope for reward, besides being motiv.;ttions to e·thical living, are also good works in themselves. As such, and like the rest of the good works in the Christian's life, they require appropriate motivation for their steady production. They are not always present in strength. Sometimes they are absent from the heart altogether, and the latter is filled with sinful emotions and desires. Now it is just to this . problem concerning the continuing generation of the holy emotions of fear,· love, and hope that the· words of1>aul in Romans 6 mar also be regarded as having relevancy; When the Christian is urged in Romans to consider hims'elf dead to sin but alivetb God, and therefore, to battle sin in th~ body and its members, .this includes ·battling sin also· · in the heart. This means yielding the heart,· too, as an instrument of righteousness to God; stirring up wi·thin it the sanctifying emotions of fear, love., and hope •. It may be conCluded, then, th'at the faith-motivation of Romans 6 is basic to the ie~eration of the emotional .i?.oh!<.', ; : ~... .­~~ .. t6t(:b:.,' :0<;: ~ .' ,;;~\ji;.-'\I'~t" 131 74 motivations. The former is the ultimate or fundamental motivation for sanctification;, the latter may be termed "second level" motiva-tions for sanctification . Every Christian is, in effect, urged by' Paul to employ the fundamental faith-motivation for the cultivation of 'the second level ~motional motivations; and then, possessed:of the full complement of divinely approved motivations, to proceed' with the production of the good' works that g10rify God, in abundance. To the particular question "What is the relationship in Pauline th~ologi of the fear of God to the other motiyatiofis for ethical living" we may answer: as a second level motivation, the fear of God is regarded as dependent for its continuous generation on the ultimate motivation, the faith-motivation of Romans 6. To the othe.r second level motivations this fear is seen simply as co-ordinate and comple-mentary. Fear is the response to the holiness and justice of , Cod; love, the response to the grace and love of God; hope, the response to the truth and faithfulness of God. As the divine'holiness, justice, and love coexist in the deity, so the human responses to ,these attributes and to the divine acts whick flow from them should be, and are, simul­, 75 taneously generated in the pious believer's heart. '74 ' Passages like 1 Tim. 1~i4 and 2 Tim. 1:13, e.g., bear out this observation. ,75Among the three motivations--the virtues of the fear of God, the love for Cod, and the hope for reward--the love for Cod may be regarded as fundamental to the. other two. Love cO'rltinu~lly draws the Christian's tho~ghts tD the deity; leads him to contemplate the Lord ~nd h{s nature as revealed 'in Holy Writ--not only his gr~ce and mercy, 'but also his holines's and righteousness, and his truth ~tl.d faithfulness. Thus func­tioning, love actually,helps to evoke the perfective fear of Cod as an 132 appropriat'e response to the Almigh·ry's holy nat-:ur-e, will~ and wrath; to his righteousness ~nd just judgments. Love also helps, to evoke trust in the promises of the Lord and godly hope for proffered divine benedictions. Thus it may be _observed that'true love for God is in the final ~nalysis a prompting factor in the generation of the fear of God and the hope which is founded on the divine ~romises, as recorded in th~ Scripiures. In the hierarchy of motivati~ns to ethical living as presented in the Pauline co~~us, th~n, the Romans 6 faith--motivation may be said to rank first; love-for God, second; and both, the fearand hope motivations, third. CP.APTER V THE FEAR OF GOD AS ETHICAL MOTIVATION IN THE GOSPELS AND NON-PAULINE EPISTOIARY LITERATURE OF THE NEW, TEST&~NT AND IN THE'WRITINGS OF. 'THE APOSTOLIC ,FATHERS I~ this chapter we sh~ll consider the concept of the 'ethically motivating fear of God which oc;curs in the Gospels and non-Pauline epistolary literature of the New Testament and'in the works of the Apostolic Fathers. The occurrences of the concept in the Eook of Acts have already been noted in Chapter III. The final s~ciion of the chapter will compare the Pauline view of this fear with that which obtains in the writings of other New Testament authors as well as of Christian thinkers in the post-apostolic period. It is the opinion of the writer of this dissertation that the . 1 epistle of James was composed about the year 4S,A.D. The Johannine lFor argumentation in support of this early date for James, see Martin H. Franzmann .. The Word of the Lord Grmvs: A First Historical Introduction to the'Ne~v Testa'ment (SL Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1961), pp. 20-26. Feine, Behm and Kuemmel list names of scholars who "understand the Epis'tle ;3.S the word of a man of the first gener­ation. II Among these are Feine, Behm, Zahn, Schlatter, Michaelis, Sparks, He?rd, Ross, Tasker, Stauffer, Kittel, Lackmann, Michel, Elliott and Binns, Rlijn, Gurhrie, the Catholic scholars, and others. Kuemmel, however, opts for' a ,time of composi tion lIat the end of the first century.1I A dating in'the second century is to be r~jected. , See Paul Feine, Johannes Eehm, and Werner Georg Kuemmel, lntroduction to the New Testament, translated byA. J. Mattill; 'Jr., from the 14th revised German edition (New York': Abingdon Press, 1966), pp. 285-291. 134 . literature is npw generally regarded as having b~en written during the nineties of the first century or at the ~ery' beginning of the 2 second century. The remainder of the non-Pauline literature of the Ne\" Testament was produced during the same period in which t::he apostle . . .' . 3 Paul's writings appeared, nam~ly, frbm about 49 to 64 or 65 A.D. The documents which have come do,·m taus from the Apostolic Fathers . " . 4 may be dated between 90 and 155 A.D. . . The Fear of God in the Gospels The concept of the fear of God is found infrequently in the syn6ptic Gospels, and the concept of ethically motivating fear almost 2See Franzmann, pp. 247-285'; Feine, Behm and Kueffimel, pp. 175, 312, 316. 329. 3 The writer regards Galatians as the first Pauline epistle; com-posed in the year' 49 (cf. Franzm~nn, p. 54), and 2 Timothy as the last, written shortly before Paul's death in 64 or 65. See footnotes 18 and 19, Chapter IV, pp. '55 and 56, on the writer's view concerning the genuine'uess of Ephesians and the Pastorals. Many of the reasons for dating the remainder of the non-Pauline liter~ture (the synoptic Gospels, Acts, Hebrews, 1 and 2 Peter and Jude) between 50 and 65 A.D. are provided in Franzmann1s New Testament introduction, at the places the author discusses these other New.Testament works. Feine, Behm and Kuemmel assign datings between 70 and 100 for the same Dooks-­except for 2 Peter, the time of whose composition, they set at 130. 4Cf. the datings of the writings sugge'sted in the intro"duc tory remarks preceding Kirsopp Lake's English translation of each of the . Greek do~uments in The Apos colic Fathers (Cambridge, Mass ~: Harvard University Press, c.1912) 2 vols. See also:' Erwin L. Lueker" "Apostolic Fathers, '.' Ll!theran Cyclopedia (St. Louis: Concordi'a Publishing House, 1954). pp. 44-45. 135 not at all. Matthew reports that, when God the Father I s voice ,spoke from the cloud at the Transfiguration, the disciples were filled with a great fear (17:6). According to the same ~vangelist an angel of the Lord causedth¢ guards, at Jesus' '. tomb to tremble with fear ~ and the faithful women visitors w'erefrightened at the sight of the angel (28:4,5,8,10). The latter is the fear,of a (heavenly) creatur~ closely associated with the Lord, which is, in fact, 'the fear of God. 5 The centurion and his soldiers at Calvary are' said 'to have feared exceed-ingly when they saw the 'earthquake and the other iupernatural events which occurred at the time of Jesus' death on the first Good Friday (27:54) . 6 Theirs was a fear of mighty acts of God., The, one direct reference in Matthew's Gospel to the fear of God as ethical motivation is Chapter 10, verse 28. There Jesus tells his diSCiples: "Do not fear those ,who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him '7 who can destroy both soul and body in he11." In this passage the holy, perfective fear of God is to be aroused by the specific consider-ation of the final, damnirtg, divine judgment for disobedience to the Lord's wil1. The Gospel according to Mark contains no'explicit reference to the fear of God which motivates ethical behavior. The evangelist 5Cf. Supra, Chapter II, p. 12. 6Cf. Supra, pp. 11-12. , 7Unless other~ise specified, the N~w Testament passages the writer cites in the English in this chapter are quoted fr6m the Revised Standard Version. 136 alludes, however, to the fear of God which is present ~n the hearts of the Gerasene citizensafte~ Jesus' miraculous healing nf the der.lOniac (5: 15) 'and to the fear which is the reaction of Peter, James, and John to 'the theophanic transfiguration of Christ and the presence of Noses and Elijah with Him on this occasion (9: 6). He also refers to the fear which is the disciples' response to'the mighty act of Jesus' stilling the tempest on the Sea of Galilee 8 (4:41). The' fear which gripped the women'early Easter morning, ~as aroused, when they encountered the angel at the open tomb (16: 5', 6, 8). When 11: 18 reports that the chief priests and the scribes sought ,a way to destroy Christ nfor they feared him," the holy, sanctifying emotion of fear is not, of course, referred to. In the Gospel according to Luke, the presence of an angel, o,r of angels, is said to have excited the fear of God in i:12 (on the part cif Zechariah), 1:29-30 (the VirBin Mary), 2:9 (Bethlehem's shepherds), and 24:4-5 (the women at l:he open tomb). The presence of Christ, assumed to be a spirit being, is reported to have occasioned this fear in 24:37. Various mighty acts of God and of:Christ~ according' Co the same evangelist, aroused the fear of God in the hearts of certain 8The fear and trembling with which the woman who had been healed .of her hemorrhage came to Jesus, according to 5:33 (also Luke 8:47), , was probably prompted more by her shame at having to make known in publiC the fact of her embarassing affliction and how she had sought ,a cure by touching Christ than by amaz,ement on her part at the mighty work of healing which the Lord had done. 137 observers. The loosing of Zechariah's tohgue after the birth of John the Baptist occasioned this fear in the case of the neighbors (1:65). 'the filling of the disciples' nets with the mir~culous' draught of fishes evoked this fear on the part of Simon Peter (5:10). The healing of the paralytic brought.such fear to the hearts of all the Jews who beheld the miracle (~:26). The raising of the widow's sori at Nain caused the diSCiples and the crowd frcim the city to fear . (7: 16). The stilling of the tempest aroused the disciples' fe~r (8:25). The exorcising of the demoniac filled the Gerasene citizenry with fear (8:35,37). Thecloud~ng over of the Mount of Transfiguration was a fear-inspiring event in the case.of Pecer, James, 9 and John (9:34). Reference to the ethically motivating fear of God, however, 'is made only in three passages. "In 1:50, Mary's. Magnific.s.t:: includes the statement "His f9od' ~1 mercy is on those who fear froill generation to generation." The second and fourth verses ,of chapter 18 (considered as a single passage) are part of a parable' in which Christ tells of "a judge who neither feared God nor regarded man" and has the judge himself state: "I neither fear God nor regard'man." ,According to 12: 5, the Lord directs his disciples; "I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, 'after he has killed, has power to cast into 10 hell; yes, I tell you, fear him!" 9 With regard to the woman's fearing and'trembling as reported in 8:47, compare the'remarks in the previous footnote. 10 " The penitent malefactor's rebuke of the criminal 'crucified to Christ's left on Calvary, "Don't you even fear God, seeing that you are'inthesame judgment" (my literal translation of the Greek), 23:40, 138 Only once does the concept of the fear of God present itself in the Gospel according to John; and that i·sat 19:8. There Pilate is said to be, filled with fear over the possibility. that the thorn-crowned Christ standing at tr~~l bef6re him may be the Son of God. No express mention of the fear of God which prompts to ethical living', however, appears in this evangelist'~ record. We may note, however,'. that numerous passages in all t.he. Gospels record Christ's observations concerning the inevit~bility of divine punishment for sin, the need for his followers to "watch" 'and "take heed" to themselves, to their behavior. and td their status in the Kingdom. It should be added that what Jesus says in such Gospel sections is, no doubt, designed ,in part to arouse ethically motivating 11 fear in the hearts of his faithful hearers. stiictly speaking.does not provide a referente to the ethicallj moti­vating fear of God, since itis directed to an unbeliever. The ~peaker is, no doubt, simply asking his fellow~felonto take cognizance of the fqct tpat the punishment for his crimes he is enduring is ultimately visited by God, is the prectir~orof more terrifying penali~ies to come. Let these thoughts, .the penitent criminal suggests 'by implica­tion, give rise in the companion malefactor to a measure of sobriety .in his desperate situatiori and restrain his unbridled taunting of the cr~cified Christ. HC£. e. g., Luke 21: 34-36: "But take heed to yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a snare; for it will Come upon all who dwell upon' the face of the whole·earth. But watch at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of man." Cf. the first paragr.aph of footnote 59, Chapter IV, p. 114. 139 The Fe~r of God As Ethical Motivation in the Non-Pauline Epistles12 The writer of HebreVis speaks in 12:18-21 of the terror of the Israelite.s at hearing the divine voice from Sinai. He adds: "Indeed, so terrifying [y CP.EjJ ~ V] was the sight that Moses said, I I -tremble with fear. '" It is stated in Rev. 11:13 that persons were led to fear God because of a mighty divine act, the sending of an earthquake. With the exception of these two passages, _ every explic_it reference to. the fear Qf_God (that is, in expressions employing the term or one of its cognates or parallels, and associated with as expressed or cleariy implied) in the non-Pauline epistles of the ~ew _Testament is speCifically to the fear which motivates to ethical behavior. Express references to this fear are found in five of nine epistles--Hebr~ws, 1 and 2 Peter, Jude, and Revelation. No mention is made of it in James and 1, 2, and _3 John. In Heb. 4:1 the writer has the precautionary fear of God in mind, when he admonishes his Christian addressees: "Therefore, while tr:e promise of entering his rest remains, let us fear lest any of you be judged to have failed to reach it." Jes',ls is said to have possessed this fear during his lifetime on earth~ when He "offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to l2As a matter of convenience, our study will investigate the non­Pauline epistles (for occurrences of the concept of the ethically motivating fear of God) in the order of their appearance in the New Testament. 140 save him from death, and he was heard for his godly fear~' (5:7). The word for "godly fear" in the Greek text is , which ~ h ~ 1 . . d f d . d' . d 1 13, Th . signiries t e rear e .~c1te rom a evout 1n 1V~ ua. . e prospect of falling into the hands of the living, judging God because of , n / ' deliberate sinning is termed a fearful thing ( ? t5/Jr 0 v)in 10:31, and must, therefor~, be regarded as a dreadful destiny. It,s, consideration would prompt ethically motivating fear~ According to 11: 7, the Old Testament patriarch Noah was filled with godly fear (£~/~d..1.8?J)-C:5)' when he was warned by God of impending destruc­tion. He began building the ark. That attitude is presented as exemplary. The Lord's peopl'e are urged at 12:28-29 to "offer to Godaccepta,ble worship, with reverence and aweH (r.::"'/~ liJAd.rt~s (" / . G c () V5 , literally "with godly fear 'and dread") in view of the fact that "our God is a consuming fire." Besides these five passages, the epistle to the Hebrews, 'it may be added, contains many. warnings concerning divine punishments for sin, temporal and eternal, and the necessity for readers to give the most careful attention to remaining in faith and obedience to the will of God.14 To conclude that the response, expected included the reader's cultivation of a healthy> perfective fear of God would be in keeping with the admonitory passages of the epist,1e, which specifica11y inculCate this fear. 13' , For the basic significance of this term, see Richard Chene:vix Trench, Synonyms of. the New Testament (Grand Rapids:' Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing'Company, 1948), pp. 36-37;173-174. 14Cf. e.g.,2:1~~; 3£5·19; 6~1-8; 10~23-39; 12:1-~9. 141 While the mention of the ethically motivating fear of God does not occur in the letter of: James, there are warningl:! of divine judgment .against,sin and sinners (2:12-13; 3:1-2;'5:8-9!'which w.ould suggest the importance to Christian readers of their generating this holy fear in their hearts. In five passages the First Epistle of'Peter expressly directs' attention to th~ fear of God as motivation tb sanctification. 'After admonishing his re'aders to holiness of life, the apostle writes: "And if you.invoke as Father. him who judges each one impartially according to his deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile" (l: 17). A series of imperative statements. in 2:17 includes the directive: . "Fear God." In the next verse, house-hold servants are ins.tructed to be submissive to their masters "with ::> \ / all fear" ( £v 7ToLJ/ 7L pdp,:! ). According to 3: 1-2, the pure conduct of Christian wives, which is g~verned by their fear of God c ......... ~wV), is to serve as an attracting influence on their husbands, to help win them for the faith. God's people are always to be prepared,· to witness concerning their Christian hope, when called upon, and to do this in meekness and fear, says Peter in 3:15-16. Itrnay also be pointed out that the lIsanctifying of the Lord Christ in the heart," to which the readers are enjoined in 3:15, may be thought of an including a hbiy fearing of Christ. One single clear reference to the ethically motivating fear of God is made in 2 Peter at 2:10,.where hereticl3.1 leaders are described 142 as "bold and wi-lful." It is said that "they are not afraid to revile the glorious ones." A literal translation· of the last state-ment might be the· following: "They do not tremble [ o~ /(j ~ aU 6 ~ ~ ] when speaking evilly of glories (m·eaning, in context, the glories of Chri;t's exalted nattire, or angelic beings as representin~authority, or human dignitaries in the thurch o~ in the world; or.a combination of these interpretations).' In the ·case of thes~ leaders there is a total absence of sin-preventing . fear of God. It may be assumed, however, that this fear is being inculcated when the readers are urged in 3: 14 t·o "be zealous to be found by him without spot or blemish" and in 3:17 to "beware . lest .~. [the;] be carried away with the error of lawless men. II The three Johannine epistles do not allude directly to the fear of God which prom6tesChri~tian sanctificatiori, . though the importance of its cultivation ~ou1d appear to be suggested by. the stern reminders that no one can keep on sinning and expect to continue having fellow-ship with God (L John 1: 6), to know Him (l John 2: 30), to be in the light (1, John 2:9), to h~ve the love .of the Father in him (1 John 2 :15). The readers are warned that none of them can transgress ,reck~ 1essly and continue to abide forever (1 John 2:17), to abide in Him (lJohn3:6}, to have eternal life abiding in him (1 John 3:15), to be of God (3 John 11), and so on. To generate a sanctifying fear in 143 the heart may well be regarded as a part of a Christian's "looking 15 .to himself," lest he lose his heavenly reward (2 John 8) . 15lt may be noted in passing that verse is of 1 John 4 has often been misinterpreted. The opinion is expressed that h~re John is making a generCil and axiomatic statement On the·subjects of. love and fear, to the ~ffect that where a Christian's love for God is fully developed all fear, including all fear of God, has no plac~ in the heart, is cOmpletely removed. Thus·, e.g., A. ·E. "Brooke comments at this verse in A Critical ana Exegetical Commentary on the Johannine Epistles in The International Critical Commentary (New York: Charles Scribner I s Sons, 1912), pp .124-125 : "Pear, which is essentially self-centered, has no place in love, which in its perfection involves complete self-surrender. The two cannot exist side by side. The presence of fear .is a sign that love is not yet perfect. 'Love cannot be mingled with fear' (Seneca, Ep. Mar. xlvii. 18)." He continues: II k ~Ad-t;,LV &1-H.Jnot only 'includes the punishment which it anticipates,' but is in ltself of the nature of punishment. Till love is supreme, it is a necessary chastisement, ~ part of the divine disci·pline, which has its salutary office." Again: "Lcive must altogether banish fear from the enclosure in which her work is done"; and, "Till fear has been '~ast outside,' love has not been made perfec t." Verse 18'must be c6nsidered together with vers~ 17~ The fear spoken of in verse 18 is the oppo·site of the "boldness in connection with the day of judging" mentioned in verse·17; it is servile, sinful fear of. God. Furthermore, the love referred to in verse 18, in the phrase poj3os oDK. t~'YLY &1/ rr.i ~)f:'TT?), is the same as the love referred to in the two verses previous (16 and 17), namely God's love for his people. The thought of verses l7and 18, then, is this (as given in a free paraphra~e of the verses): God's love has· been brought to its goal ('TE..A'2.l..Lt'). ( rz-c/\E..t..oL ~({o<...7T7 casts out this fear, because this fear has to do with punishment. The person who still shrinks at the thought of judgment day.has not been. brought to the goal (of boldness). by the love of God. It will be seen that, since John is speaking of servile and not filial fear of God in verse 18, the apostle is making no state­ment concerning an incompatibility of holy, ethically' motivating fear 144 Jude has this godly fear.in mind, when he states that certain . , . :> I . . . . heretical peJ:sbns have invaded .love-feasts (0( ((ol1/o£ LS ) and defiled I them as blemishes, "gorging themselves without fear" (<;:.1I'f6V4.))(O·U-.:> / .~lf-Vt){, o(1'cj8t.c)$) and tending the·ir own wants exclusively (verse 12). Further on, the s~me writer directs .that if and whEm fellow church members 'are negatively· influenced and· injured by these heretics, the faithful should put forth every.effort to. gain back those who can yet be reclaimed. On the other hand, those who get beyond help, despite all that is done to recover them from error, are simply to be pitied in fear (gv f;(3~), that is, in the hoiy. fear of God (ve;rse 23). In such fear Jude's readers. are to avoid these fallen brethren; for further contact with them would increase . the likelihood of contamination and infection· in the Christian ranks·,. and consequent visitations' of stern, retributive divine justice.· The, ethicaliy motivating fear of God is expressly referred to in four passages of the Apocalypse: 11:18; 14:7; 15:4; and 19.:5. In 11:18 and 19:5, ~od's people are characterized as those who fear gim. According to the former verse, John in his· visionaryexper,ience on Patmos ·hears the twenty-four heavenly elders ·praise God after the final judgment for beginning his omnipotent reign and say (in part): "The nations raged, but thy wrath came, and the time for the dead to and a Christian's. love for God, which is the believer's. response to the "goal-a'tt~ining" love of God for him'. Filial fear and love of God are virtuOus· complementary emotions. ·Cf. Supra, Chapter IV, p. 131, footnote ZS. , . 145 be judged, for rewarding thy servants, the prophets and saint~, and those who fear thy name." Th~ "name" of God as elsewhere .in Scripture ~eans here God Himself, who reveals Himself to his p~ople in his Word' and deeds. Chapter 191 verse 5, takes the reader to a similar heavenly scene after judgment day. John reports his' hearing a voice ,which came from God's throne and cried,. "Praise our God, all you his servants, you'who fear him, small and great." In Rev. 14:7 the apostle repeats the Gospel message which he heard an angel proclaiming to all earth-dwellers, namely, ,"Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment hascome~ and worsnip 'him who made heaven and earth. the sea and the fountains of water." The symbolism of 14: 6~7 'is best interpreted, as signifying the unimpeded progress of Gospel preaching throughout the New Testament era. The Gospel's great invitation is here represented as the evangelical directive to fear and glorify God in view of his judging activity which has begun. is now (in the entire New Testament era) in progress, and will reach it~ completion at the last day~ Of course, the activity of fearing and glorifying God can be entered upon only by those who trust and follow the Redeemer-~ambof 14:1-6. Revelation 15:2-4 records John's vision' of "those who had con­quered the b.eas,t and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in' their hands." These per­sons are, as the context shows, the number of saints already in glory and ready to offer praises to God for what they see his providence, represented by the glassy sea, is about to accomplish near the end of . , tim.e. That is the visitation of final, terrifying, wrathful divine punishments (the last seven plagues, 15:1,5-8; 16:1-21) upon the wicked, prior to the final and immediately consequent judgment itself. John hears the beast-conquerers singing the following song, which is called "the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb," ·that is, the song concerning both Moses and the iamb, . especially the mighty acts of deliverance God wrought through Moses and the Lamb, respectively: Great and wonderful are thy deeds; o Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are thy ways, o King of the ages! Who .shall not fear and glorify thy name, 0 Lord? For thou alone art holy. All nations shall·comeand worship thee, , for thy judgments have been revealed. When the saints ask the rhetorical question "Who shall not fear and glorify thy name, 0 Lord?" it appears in this context that the fear of God referred to is of broad, more inclusive significance. As far as the godly in heaven and on earth are concerned, it is fear prompted by contemplation of the mighty divine acts of judgment and deliverance, as perceived in the past and in the present; but it is also in their case a filial fear, prompting a continuance in holy living. As far as the wicked on earth are concerned, it is fear aroused, in one sense, by the mighty acts of God. At the same time it is also servile, cringing fear of God, evoked of necessity. This fear is accompanied by chagrin and desperation (compare 11:13). The point is that absolutely all men must and will f~ar God at the end, whether they wish to or not, when the Almighty's righteous judgments are ·fully revealed. It 147 is with this in view that the saints a~k, "Who shall not fear . thy name, 0 Lord?" The Book of Reve·lation contains many warnings to repent Cind desist from sinning. It issues threats of divine punishment to wrong-doers. Its pages feature predictions and sym])olicportrayals of coming catastrophes in which the wicked shall be engulfed, cul-miriating ·in the final destructive judgment and exhibition of God's wrath against his enemies. The Apocalypse presents descriptions of evil doers' terror, gri~f. and lamentation, when the penaities 6£ . . 16 their transgress~ons overtake them. The. purpose of all of this, it may be pointed out, is to instill a holy, perfective£~ar of God in the hearts of readers, which will prompt them to walk in the ways of the Lord. Fear of God in the Writings of the Apostolic Fathers There are numerous express references to that fear of God which promotes godly behav;i.or in the writings of the Apos tolic Fathers. Such references are found in 1 and 2 Clement, . Ignatius, Barnabas, Shepherd of Hermas, Didache, and the Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians. They are lacking in the Martyrdom of Polycarp., Di.ognetus, the fragment from the Apology of Quadratus, and the fragments from Papias~ reports. 16 Cf. e.g., 1:7; 2:4-5.·14-16.20-23; 3:1-3.15-19; 6:12~17; 8:7-9:21; l4:9~1l.17-20; 15:5 -16:21; 19:11-21; 20:7-15;" 21:8;22: 18-19. 148 The author of The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, mentioning past excellences of the Corinthian congregation, states: "You were ado.rned by your virtuous and honourable citizenship and did 17 all things in the fear of God" (2: 8). Plainly, the ethically moti-vating fear of God is meant. The troublesome situation ·in ~orinth, to which 1 Clement addresses itself, is due in part to ·the absence of this, fear in the hearts of members there, according to 3:4.. The picture in the Corinthian congregation is this: envy and strife have developed to the point where Clement writes: For this cause righteousness and peace are far removed, . while each desert·s the fear of God and the eye of faith in him has grown dim, and men walk neither in the. ordi­nances of his commandments nor use their citizenship worthily of Christ. The opening verses of. chapter 13 indicatet.hat whattheCor1.nthians need is to reestablish obedience to the Lord's Word and· cultivate humility in ~odly fear, because of the instruction oft~. 66:2, which is quoted in 1 Clem. 13:4 as follows: liOn whom shall Ileok, but on the meek and gentle and him who trembles at my oracles." This thought is then reinforced with the citation of examples of humility from the Old and New Testaments, and the author's assertion (19:1): liThe humility and obedient submission of so many men of such great fame, have rendered better not only us, but also th,e generations before us, . who received his [GOd I sJ oracles in fear and truth. II . l7This English translation. of the Greek te~t, as well as· the· translations given in the quotations to follow, are those provided ·hyL?ke: 149 In a section in which the writer of 1 Clement inculcates Chris~ian virtues, three successive v~rses~ 21:6-8, refer to the fear of· God'Which p~omotes sanctification: Let us reverence the' Lord Jesus Christ, whose biood . was given'for us, let us respect those 'who rule ,us, let us honour the aged, let us instruct the young'in the fear of God, let us lead our wives to that which· is good. Let them exhibit the lovely habit of purity, let them show forth the innocent w.i11 of meekness, let the.m make the g~ntleness of their tongue manifest by their spence, let them not give their affe'ction by factious preference, but in holiness to ~ll equally. who fear God. Let our children share in the instruction which. is in Christ, let them learn the strength of humility oefore God, the power of pure love befor~ God, how beauti-ful and great is his fear and how it gives salvation to all who live holily in it with a pure mind. The validity of the previous teaching is confirmed in 22: 1-7 with the citation ofPs. 34:11-17. At the beginning, of the latter Scripture section, men·tion is made of the fear tha·t leads to godl"iness. Chapter 22, verse 1, includes an appeal to Ps. 34:11 and reads:' uNow the " faith which is in Christ confirms an these things, for he 'himself through his Holy Spirit' calls us thus: --'Come; Children,. hearken to me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. '" As .was sugges.ted in . 18 Chapter II above,the·expression "the fear of the Lord.tl in Ps. 34:11 may well refer. both to the ethically motivating fear of God 'as em'otion and to the pious behavior; the ethical living, in which such fear issues. In 1 Clem. 23·: 1, blessings which attach 'to godly fear and "sincerity are mentioned: "The all-merciful and beneficent Father has campa.ssion . ". 18 Suora, Chapter I~, p. 21 •. 150 on those that fear him, and ki.ndly and lovingly bestows his favours on those that draw near to him with a simple mind." According to the context of 28:1, ethical1y"motivatingfear ought to be prompted by a consideration "of the final resurrection, judgment "to" come, and the necessi ty of everyone I s appearing before the ri,ghteous 'God .:" Chapter 28. vers,e 1, sta"tes: "Sinc"e t"hen all" things are seen" and heard by him, let us fear him, and leave off from foul desires of evil deeds, that we may be she"ltered by his mercy from the judgments to come." Righteous persons are referred to as "those who feared God" and as" . "those who live in fear ~nd love [namely, o~ GO~" in 45:6 and 51:2. respectively. The reference in these ver~es "is to the perfective emotion of fear, as thi~ pious wish is expressed near ~he close of the epistle, at 64:1: "Now may God .. ". give unto every soul that is called after his g16rious and holy namej faith, fear, ~eace, patience and 10ng-suffering.1I The last verse is the eleventh passage "in I Clement which deals with the fear of 90d that pro~otes the "holy life. Three passages in The Second Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians draw the readers' attention to the fear of God. All three afford in-struction for the Christian life, inculcate this fear, and r~veal that the recommended fear of God is to be specifically aroused in consider-Qtion of the divine punitive judgments which follow upon sin. In 4": 4-.5 the wri ter of 2 Clement counsels:" " " And we must not fear men rather than God. For the Lord [ChristJ " says: ""If yO\.1. • . do not my command-" ments, I will cast you out, and will say to you, Depart from me," I know not whence ye are,"ye workers of iniquity." '. 151 Chapter 5, verse 4, (supposedly) supplies the record of a c,?nversation between Jesus and Simon Peter, which th~ writer of the epistle intro-duces for didactic purpos·es. 5:4 reads: Jesus said to Peter, "Let the lambs have no fear of the wolves after their death; and do ye have no fear of those that slay you. and can do nothing mor~ to you, but: fear him who after you'r death hath power over body and soul, to cast them into the flames of hell." In 18:2 the writer paradigm~tically expresses the need he feels of st;riving to avoid s'in, lest he fall into ultimate condemnation. He declares: For I myself too am altogether sinful, and I have not yet escaped temptation, but I am still in the midst of the devices of the devil, yet I am striving to follow after righteousness, that I may have the strength at least to draw near to it, in fear of the judgment to come. Bishop Ignatius, who wrote epistles. to various Christian churches shortly after the turn of the second century,. makes explicit mention of the ethically motivating fear of God only in the epistle to the Ephesians 11:1. He writes: These are the last times. Therefore let us be mbdest, let us fear the long-suffering of God, that it may nbt become our judgment. For let' us either fear the wri~h to come, or love the grace which is present,--one of the two, --only let us be found in Christ Je'Sus unto true' life. Ten passages in the Epistle of Barnabas·remind the addressees of the fear of God which promotes obedience to the divine will. This f~ar is commended along with other virtues in the words, "Fear then, and patience ,are the helpers of our faith, and lon.g-suffering and continence are our allies" (2:2). The fearing of God and the divine activi"ty of " ... ; '152 judging are brought into relationship as correlatives in 4:11-12. ~ere the writer' of the epistle admonishes, Let us be spiritual, let us be a temple consecrated to God, so far as in"us lies let us "exercise ourselves in the fear" of God, and le t us strive to keep his ' commandments in order 'that we01ay r'ejoice in his ord inance s, and then adds, . liThe Lord will' judge' the' world 'without respect of persons. '" When the pious who avoid "those who Seem'to fear the Lord, but sin like the swine" are acknowledged as blessed nO; 10) and bidden to "Consort with those who fear ehe Lord" (10:11), it is clear that the author of The Epistle of Barnabas is speaking of the ethically motivating f,ear of God. The author does the same in the eleveneh chapter, where he dis-Cusses supposed Old Testament adumbrations of the sacrament of baptism (and of the cross of Cnrist). At 11:5 there is apparently a citation of Is. 33:16-18, which contains a re£erence to the holy, sanctifying fear of God.' The prophet is quoted as saying of the righteous' man: "His water is sure, ye shall see the King in his glory, an'd your soul shalT meditate on the fear of the Lord." Finding an allusion to baptism in Ezek .. 47: l-12,tne writer of the epist~e explains at 11:11 that the prophet"means to say that we go down into the water full of sins and foulness, and we come up bearing the fruit of fear in our hearts,' and having h'ope on Jesus in the Spirit." ChapteJ; nineteen of the Epistle of Barnabas provides information on the "way of teaching" known as "The Way of Light."A number of instructions which help comprise the latter recommend to Christians 153 the generation of the holy fear that prompts God-glorifying behavior. Verse 2 records the directive : "Thou shalt love thy maker, . thou shalt fear· thy Creator, thou shalt glorify Him who redeemed thee from death ... thou shalt not desert the commandments of tte Lord." Verse 5 reads'in part:. "Thou shalt not withllOld ,thy hand from thy son or froQ thy daughter; but shalt teach them the fear of God from their youth up." (The fear referred to here is again, no doubt, both the holy emotionapd the sanctified behavior to which. the emotion is an aid.) The instruction of verse 7 is as follows: Thou shait not be double~minded or talkative .. Thou shalt obey thy master's as a type of God in modesty and fear; thou shalt not command in bitterness thy' slave or handmaid who hope on the same God, lest'.they cease to fear the God who is over you both ; for he. came not to call men with respect of persons, but those whom the Spirit prepared. Contrasting with "The Way of Light" is "The Way of the Black One," which is treated in chapter 20. One of the marks of the latter Way is the absence of the fear of God that prevents sinning. Thac is immediately seen in the description of "The Way of .the Black One" (20:1-2), cited in part as follb~s~ But the Way of the BI'ack One is crooked and full of cursing, for it is the way of death eternal with puni~h­ment, and in it are the things that destroy their soul~ idolatry, frowardness, arrogance of power, hypocr±sy, double-heartedness; adultery, murder, robbery, pride, transgression,. fraud, ~alice,' ~~lf-~ufficiency, enchant­m~nts, ma:gic, covetousness, the lack of the .fear of God; persecutors of the good, haters of the truth, lovers of lies, knowing not the reward of righteousness, who "cleave not to the good," nor to righteous judgment, who attend not to trie cause of th~ widow and orphan, speriding wakeful nights not in the fear of God, but in the pursuit of vice·. • • • 154 A literary work in the form of an apocalypse, the Shepherd of Hermas consists of a series of revelations made to Hermas in a number of Visi(:ms,. Mandates, and Parables, which also serve as divisions of the document. The Mandates and most of the Parables are the record of conversations between the shepherd, or angel of repentence, and Hermas, in which the former gives revelations and instructibns to the latter. Six of the Mandates and two of the Parables contain ten express references--sotne rather extensive--to the ethically motivating fear of God. In Mandate 1:1-2 the shepherd informs Hermas of the primal divine commandments. He says: First of all believe that God is one, "who made .all things to be out of that which was no~)" and contains all things, and is himself alone uncontained. Believe then in him, and fear him, and in your fear be conti­nent. Keep these things . l'fumda,te 6:1:1 directs attention again to the first Mandate, as the shepherd says, "I command you ... in the first commandment to keep faith and fear and continence." Mandate 7 in its entirety is an extended discussion of the precautionary fear of God. The Mandate is given as follows: I"Fear, III said he, III the Lord and keep his comma:ndments. I By keeping, . therefore, the commandments of God you shall be strong in every act, and your conduct shall be beyond compare. For by fearing the Lord you shall do all things well, and this is the fear with which you must fea~ and be saved. But the devil do not fear, for by fearing the Lord you have power over the devil because there is no might in him. But where there is.no might, neither is there fear. But where there is glorious might, there is also fear. For everyone who has might gains fear. But he who has. nbt might is despised by all. But fear the works of the devil, because they are evil. If therefore, 155 you fea~ th~ Lord you shnll not do them,' but depart from them. There are therefore two sorts of fear. For if you \vish to do that which is evil, fear the Lord and you shall not do it. But, on the other hand, if you wish to do that which is good, fear the Lord, and you shall do it. So that the fear of the Lord is mighty and great and' ~loriou~. Ther~fore fear the Lord and you' shall live in him .. And whosoever shall fear him and keep hii ~ommand­ments, shall live to God." "Wherefore, sir, II said I, "did you say of those. who ke'ep his commandments, I they .sha·ll· live to God'?" "Because, "said he, "the whole crea·tion fears the Lord, but it does not keep his commandments. Those, therefore who fear him and observe his commandments,--it is they who have life with God. But as for those who do not observe his commandments, nei ther have. they life in him. " The shepherd directs Hermas in.Ma~date'8:8-9: Listen, then • . . to the deeds of .goodness, which you must do and not refrain from them. First of all, faith, fear of God, love and harmony, words of righteousness, truth, patien~e; than these there is 'ndthing better in the life of man. If any man keep these things and do not refrain from them, he becomes blessed. in his life. The shepherd contrasts the worldly with the godly in Mandate 10:1 and states in 10:1:6: But they who have the fear of God, and inquire con­cerning the Godheiid and truth, and have their heart towards the Lord, perceive quickly and undeistand~ll that is said to them, because they have the fear of the Lord in themselves; for where the Lord dwells, there also is great understanding. Mandate 12 deals with evil desire and good desire. The shepherd gives Hermas these instructions in 12:11:2-4: It i~ necessary therefore, to refra~n fro~ the wicked desires,that by refraining you may live to God. But as many as are overcome by them, and do not resist them, shall perish finally, for these desires are deadly. But put on the desire of righteousness a~d resist them, being armed with the fear of the Lord. For the fear of God dwells in the. desire which is good. If the evil desire see you armed with the fear ,of God, and resisting it~ it will flee far from you and will no longer be seen by you,· for fear of your weapons. ,.';~:;a ,'" ,,"'. 156 The dialogue in 12:111:1 is given in this manner: "I would like, sir,'·' said I, lito knm.,r in what way I must serve the good desire." "Listen," said he, "'Hork righteousness' and virtue, and fear of the Lord, faith and meekness, and whatever good things are like to these. For by working these you will . " be a well-pleasing servant of. God ...• _ In Mandate 12:VI:3 the shepherd tells .Hermas: "Listen, therefore, to me, arid fear him who has all' power, 'to save and to destroy,' and keep these commandments, and you shall live to God-." Parable 5:1:4-5 presents in part the Shepherd's expl~nation of the kind of fasting which is pleasing to the Lord, and in the process makes mention of the godly fear which promotes sanctification. These are his words: But fast to God in this way: do nothing evil in your life, but serve the Lord with a pure heart; 'keep his commandments' and walk in' his ordinances, and let no evil desire arise in your heart~ but believe in God, that if you do these things and fear him, and refrain from every wicked act, you shall live to God; and If you do this you will fulfil agr~at fast and one acceptable to God. The last explicit reference in the Shepherd of Hermas to the ethically motivating fear of God -occurs at Parable 8: XI: 2. After the shepher'd bids Hermas to urge all men to repent, the latter 'responds: "Sir, I hope that all who hear them ~he things which will c.omprise Hermas I messag~ will repent. For I am persuaded that each one who recognizes ...... his own deeds and fears. God will repent. II A single three-verse paragraph in the fourth· chapter of the document known as the Didache, or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, gives explicit instruction .. concerning the fear of God that prompts 157 obedience to the divine will. This section (v~rses 9 to 11) brings .the following household duties to the attention of catechumens in the early Churc!): Thou shait not withhold thine hand from thy son or from thy daughter, but· thou shalt teach them. the fear of God from' their youth up. Thou' shalt not command in thy bitterness thy sla~e oi thine handmaid, who hope 'in the same .God, lest they cease to fear the God who is ov~r you both; for he ~Q~es not to call. men with respect of persons,. but thos~ whom th,e Spirit ·has· prepared. But do you who are slaves be subject to.,your master, as to God's representative, in reverence and fear. The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians presents the congrega-tion at Philippi with'many exhortations to virtue. Among 'these ·are the directives recorded in 2:1,4:2, and 6:3, which include mention of the fear of God that. is conducive to sanctification. The instruction of 2:1 is this: "Wherefore 'girding up your loins serve' God in fea.r" and truth, putting aside empty vanity and vulgar error, "believing on him who raised up our Lord Jesus Ghrist from the dead and gave him glory".. . [the Christ] who is coming as "the Judge of the living'and of the dead;" whose blood God will require from ,them who disobey him. That recorded in 4:2 is, in part, this: "Next [let u,sJ·teach our wives to remain in the faith given to them and to educate their children in the f~ar of God." Chapter 6, verse 3, reads: So. then "Let us serve him with fear and all reveren.ce,i . ~£...,-~ {/}6f3o v ~o(..l TTd~""ljS eli).0Lj3t(~l as he himse~if commanded us, and as did the Apostles, w~o brought us the Gospel, and the Prophe'ts ,who foretold the comi?g of out' Lord. Let us be zealous for good 158 With the above verses from the Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippian~, we bring to a close our listing of passages in the Apostolic.Fathers which contain express reference to the ethically motivating fear of God. It should be stated that in many other places in their writings the Fa.thers issue warnings concerning divine judgment for evil-doing, advise that readers take earnest heed to their spiritual well-being, and so on. The urgency of Christians' practicing that fear of God which promotes godliness is implied in all such contexts, even though no express mention is made of the fear of God which provides motivation to ethical living: . Summary Observations, Including A Comparison with the' Pauline Concept rif the Ethicaily Motivating Fear of God We have listed the references to the ethically motivating fear 6f God in the Gospel and non-Pauline epistolary literature of the New Testament and in the writings of the Apostolic Fathers. A number of summary observations are in order. These include a comparison of the concept of this fear as it appears in the Pauline ~orpu~ with that which appears in the rest of the New Testament and in the Christian writings that have come down to us from the imm~diately post-Apostolic period. Wherever it is mentioned in the rest of the New Testament and in the works of the Apostolic Fathers, the holy, ·precautionary fear of God is essentially the same kind as that featured in the Pauline epistles. It is presented as a God-pleasing virtue, which every 159 Christian ought necessarily to cultivat~. This f~ar concerns itself with the punitive divine judgments here on earth and hereafter in eternity which God in his justice and holiness administers against sin and sinners. It prevents si.-nning, prompts to good works, and prepares for divine blessing 'temporal and eternal in the lives of those who gene'rat~ it. The fear of God which promotes sanctification is expressly mentioned onc~ in the Gospel accordirig to Matthew and three times in the Gospel accor~ing to Luke--four times in all, in the New Testa-ment Gospels. This compares ,to the fifteen explicit ?=eferences to such fear which occur ,in seven' of the thirteen Pauline epistles, and the seventeen references found in five of the remaining nine New Testament epistles. The Book of Acts, we. have noted (in Chapter III» ma~es mention of this fear four times. It may, therefore, ~e stated that the (two) Gospels contain only four of the forty New Testament references t,o the fear of God as ethical motivation. The' Gos'pels' mention of this fear reflects no influence of, or dependence upon, the Pauline presentation of the concept, n'or does Paul appear to be influenced by t~e Gospels' usage. The relative paucity of expr~ss references to the ethically motivating fear of God in the Gospels stems doubtless from the fact that Jesus did not teach extensively on the subject. most of the ~ac~ed writers apparently felt constrained to make increasing re,feren'ce to this fear. The same holds true of the Apostolic ,Fathers, most of whom refer to the ethically motiwlting fear in their ·writings. The First Epistle of Clement, the Epistle of Barnabas, and the Shepher<;l. of Hermas men-tion this fear in eleven, ten, and ten passages, respectively •. Accordi ng to the method of calculation employed by this wri ter, there , " 19 are thirty-nine passage-references, to the godly, edifying fear in the seven works of the Apostolic Fathers from which citations were made in the previous section of this chapter. As in the case of the Pauline corpus and other New Testament writings, man? additional 'Verses in the Apostolic Fathers' works which warn of divine punishment for evil-doing and inculcate obedience to the divine commandments appear to re.commend the cultivation of godly fear by impl~cation, without expressly mentioning this fear. Li'l.' -.: 162 of human wickedness (l Clem. 3:4; Barn. 10:10; 20:1-:-2); regard this fear as the appropriate Christian response to God's judgments, par---ticularly the final judgment (1 Clem. 28:1; 2 Clem. 4:4-5; 5:4; 18:-2; Ign. 11:1; Barn.4:1i-12; Polycarp to the Phil. 2:1); and issue ins truc tions to their addressees generally, and also to -particular groups among them, concerning the cultivatian .of this fear (1 Clem. 2).:6-8; 22: 1; Barn. 19:2.5.7; Hermas, Mandate-7; and other-passages previausly 20 -Like the apastles, they the ha1y as nated ). recagnize fearing .of Gad as a distinguishing character"istic .of the truly gadly. They paint ta the blessings _ which attach ta its prac tice _ (1 Clem. 2:8; 13:4; 14:1; 23:1; 45:6; 51:2; and other passages as previausly nated2l). The Fathers da nat cite Pauline .or ather New Testament fear-af-Gad passages,thaugh many .of their statements appear ta be influenced by _the sacred authors. That the Fathers I theology of the ethically mativating fear of Gad is in pa~t derived also from their study of the Old Testament is indicated by their quOtation from these Scriptures (compare 1 Clem. 13:4; 22:1; and Barn. 1l_:5} and-the Fathers' men tianing .of -the blessings which accrue to those who fear the Lard, asdacertain Old Testament authars. 20Additional passages: Hermas, Mandate 1:1-2; 6:1:1; l2:II:2-4; III:l; VI:3; Parable 5:1:4-5; Didache 4:9-11; Polycarp "to the Phil. 4:2; 6:3. 21Additian~1 passages: 1 Clem. 64:1; Barn. 2:2; 10:11; 11:5; 11:11; Hermas, Mandate 8:8-9; 10:1:6; Parable 8:VI:2. 163 To conclude, it may be said that Paul. the rest of the ~ew Testament writers who treat of the sanctifying fear of God, and the ApostQl~c Fathers wr.;:· do the same share the same understanding of this concept and introd\.lc~ it into their ~rit{ngs often in similar contexts and with similar applications. Men.tion of the ethically motivating ~e.r.·~pp~ars:in more separate and distinct contexts, in the Pauline corpus than in the literature lef~ us by a?y other single writer of the apostolic or irpmediately post-apostolic perioa. CHAPTER VI SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS It will be useful now to summarize the findings and the conclusions of our study of the f~ar of God as ethical motivation in Pauline 'theology. We set out to investigate possible sources of this concept ,in the thinking of the'apostle Paul, beginning with the Old Testament. The Scriptures of the Old Testamencwere found to be replete with references to the fear of God which prompts ethical behaVior. This fear is presented there as a virtue which the pe'ople of the Lord are directed to cultivate. It is' the human emotion of fear aroused by an expectation that God mayor will cause one pain or dis-, tress. The fear of God is .specifically the response excited in the heart, when, the pious in Israel soberly and simultaneously contemplate Yah~eh's holiness and ~rath against sin, and his righteousness and activity of judging, as the Judge of all mankind. The Almighty is fiercely and relentlessly opposed to all transgression; continually engaged in surveying the works of all men--including those of his own people--rewarding the righteous· with blessi-ngs, but bringing punitive judgments upon violators of his, will. For this reason the godly consciously direct their fear toward God and employ this as a motivation to avoid sin and to live in obedience to the divine commandments. A survey of the Old Testament reveals thac divinely,inflicted penalt.iesfor wrong-doing are imposed, on the one hand, in the spiri tual 165 sphere. Such 'punishments consist of God withdrawirig his Spirit co '. ," a certain extent frorqa sinning Israelite and a resliltant weakening of spiritual life; or, worse yet, the complete removal of the Spirit, which .means ~oss of this life altogether. Other consequ~nces of transgression are divine visitations in terms of the psychical, physical,' and circumstantial j,,:,dgments which overtake God's people. These are the afflictions and sufferings of many kinds which Yahweh brings upon them. '. The Scriptures. mention the burden c~the troubled conscience, mental upsets, physical sicknesses of all types, and earthly, reverses. The reverses include privations, losses, and sorrows; failures of friends, oppressions of enemies, and the like. A feature of the divine imposition of such trials and troub~es is that it! many instances these judgments are meted. out. to the penitent, or are al~owed to continue for them, even after they have received forgiveness for the sins which called forth the punish-ments. This aspect of the divitle judic,ial procedure serves to impress the godly with the seriousness and the' fearfulness of the Lord's retribution for sin, and intensi'fy in them at once the dread of ;the ,divine displeasure and the fervent desire to walk in the way of righteousness. The most fearful of the divine punish~ents for sin are future. They are the eternal rewards of torment for evil-doing wl:d.ch shall be assigned at the final, eschatological judgment and dispensed through eternity. Nowhere in tn~ Scriptures of the Law and the Pro~hetsis it . suggested,. however, that fearing God precludes loving the Lord~ On 166 the coritrary, Israel is enjoined to exercise both emotions simul-~/ taneously and employ both as complementary motivations to godliness. Fear is' to be regarded as a proper response to the holiness and just,ice of God; love, as the response to' the divine love, which provides pardon for sin, salvation, and a host mtire bles~ings of rich variety--including the helpful correction of behavior through affliction. The punitive divine judgments for r~sidual sin in the lives of the faithful are in actuality to be considered Fatherly chastisements, resulting from the interplay of the three attribu~es of the deity mentioned. Divine love transforms painful visitations into salutary chastening experiences for the Lord's people, chas~ise­ments which are instrumental in preserving their spiritual Life. Only the believit:'lg and forgiven children of God can faithfully contemplate the deity as the holy, righteous, and loving Lord He is, and can and do direct toward Him the filial fear his Word requires. Such is the instruction'provided in the Old Testament with refer­ence to the ethically motivating fear of God. In the consideration of possible sources of Paul's thought concerning this fear we next turned to the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, the surviving literary documents of the Qumran community, and Philo. Paul could have been acquainted with the literature of developing Judaism, with the beliefs of the Essene sect at Qumran, and with the hellenistic Jewish tradition on which Philo drew. It was found, however, that the intertestamental writings contain very few re·ferences to the fear of God. Wherever these works present the concept of the fear of God that motivates to 167 sanctification, the significance of this idea is not developed beyond what is of~ered in the Scriptures of the canonical Old Testament. Furthermore~ Philo's view of this fea~ differs in an important particular from both the Old Testament and Pauline conception. Another potential influence on the apostle's thinking was the practical religious teaching and theology of the Christian. Church during > the earliest years of its existence. The source 9f infor.mation on the theology of the pre-Pauline church is Acts, particularly the first half of the work. Yet only four passages in Acts 1 to 12 were seen to speak o'f the fear of God which promotes holy living. On the basis of the evidence gathered, the conclusion was reached that any formative in­fluence on a Pauline conception of the fear of God as ethically motivating is less likely to have come from the intertes~amental literature, the hellenistic Jewish tradition which influenced Phtlo, and the religious teaching of the early church than from the canonical Old Testament. ~n the opening section of the fourth chapter of our st~~y we to~k into account one more 'f~ctor which may have affected the apostle's understanding of this fear. That is hi.s ba~k,ground in rabbinic Judaism. It was demonstrated that a few references to. the ethically motivating fear of God appear in the li~erature of the palestinian rabbis. These may be indicative of the kind of instruction on the subject the young Paul received during the period of his training under Gamaliel in Jerusalenl.' Judgment as to the extent of l;abbinic influence on Paul·s 168 . concept of the fear of God was deferred until the apostle's view, had been investigated. 'Paul's conversion to Christianity' on the Damascus Road meant a complete reorientation of his life and redirection of his career. 'Having been confronted and commissioned by the living Christ, c:he apo,tle went forth into the wo~ld of hi~ day,no longer as a persecutor of the church 'but as a de~icated proelaimer of th~ ~hristian'Gospel, 'He became the foremost missionary of the New Testament era.· Signi­ficantly, the same Paul who delighted to discourse on the grace of God and the salvation di"inely prepared for, and offered to, a fallen humanity, also provided Christians with:earnest instruction cDncerning the necessity of their standing in a holy dread of the, Almighty and employing the fear of God as a motivation for sanctified living. It was noted that the apostle expressly refers to the ethically motivating fear of God fifteen times in as many passages~cattered through seven of the thirteen letters ascribed to Paul. In these verses God, or th~ Lord, or Christ, as the object of fear, is either express:;'y named or implied, We proceeded to consider the fifteen verses consecutively and exegetically. A main point of the informa­tion provided in Rom. 3:18 is the indication that a fundamental moral failure of unbelieving men, a deficiency which lies at the root of the notorious transgr~ssing of the divine will to which all the unregenerate of humanity give themselves,is their refusal to reckon with God's wrathful punishments for wickedness and cultivate the ,-169 perfective· fear of the Lord. To the generation of this fear Paul's Christian addressees .. re urged in Rom. 11:20-21. 2. Cor. 7:1, and Phil. 2: 12-:-13 (where obedience "with ·fear and, trembling" is enjoined). lest they fail· of divine grace. and the righteous God cut ·off their spiritual life. It is stated in IGor. 2:3 and 2 Cor. 5:11 that Paul himself is careful to conduct his ministry 'in such· a holy dr.ead of the Almighty. In the former passage Paul says that a physical. tremb.ling accompanied his fearing.· The context of the· ·latter makes clear that the prospect of the final judgment· is the qn).sideration which arouses his fear. The Corinthians are commended for the fear of God and the "fear and trembling" which godly repentence had wrought in them (2 Cor. 7:11 and 15). The readers of Ephesians are bidden to be subject to one another in the fear of Christ (Eph. 5:21). In Eph. 6:5 and Col. 3:22 slaves, are directed· to obey their masters in the same fear (the former passage·urging obedience "with fear and tremblingll). In the first letter to Timothy women are exhorted to adorn themselves with good. works in a manner befitting their profess~on o'f the fear of God (1 Tim. 2:10).· A lessbn to be learned from 1 Tim. 5:20 is that elders of the church, in particular, are to c~ltivatethe fear of God as a deterrent to· heedless transgression. According to Rom. 13:7 . . ~. and Eph. 5:33. respect~vely, a holy fear is to be·directed by the faithful to ·officials of government, and by the Christia~ wife to her husband (as to her God-appointed head). The implication is that 170 the fearing of such persons is actually an extension of, or is tantamount ~o, ·the fearing of God. The following gener.al observations and conclusions concerning Paul's understanding and use of the ~onceptof the feai ot God as ethical motivation were set forth. First, the fear signified in the apostle's .expression regarding "fear· of God" is the human emotion of fear. It is paired in certain ·contexts.with physical trembling. Secondly,.·when Paul speaks of the "fear of Christ," this means the same·thing as the "fear of God," since for him Christ is God. Thirdly, the fear of God is presented as a virtue pleasing to the Lord. Paul inculcates it in his epistles~ It is to be distinguished from the sinful, servile fear of God which is also mentioned in the apostle's writings. Fourthly, the only persons in. whose heart~ the ethically motivating fear of God can be aroused are God's people. This fear is connected with, and flows from, faith and may theref·ore. be desig­nated filial fear. People who are not under the Spirit's sanctifying influence have none of the holy fear of God in their hearts. FifthlY, the feai of God which prompts godliness concerns itself specifically with the punitive judgments which the just· and holy God administers in his wrath against sin and sinners. The divine penalties feared are of several kinds--some meted out to men during the course of their earthly life; others, of infinitely greater ieverity, in eternity. As far as believing Christians are concerned, the most serious temporal divine judgment for sin to be feared is the gradual removal or loss of the Holy Spirit's ·influence and power, which leads 171 . . ultimately to spiritual death. Other temporal visitations which are to be feared by the Christian, are the whole wide range of what may be called the psychical, the physi,cal, and the circumstantial counterparts of the spiritual judgments God frequently sends along with the latter. T,hesemay be such chastisements as·Paul specifically mentions: the shame. .of p~blic rebuke in, the church, punishments :ear law-breaking impose,d by God through the agency of govermrient; the withholding of divin~ blessing upon apostolic missionary labors; perilous ci:rcumstances; persecutions; physical weakness, sickness; and death. These visitations may include many other kinds of afflic-tions and sufferings which God brings upo'n h{s people, t;.he earthly reverses, disappointments, privations, losses, sorrows, that overta~e them. The Christian's holy fear of God is concerned ultimately with the day of final divine judgment and the punishment of eternal condemnation for the reprobate. Ie thus has in view as its object the entire range of divine judgment for sin. Sixthly, as ethically motivating fear, the fear of God prevents sinning, prompts to holiness ~flivirig, perfects sanctification. It thus helps preserve' spiritual· life and' strength and prepares" for divine blessing in the life on earth and that in heaven. Sev~nthly, chti:rch leaders should take particu14r care, to exercise the fear of God with, constancy and inten'sity,' since the Lord regards sins they commit as especially serious. Eighthly, fear is to be directed to certain persons whom God has placed over Christians in positions of temporal authority or headship, such as officials of government and 172 the husband as· head of the wife. Christians' fearing of s\.jch persons is actually an extension, or equivalent, o·f their. fearing of God. Ninthly, Paul's understanding of the fear of God that fosters the sanctified life appears to be derived primarily from the canonical Old Testament, rather than from the literature of the. intertestamental perio~, the religious tea~hing of the early (pre-Pauline) Christian Ch~rch, the theology of contemporary Rabbinic Judaism, or other· possible sources of influence on the development of this concept in his thinking. Of the theological literatu:::-e and teaching to which Paul had access, the Old Testament alone had an elaborately developed doctrine of the ethically motivating fear of God. These Scriptures were the litera~ure he studied devotedly not only before, but with special diligence after, his conversion. The holy fear of God which Paul inculcated and extolled, and which he himself practiced, was exactly the same fear as. that enjoined in the Old Testament. It had as its object or focal point , , , identical categories of wrathful divine judgments. In both the Old Testament and in the Paull.ne corpus the fear of God is one which i3 aroused only in the hearts of true children of God. It is wholly compatible with, indeed it is complementary to, . the love for God which his people likewise cherish in their hearts. It is a holy, precautionary, morally pe.rfective emotion, which promotes sanctification. While it must be observed that the ethically motivating fear of God does not enjoy. the same prominence in Paul's epistles that it has in the Old Testament Scriptures, the apostle's matter-of-fact introduction 173 of thi3 concept into his ietterswithout further explanation, or without any extenEivediscussion, suggests the conclusioh that Paul presupposed his readers to be thoroughly familiar with all aspects of the concept from their reading of the Old Testament. ,It may' 'be assumed tha't Paul sought in his letters simply to build upon his addressees' understanding of the Word of God. Tenthly, an allo,wance should be made for some, though probably not a considerable, influence of rabbinic thought on Paul's concept of the fear of God as ethical motivation. The rabbis did' speak of the virtue of the 'fear'of God, but, as our 'study has,shown, they did, so infrequently and inmost instances almost inCidentally. A reason for this may have been that much of Palestinian Judaism during the century-and-a~half before Paul, and at his time, was moralistic. Possessed of a conviCtion of their own righteousness1 most of the Jewish teachers would not be disposed to become 'overly concerned aDout the possibility of divine punishment for sin in their lives and about the exercise of the holy, precautionary fear of God which the Old Testament enjoins. Now the young Paul would certainly h,ave been acquainted with rabbinic vie'ws concerning godly fear, just as he would also have learned of it from his study of the Old Testament. In view, howeVer, of the prevailing Jewish disinterest in the fear of God and of the paucity of reference to this fear in the literature of Palestinian Judaism available to Paul, it would be incorrect to conclude that the rabbinic teaching had a stiong or decisive moulding influence 'on the apostle's concept of the fear of God. There isoo 174 discernable indica~ion iri the Pauline teaching of any definite dependence upon the doctrine of the fear of God as presented in the rabbinic writings. A more accurate supposition is this. Once Paul had encountered the living Christ and learned to trust his grace" he came to a full understanding of the real meaning ~nd importance of fearing God. In, fervent devotion to Christ, and drawing upon that Lord~s power for godly living,Paul began in earnest to cultivate the precautionary, perfective fear of God. Furthermore, Christ had placed his apprpval on the Old' Testament as the Word of God, and Paul 'gave himself to studying the sacred record with renewed zeal. He desrred to derive the most comprehensive understanding possible of all i'ts cruths) particularly nO'ioJ from the point of view of a Christian. It was' here in the Scriptures of Moses and the Prophets that the apostle reviewed--and. in the study of them intensified his grasp of--the prominent con-cepe of the fear of the Lord as ethical motivation. In accordance with the Old Testament stress'of this virtue, Paul also in his' sermons and epistles urged fellow-Christians' to generate the holy fear of Go!1. The aforegoing series of observations derives from the consider-ation specifically of the fifteen Pauline p~ssages in which the apostle expressly refers to the ethically motivating fear of God. ~he same godly fear, it may be added, would ,appear to be a requisite prompting factor in Christians' obedience to manY,of the apostle's ethical direc­I tiv.es in which f7c;BtJ.5' or one of its derivatives is not mentioned--such as those with the imperatives 175 and so on. Such fear, it may be assumed, is an implied concomitant of virtues described or enjoined in many verses and cOBtexts of the Pauline letters. The holy fear of God is but one of the motivations for sancti-fication which th~ apostle presents and inculcates in his'ethical system. 'there are others, principally three others--the love for God; the hope for reward, arising out of trust in God's promises; and faith i.n the Gospel assurance of the Christianls baptismally estab-lished union with Christ and spiritual participation in the latterls death and resurrection. As. for the interrelationship of. these motiva-tions, it was concluded on the basis of Paulls teaching that the faith-motivation is basic to the generation of the other three, the emotions of fear, love, and hope, which may be termed IIsecond levelll motivations and regarded as complemen~ary. Fear is the response to the holi~ess and justice of God; love, th~ response to the giace and love of God; .. hope, the response to the truth and faithfulness of God. All three emutions ought be simultaneously generat~d in the pious believerls heart, according to Paulls instruction. The final chapter of,'our study was devoted to an investigation of the concept of the ethically motivating fear of God found in the Gospel and non-Pauline epi~tolary literature of the New Testament and in the works of the Apostolic Fathers. The purpose of this inquiry was to gain the information which would enable us to compare the Pauline view of this fear with that which obtains i~ the writings of other New Testament authors as well as of Christian thinkers in the post-Apostolic period. 176 It was discovered that the holy, precautionary fear of God, wherever it.is mentioned in the rest of the New Testament and in the works of the Apostolic Fathers, is essentially the same kind as that featured in the Pauline epistles. I t is presented as a virtue; ·it concerns itself with the full range of divine punitive judgments; it pr~vents sinning and prompts to ·good works. The examination of the evangelists' records r~veals that the fear of God which promotes sanctification is expressly mentioned only once in the Gospel according to Matthew and three Limes in the Gospel according to Luke--four times in all in the New Testament Gospels. This compares with the ·thirty-six explicit references to this fear in the rest of the New Testament. The relati~e infrequency of the appearance of the concept of the ethically motivating fear of God in the Gospels stems doubtless from. the fact that Jesus did not tea~h extensively on the subj~ct. This may be due to the considerable treatment· of this virtue in the Old Testament Scriptures, whic~ was well known to the Jews and carefully studied by Jesus' followers. Many of Christ's discourses and warnings issued to his disciples, of course, imply the importance of their cultivating the holy, perfective fear of God. With the·e~ceptionof one passage in Hebrews and one in Revelation, every explicit reference to the fear of God in the non-Pauline epistles of the New Testament is specifically to the fear which motivates to ethical behavior .. Seventeen express references are found in five of nine epistles--Hebrews, 1 and 2 Peter, Jude, and Revelation.. Many are 177 met with in contexts or applications s{milar to those in which Pauline fear-of-God passages are featured, though no interdependence of the Pauline and non-Pauline verses is indicated. It was observed th~t .the apostle Paul treats the concept of the fear of God as . . ethical motivati·on far more extensively in his writings than does any other single New Testament auth·or. This may, indeed, be accounted for in. part by the fact that we have more of his worki .than we do writings from any other sacred penman. As the early church grew and many Gentiles were received into the Christian fellow-ship, most of the sacred writers evidently also felt constrained to make increasingly frequent reference to this fear. The last statement would appear to apply in the case of the Apostolic Fathers, too, most of whom mention the ethically motivating fear in their writings. According to the method of calculation employed by this writer, there are thirty-nine passage-references to godly, edifying fear in these seven works 6f the Apos tolic Fathers: . land 2 Clement, Ignatius, Barnabas, Shepherd of Hermas, Didache, and the Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians. As in the case of the Pauline corpu~ and other New Testament writings, many additional verses in the Apostolic Fathers' works which warn of divine punishment for evil-doing and inculcate obedience to the divine commandments appear by implication to recommend the exercise of godly fear, without expressly mentioning this f~ar. The Fathers do not cite Pauline or other New Testament fear-of-God passag~s, though many of their state-ments appear to be influenced by the.~acr~d authors. A part of the 178 Fathers'theology of the ethically motivating fear of God is directly derived from their study of the Old Testament. From the data provided in this di~sertation it should be clear that any comprehensive study or treatment of the subject of Pauline . . ethics should, take into fL:ll account the 'considerable instruction in the. apostle I s letters concern::'-;:-.g the fear of God which serves as ethical motivation for Christian living. This has frequently not been done. BIBLIOGRAPHY Abbott, T. 'K. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Eryistles to the Ephesians and to the Colossians in The International Critical Commentary. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1905. ,Amiot, Fran90is. The Key Concepts of St. Paul. Translated from the French by John Dingle. Nevl York: Herder and Herder, c.1962. Andrews, Mary E. 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Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, c.1936. Koehler, Ludwig. Old Testament Theology. Translated from the German byA. S. Todd. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1957. Koehler, Ludwig, and Walter Baumgartner, editors. Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti Libros. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1953. Koestlin, Julius. The Theology of Luther. 2nd German edition by Charles E. Hay.. Publication Society, c.1897. II. Translated from the Philadelphia: Lutheran Lake, Kirsopp, editor. The Apos tol ic Fathers" 2 vols. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, c.19l2. Lenski, R. C. H. The Interpretation of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans. Columbus: Lutheran Book Concern, 1936. The Interpretation of St. Paul's Epistles to the Colossians, t~ the Thessalonians, to Timothy, to Titus, and to Philemon. -Columbus: Lutheran Book Concern, 1937.' The Interpretation of St. Paul's Epistles to the Galatians, to the Ephesians, and to the Philippians. Columbus: Lutheran Book Concern, 1937. 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The Religion and Theology of Paul. Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1917. ~orris, Leon. The, ApostoliC Preaching of the Cross. London: Trndale Press, 1955. The Biblical Doctrine of Judgment. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdm~ns Publishing Company, 1960. "The Wrath of God," The Expository Times, LXIII (19.51-1952), 142-145. Mortimer, R. C. The Elements of Moral Theology. New Yor~: ,Harper and Brothers" ~947J. Mueller, Jac. J., The Epistles of Paul to the Philippians and to Philemon. (The New International Commentary on the New Testament.) Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1955. 188 Mueller, J. Theodore. "The Meaning of 'Fearing God, "' Concordia Theological Monthly, IX (December 1938), 935-939. Muilenburg, Bible. Press, J. "Holiness," The Interpreter's Dictionary 'of the II. Edited by George A. Buttrick, New York: Abingdon 1962. Pp. 616-625. -----The Way of Israel: Biblical Faith and Ethics .. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1961. Mundle, 1-1. "Furcht," Theologisches Begr{ffslexikon zum Neuen Testament. Edited by Lotha~ Coenen, Erich Beyreuther, ahd Hans Bietenhard. Fourth part. Wuppertal: R. ·Brockhaus, n .d. Pp. 416...,417. Murray, John. The Epistle to the Romans. 2 vols. in The New International Commentary on the New Tes.tament. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1959-1965. Principles of Conduct. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans . Publishing Company, c.1957. Nagel, Walter. "Sin as the Cause.of God's Wrath," translated from the German by Martin Scharlemann, Concordia Theological Monthly, XXIII (October 1952), 721-737. Nestle, Eberhard, Erwin Nestle, and Kurt Aland, editors. Novum Testamentum Graece. 25th edition. Stuttgart: Wuerttembergische Bibelanstalt, 1963. New Testament, The. Revised Standard Version. New York: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1946. Nieder, Lorenz.' Die Motive der religioes-sittlichen Paraet'),ese in den paulinischen Gemeindebriefen. Muenchen: Karl Zink Verlag, 1956 • . Nygren, Anders. Agape and Eros. Translated from the Swedish by Philip S. Watson. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1953. Oehler, GustaveF. Theology of the Old Testament. Revised .translation of the 2nd German edition by George E. Day. 4th edition. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1889. Otto, Rudolf. The Idea of the Holy. Translated from the German by John W. Harvey. 2nd edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 1950. 189 Payne, J. Barton. The Theology of the Older Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1962. Pedersen, Johs. Israel, Its Life and Culture. Vols. III-IV. Translated from the Danish by-'Annie 1. Fausboll. London: Oxford University Press, 1940. Pf~iffer, R. H. liThe Fear of God," Israel Exploration Journal, V (1955), 41-48. Religion in the Old Testament. London: Adam and Ch~rles Black, 1961. Pfister, Oscar. Christianity and Fear. Translated from the Ge~man by W. H. Johnston. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1948. Pieper, Francis. Christian Dogmatics. 3 vols. 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New York: Harper and Brothers> n.d. Stoeckhard t, George. Commentary On St. Paul's Letter to the Ephes ::.2:-:'S. Translated from che German by Martin S. Sommer., St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1952. Strack, Hermann L. ::: .. troduction to the Talmud and Midrash. Al\thorized translation on the basis of the author's revised copy of the 5th German edition. New York: Meridian Books, Inc., 1959. ' Strack, Hermann 1., ·a.nd Paul Billerbeck. Die Briefe des Neuen Teste.ments und die Offenbarung Johannis Erlaeutert aus Talmud·und,Midrasch. Vol. III of Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch. Muenchen: C. H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1926. . , Strobel, Au'gust. "Furcht, Wem Furcht Gebuehrt;" Zeitschrift fuer die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, LV (1964), 58-62. Sutcliffe, Edmund F. Providence and Suffering in the Old and New Testaments. London~ rhomas Nelson and Sons, 1953. Tasker, R. V. G. The Biblical Doctrine of the Wrath of God. London: Tyndale Press, c.195l. 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