Fear and trembling (biblical phrase)

Moses breaks the tablets containing the Ten Commandments , on seeing the Israelites worshipping the Golden calf . William Fiddian Moulton considered "I fear and tremble" the best translation of Moses's words on this occasion, as narrated by Paul the Apostle at Hebrews 12:21. " Fear and trembling " ( Ancient Greek : φόβος καὶ τρόμος , romanised : phobos kai tromos , a rendering of the Hebrew : חָרֵד , romanised : ḥārēḏ , lit. ' tremble ' or ' be afraid ' ) is a phrase used throughout the Bible and the Tanakh , and in other Jewish literature. In Jewish writing, it commonly refers to the reaction of those facing superior military force, or of sinners fearing the imminent vengeance of God ; in the New Testament , it is frequently used, especially by Paul the Apostle , to denote the reverence human beings should feel before God, or before a formidable task in his service. It was later adopted by John Calvin as part of his doctrine of salvation , and by John Henry Newman to indicate the appropriate reverence of Christian worshippers towards Christ and the sacraments . In the antebellum United States, Paul's use of "fear and trembling" to describe the proper attitude of slaves towards their masters was debated. The phrase was quoted in 1822 by the sentencing judge in the trial of Denmark Vesey to justify the biblical basis of American slavery , while abolitionist theologians variously denied that it referred to enslaved people and argued that its inconsistency with other Christian doctrines indicated Paul's true opposition to slavery. The motif of fear and trembling was used by Edmund Spenser in his poem The Faerie Queene , and as the title of Søren Kierkegaard 's 1843 treatise Fear and Trembling , both of which have been interpreted as referring to its use in the New Testament. There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or templates on this page, but the references will not show without a template or template (see the help page ). The words do not appear in the Exodus narrative. On the Hebrew equivalent, see "ḥārēḏ" .