The contributors to this volume examine how fear and fear of God shaped religious practice, social relations, and identity in ancient Judaism and early Christianity. Through analysis of biblical, Rabbinic, and early Christian texts, plus Egyptian and Mesopotamian sources, they reveal fear's complex role in ancient religious emotion and theology.
The contributors to this volume examine fear and fear of God as decisive factors in the religious and cultural worlds of ancient Judaism and early Christianity. Drawing on philological, historical, and anthropological perspectives, they investigate how emotions, particularly fear, informed ritual practice, social order, and concepts of the self. Biblical texts, Rabbinic literature, and early Christian writings are read alongside Egyptian and Mesopotamian traditions, thereby situating Jewish and Christian sources in a broader intercultural framework. Epigraphic evidence, such as inscriptions from Aphrodisias, provides further depth and comparative perspective.
Rather than treating fear merely as a sign of submission or religious coercion, the contributors highlight its complex role in shaping modes of communication, group identity, and cultural interaction. Their studies demonstrate how linguistic, literary, and ritual expressions of fear reflect wider processes of negotiation within communities and across traditions. This interdisciplinary approach thus exposes the conceptual networks in which fear was embedded, challenging reductionist models and opening new perspectives on ancient religious life. By bringing together leading experts from multiple disciplines, the volume advances scholarship on emotions, the sociology of religion, and the intercultural history of religions in antiquity, thereby offering essential insights for future research.
Table of contents:
Benedikt Hensel/Phillip Michael Lasater: Fear, Fear of God, God-Fearers - Philological and Historical Perspectives on the World of Ancient Judaism and Christianity
Part I. Fear and Fear of God: Conceptions and ContextsMichael Dormandy: Is God-Fearing Good Fearing? What the Greek Reception of Hebrew Fear-Terms Tells Us about Biblical Concepts of Fear - Phillip Michael Lasater: What »Fear« Promises - The Dialogue on Ethics and Perfection between Job and Eliphaz - Katja Weiss: Fear (of and for God) and Strategies for Coping with Fear in Ancient Egypt after the Amarna Period - Joel Gereboff: Fear of God in Early Rabbinic Judaism - Charis Jo: Fear and Fear of Deities in Latin-speaking Contexts - How Novel was Augustine's View? - Daniel James Waller: Fear in Incantation Bowls from Late Antique Mesopotamia
Part II. God-Fearers
Benedikt Hensel: The »YHWH-fearing« Sailors in Jon 1:5-16 as a Model for the Classification of the »Nations« in Early Judaism - A Search for Literary and Historical Traces in the Book of Jonah - Jörg Lanckau: Fear of God as the Beginning of Obedience? Genesis 22 in Light of Various Conceptions of »Religion« in the Tanakh - D. Clint Burnett: Jewish Sympathizers - A Reappraisal of Luke's »God-Fearers« - Kindalee Pfremmer De Long: God Fearers as Characters in Luke-Acts and their Real-World Analogs
