“phoberos”
Quick Facts
- Pronunciation: fo-be-ro’s
- Strongs Concordance: #5398
- inspiring fear, terrible, formidable
- affected with fear, timid
- Appears 3 times in 3 verses in the New Testament
- Common translations
- “terrifying” (1x)
Where and how phoberos is used in the New Testament
Hebrews 10:27, 31 HCSB – “but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire about to consume the adversaries. … It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God! ”
Hebrews 12:21 HCSB – “The appearance was so terrifying that Moses said, I am terrified and trembling.)”
My observations and perspective
Here we see fear used to describe a response to seeing or expecting God at work. This word is never used to describe a response to a person, and definitely not used to describe a fitting response to a person, church leader, etc.