I am making some slight changes as I continue in this study of what the Bible says about fear.
One change is that I will mainly be quoting from the New American Standard Bible NASB instead of the ESV. I don’t have anything against the ESV, and I will continue to read from it in the future, but I want to use the NASB for two reasons. One - it has a companion concordance that I can use with it, and two - it is supposed to be a more literal translation, which is supposed to be better for doing word studies.
The NASB is a translation that receives updates every couple of decades. The most recent updates are from 1995 and 2020. I have both. One of the main differences between the 1995 and 2020 versions has to do with the way gender is worded. For example, the word “bretheren” in the 1995 version is updated to “brothers and sisters” (where appropriate) in the 2020 version. The updates, from what I’ve learned, are not motivated by a change in the translators’ view of doctrine, but rather a change in the direction the English language is heading. The NASB is said to be the most literal translation of the Bible, and in order for it to remain the most literal translation it has to keep track with the language it’s being translated into.
For people like me who were raised in, and comfortable with, the “1995 version” of the English language the NASB95 will read just fine. For those who were raised in and comfortable with the “2020 version” of the English language you may prefer the NASB20 instead. That’s the main difference. I’m sure by 2050 the English language will have shifted enough again to warrant another update to the NASB.
Another change is that I will also be adding a few more resources to help me search for passages to write about. I will be adding the Strongest Strong’s NASB Exhaustive Concordance and the website OpenBible.info to help me identify verses to include in this study - in addition to using the search features available at blueletterbible.org.
In the series on the fear of the Lord I really didn’t know what to expect in terms of what I was going to learn from the study. So, I tried my best to group the verses I found into similar categories, and presented them in the order that they appeared in the Bible. Sometimes, together, they even seemed to convey a meaningful message in the order they were presented in.
This series - do not fear - is a little different, though, because I kind of have an idea of what I hope to find in the scriptures. This series is actually my main motivation for doing this study on fear. I am aware that having an expectation of what the scripture says is the surest way to miss the point that scripture is actually making, so I am still only trying to discover what the bible says. I just admit that the verses I study will be chosen based on more than just the words “do not fear” being in them.
In fact, I’m using OpenBible.info for this very reason. If I search for “do not fear” It will help me find verses that might not contain the words “do not fear” but still convey the message of those words - such as “do not be anxious” and “let not your hearts be troubled.”
There are about 170 verses that I will be covering in this series. I was originally thinking that I would categorize and group verses together by a common theme - like I did for the study on fearing the Lord - but I have not been able to group every verse into a category in a satisfying way. Many verses could be grouped into several different categories. And some of the categories would have so many verses that they would have to be broken up into different posts anyways. And, again, I’m trying to avoid putting too much of my own bias into the study. With that in mind, I’m just going to study each verse straight through as they appear in the Bible, starting with Genesis and ending with Revelation, and see what God teaches me from that.
I’ve been looking forward to this study for a long time now. I pray that God will teach us and bless us through it.
And, in case you’re curious, here are the verses I’ve gathered for this study. If I missed any, I will add them along the way.
- Genesis 15:1
- Genesis 21:17
- Genesis 26:24
- Genesis 35:17
- Genesis 43:23
- Genesis 50:19-21
- Exodus 14:13
- Exodus 20:20
- Numbers 14:9
- Numbers 21:34
- Deuteronomy 1:17
- Deuteronomy 1:21
- Deuteronomy 1:29
- Deuteronomy 3:2
- Deuteronomy 3:22
- Deuteronomy 7:18
- Deuteronomy 18:22
- Deuteronomy 20:1
- Deuteronomy 20:3
- Deuteronomy 31:6
- Deuteronomy 31:8
- Joshua 8:1
- Joshua 10:8
- Joshua 10:25
- Joshua 11:6
- Judges 4:18
- Judges 6:23
- Ruth 3:11
- 1 Samuel 4:20
- 1 Samuel 12:20
- 1 Samuel 22:23
- 1 Samuel 23:17
- 1 Samuel 28:13
- 2 Samuel 9:7
- 2 Samuel 13:28
- 1 Kings 17:13
- 2 Kings 1:15
- 2 Kings 6:16
- 2 Kings 17:34
- 2 Kings 19:6
- 2 Kings 25:24
- 1 Chronicles 22:13
- 1 Chronicles 28:20
- 2 Chronicles 20:15
- 2 Chronicles 20:17
- 2 Chronicles 32:7
- Nehemiah 4:14
- Psalm 3:6
- Psalm 23:4
- Psalm 27:3
- Psalm 34:4
- Psalm 46:2
- Psalm 49:16
- Psalm 55:19
- Psalm 56:4
- Psalm 56:11
- Psalm 64:4
- Psalm 78:53
- Psalm 91:5
- Psalm 94:19
- Psalm 112:7-8
- Psalm 118:6
- Proverbs 3:24
- Proverbs 3:25
- Proverbs 12:25
- Isaiah 7:4
- Isaiah 8:12
- Isaiah 10:24
- Isaiah 12:2
- Isaiah 35:4
- Isaiah 37:6
- Isaiah 40:9
- Isaiah 41:10
- Isaiah 41:13
- Isaiah 41:14
- Isaiah 43:1
- Isaiah 43:5
- Isaiah 44:2
- Isaiah 44:8
- Isaiah 51:7
- Isaiah 54:4
- Isaiah 54:14
- Isaiah 57:11
- Jeremiah 1:8
- Jeremiah 3:8
- Jeremiah 5:22
- Jeremiah 10:5
- Jeremiah 10:7
- Jeremiah 17:8
- Jeremiah 23:4
- Jeremiah 30:10
- Jeremiah 36:24
- Jeremiah 40:9
- Jeremiah 42:11
- Jeremiah 46:27
- Jeremiah 46:28
- Jeremiah 51:46
- Lamentations 3:57
- Ezekiel 2:6
- Ezekiel 3:9
- Ezekiel 34:28
- Ezekiel 39:26
- Daniel 10:12
- Daniel 10:19
- Joel 2:21
- Joel 2:22
- Amos 3:8
- Micha 4:4
- Zephaniah 3:15-16
- Haggai 2:5
- Zechariah 8:13
- Zechariah 8:15
- Matthew 1:20
- Matthew 6:25-34
- Matthew 8:26
- Matthew 10:19
- Matthew 10:26
- Matthew 10:28
- Matthew 10:31
- Matthew 13:22
- Matthew 14:27
- Matthew 17:7
- Matthew 28:5
- Matthew 28:10
- Mark 4:19
- Mark 4:40
- Mark 5:36
- Mark 6:50
- Mark 13:11
- Luke 1:13
- Luke 1:30
- Luke 2:10
- Luke 5:10
- Luke 8:14
- Luke 8:50
- Luke 10:41
- Luke 12:4
- Luke 12:7
- Luke 12:11
- Luke 12:22-32
- Luke 21:34
- John 6:20
- John 12:15
- John 14:27
- Acts 18:9
- Acts 27:24
- 1 Corinthians 7:21
- Philipians 1:14
- Philipians 4:4-8
- 2 Timothy 1:7
- Hebrews 13:6
- 1 Peter 3:14
- 1 Peter 5:7
- 1 John 4:18
- Revelation 1:17
- Revelation 2:10
- Revelation 15:4
με αγαπη,
BJ