What!!?

[Nakosis]

Fearing something that can take your life or happiness on a whim seems like generally prudent life advice. Intentionally creating such fear seems a bit rude.

I think a big part of it is that I always hated fear as an emotion. As a kid I felt a need to defy my fear. So a God asking for fear is asking for defiance.

 

[jojom]

Fear means Revere

Case closed.

I think your right.

From Strong's Concordance the word translated as fear in Ecclesiastes 3 is יָרֵא , yare' (#H3372), which can mean, to fear, revere, or be afraid. True "fear" is typically expressed as עָרַץ,`arats (H6206). So, although "fear" is an awful choice of wording, I think "revere" is a reasonable interpretation here.


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[Nakosis]

I have discovered that the emotion of fear seems to cause the feared thing to happen. Has anyone else sensed that?

It always works that way in my dreams.

Only occasionally IRL.

 

[rusra02]

"In Biblical usage the fear of God is a positive concept. (Isaiah 11:3) It is a profound reverence and deep respect for God, a strong desire not to displease him. (Psalm 115:11) It includes acceptance of and strict adherence to God’s moral standards and a desire to live by what God says is right or wrong. One reference work points out that such a wholesome fear expresses “a fundamental attitude toward God that leads to wise behavior and the avoidance of every form of evil.” Appropriately, God’s Word tells us: “The fear of Jehovah is the start of wisdom.”—Proverbs 9:10.(w2006)

 

[Nakosis]

Reverance. Awe-inspiring. Spirit(feeling/aura/sensation) of peace. Reverence to love, equality, humanity and nature.

When our minds are separated, and not whole(holy), we will be in some sort of "conscious state of hell) Being in that conscious state of hell sucks until we change what we eat and drink(consumption into our minds.)

Reverence to all these things you mentioned, sure.

I'd prefer a deity who provided love and happiness for the sake of love and happiness. Not for the sake of being revered.

This chapter started out really great talking about a time for everything. If the passage ended that God did this out of love,

It would have elicited an entirely different response for me.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

..., I think "revere" is a reasonable interpretation here.
.

Yes, as is found in the translation found in The Jewish Study Bible.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

You might want to redirect that to King Solomon.

Why?

 

[Nakosis]

Why?

He was the author of the words in the OP.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

He was the author of the words in the OP.

Oh?

The book takes its name from the Greek ekklesiastes, a translation of the title by which the central figure refers to himself: Koheleth, meaning something like "one who convenes or addresses an assembly". According to rabbinic tradition, Ecclesiastes was written by Solomon in his old age. (An alternative tradition that "Hezekiah and his colleagues wrote Isaiah, Proverbs, the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes" probably means simply that the book was edited under Hezekiah.) Nevertheless, critical scholars have long rejected the idea of a pre-exilic origin. The presence of Persian loan-words and Aramaisms points to a date no earlier than about 450 BCE, while the latest possible date for its composition is 180 BCE, when another Jewish writer, Ben Sira, quotes from it. The dispute as to whether Ecclesiastes belongs to the Persian or the Hellenistic periods (i.e., the earlier or later part of this period) revolves around the degree of Hellenization (influence of Greek culture and thought) present in the book. Scholars arguing for a Persian date (c. 450–330 BCE) hold that there is a complete lack of Greek influence; those who argue for a Hellenistic date (c. 330–180 BCE) argue that it shows internal evidence of Greek thought and social setting.

- source

 

[JoStories]

Fear means Revere

Case closed.

The case is far from closed. The God of the Bible is something that can be feared, based on what is written there. Of course, I don't believe that is what God is about at all so for me, its a moot point. But if one were to go purely by the Bible, I would say yes, there is something there to fear and not in the way I would revere someone.

 

[psychoslice]

Fearing god is nothing more than a scare tactic thought up by the scribes.

 

[Unification]

Reverence to all these things you mentioned, sure.

I'd prefer a deity who provided love and happiness for the sake of love and happiness. Not for the sake of being revered.

This chapter started out really great talking about a time for everything. If the passage ended that God did this out of love,

It would have elicited an entirely different response for me.

All those things mentioned are "God." Consciousness, matter, and energy. Residing inside an individual. Individual dieties.

An individual experiencing low self esteem is "God" experiencing low self esteem, within the individual.

If all was light, what would we see? We'd be robotic. All infinite outcomes of the spectrum of life are capable.

 

[SpeaksForTheTrees]

Maybe that bit was added on later by a human king that was disillusional in thinking he had divine right.

 

[Hong Xiuquan]

I'm glad of this. The Bible is a record of man's beliefs about God. Ok, there are some cool/good things in there. However I think man currently is probably capable of doing better.

What are the cool things? And what could he do better? I'd like to hear your ideas.

 

[izzy4games12]

I think that people are confusing having a fear of God, with being scared of God. Being scared whips out the physical feeling/emotion of fear which is just negative to the core. It's what fuels evil entities drive to harass humans and keeps us in a negative loop of doubt/fear/"torment". The fear of God is a spiritual fear that is, in a nutshell, positive and healthy for us. It brings faith in a different aspect because by fearing Gods retribution, naturally we have to believe in God and have faith in his existence to ever be able to fear him in the first place. It keeps us reassured that our fate and future do rest in His hands. Kind of how all the things we need to get through primary school is rested in our parents hands so that we don't have to worry.

It's like a package deal that just needs a little initial faith in order to work. God isn't there to scare us, just to let us know who's boss, who really knows best, and to reassure us about what we're supposed to be doing and not be doing.

 

[lewisnotmiller]

I think your right.

From Strong's Concordance the word translated as fear in Ecclesiastes 3 is יָרֵא , yare' (#H3372), which can mean, to fear, revere, or be afraid. True "fear" is typically expressed as עָרַץ,`arats (H6206). So, although "fear" is an awful choice of wording, I think "revere" is a reasonable interpretation here.


.

Ahhhh...glad someone responded on this.
Without ever having tested the veracity, I did have this explained to me my a believer many years ago as a case where there probably wasn't a perfect fit in terms of an English translation, and that it was more akin to 'awe-inspiring' than 'fear'. They were paraphrasing what they had been taught, so Chinese Whispers is always possible, but this post seems to match my broad understanding.

 

[Tumah]

You might want to redirect that to King Solomon.

I'm reading along fine thinking I can understand this, until I hit the last line. So God provides this gift of life so we can fear him?

You are putting together verses that don't belong together. Verses 14 is not a continuation of 12 and 13. This is what its saying:

I KNOW, that whatever G-d does (when He created the world), it will be forever. On it, can't be added; and from it can't be detracted (the laws of nature are immutable to man). And G-d does it (changes the laws of nature), that they should fear Him.

Its basically saying that all the miracles in the Bible evoke (or should evoke) fear of G-d.

 

[Nakosis]

All those things mentioned are "God." Consciousness, matter, and energy. Residing inside an individual. Individual dieties.

An individual experiencing low self esteem is "God" experiencing low self esteem, within the individual.

If all was light, what would we see? We'd be robotic. All infinite outcomes of the spectrum of life are capable.

As you see it, anything written is written by God in one form or another?

 

[Nakosis]

Oh?

​

Don't really know how much questioning the authorship adds, but ok. Thanks for the information.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

From Strong's Concordance the word translated as fear in Ecclesiastes 3 is יָרֵא , yare' (#H3372), which can mean, to fear, revere, or be afraid. .

Parenthetically, The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon references Ec 3:14 on page 3373, rendering it as 'stand in awe before'.