Fear and trembling 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. The idea was also 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.
Markus Bockmuehl describes "fear and trembling" as "a common biblical phrase describing the response of due reverence in the face of a major challenge, and especially in the presence of God and his mighty acts".
References to fear and trembling are common throughout the Hebrew Bible: it is used as a stock phrase when a weaker military force encounters a stronger one, sometimes explicitly brought about by God. In Exodus 15:16, during the Song of Moses, it is proclaimed that the people of Canaan will be struck by "fear and trembling" at the hands of God. In Isaiah 19:16, it is similarly prophesised that the Egyptians will be "as women in fear and trembling" at the appearance of the hand of God.
In the Book of Enoch, an apocalyptic text dating to between the third and first centuries BCE, it is prophesised that the rebellious Watchers will be seized by "fear and trembling" at the arrival of God, while Enoch tells his sons to walk before God "with fear and trembling". The term is also used in Joseph and Aseneth, a narrative dated to around the first century CE, where Asenath feels "much fear and trembling", as well as joy and distress, upon receiving Joseph's blessing. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, the term is used to describe people who are praying. In 4 Maccabees, written in Greek in the 1st or 2nd century CE, "fear and trembling" are experienced by those who see an army of angels armed with flaming weapons. Along with related expressions, it is a common feature of epiphanic narratives in earlier apocalyptic literature. The Apocalypse of Sedrach, written between the 2nd and the 5th centuries CE, calls on readers to note that sinners fail to fall before God "with fear and trembling".
The theologian Klaus Berger has argued that the epiphanic connotations of "fear and trembling" continue in its use in the New Testament, but that it becomes imbued there with greater ethical force, becoming also a model for human relations with each other. In Philippians 2:12–13, Paul praises the Christians of Philippi for obeying God "with fear and trembling", and he praises the Corinthians for the same in 2 Corinthians 7:15. In Ephesians 6:5, the author (traditionally identified as Paul the Apostle, though this identification is frequently questioned) encourages slaves to obey their masters "with fear and trembling", using the phrase to connect their obedience to their masters with their obedience to God. In non-Pauline writings, the phrase is used in Mark 5:33, describing the bleeding woman questioned by Jesus after being healed by touching his clothes. It is also alluded to in, when the tomb guards shake in fear at the sights of the resurrected Jesus.
In 1 Corinthians 2:3, Paul writes that he came to the Corinthians "in weakness, with great fear and trembling", rather than with the confidence that would befit a skilled orator. Paul's use of "fear and trembling" has been interpreted as a statement of his own nervousness, perhaps in relation to the size of the crowd he was to address, his own feelings of inadequacy, and his isolated position in Corinth, or as a sign of his fear of persecution. Timothy B. Savage, noting that Paul's choice of vocabulary is identical to that used in the Septuagint, suggests that Paul uses it to emphasise his own humility before God, and as part of a rejection of polished, artificial rhetoric. G. Campbell Morgan sees the phrase as contrasting Paul's lack of confidence in his own abilities with his trust that the Holy Spirit would bring about his success.
The sixteenth-century poet Edmund Spenser used the motif of fear and trembling in The Faerie Queene, describing the consternation of the wild beasts as the Palmer uses his staff upon them. The critic Paul Cefalu explains this as a reference to Philippians 2:12–13, via the exegesis of John Calvin, who argued that "fear and trembling" was evidence of the Philippians' status among those elect for salvation. Cefalu presents Spenser's use of the phrase as drawing together the Old Testament sense of it, in which it represented fear when confronted by a vengeful God, and that used in the New Testament, where it is (in his words) "integral to the experience of grace".
The phrase was used by the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard for the title of his 1843 treatise Fear and Trembling, which uses the story of the Binding of Isaac to explore the nature of faith. Clare Carlisle gives the source of this title as Philippians 2:12–13, writing that it creates a link between the two texts as works which address contemporary Christians in a particular historical situation, and which "explore a tension between responsibility and humble receptivity". In "The Movement of Fish", part of the 1962 collection Drowning with Others, the American poet James Dickey writes of "the instinct of fear and trembling" that unites human beings and other animals: the critic Robert Kirschten has identified this as both a biblical allusion and a reference to the work of Kierkegaard.