phobeō

This is the ordinary New Testament word for fear, and it covers the whole reach of the feeling. At one end it is plain alarm: the terror of disciples in a sinking boat, the panic of soldiers at an open tomb, the dread of a ruler who might be killed. At the other end it is reverence: the awe people feel before God and his power, and the steady, worshipful respect that the Bible calls fearing God. The same word does both jobs because both are the response of a small creature to something far greater than itself.

Context, not the word itself, tells the two apart, and the New Testament leans on that. Again and again a divine messenger says do not be afraid, calming raw terror, while in the same breath the call goes out to fear God, meaning honor and revere him. The Gospels even use the word for the settled group known as those who fear God, devout outsiders drawn to Israel's God. A third, gentler use shades toward worry: Paul says he fears that a church may be led astray, an anxious concern about an outcome rather than dread of danger.

Because the line between alarm and awe is real but not always sharp, some verses sit on the border, where a person trembles before God's power in a way that is both fright and worship at once.