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The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas
The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.
The elements of the world
Paul twice says that people were enslaved under the stoicheia, the elements of the world. The word could mean basic rules, the stuff the world is made of, or the powers people worshiped in nature and the stars, and scholars still disagree which he meant.
She says she does not believe in horoscopes, but she will not book the wedding on an unlucky day. The Greek word stoicheia meant things set in a row: the letters of the alphabet, the first lessons of a subject, or the four elements the world was thought to be made of, earth, water, air and fire. Many of Paul's Gentile neighbors worshiped those elements, and the sun, moon and stars, as gods, and feared that Fate ruled their lives through the stars and through lucky and unlucky days. Paul says that before Christ both Jews and Gentiles were slaves under the elements of the world. Scholars do not agree whether he meant religious rules, the forces of nature, or spiritual powers standing behind them.
The root meaning is a row or line of elements. That could be the sounds of a language, the earth, air, water and fire of physics, or the principles of a teaching. Wright reports that recent research finds the physical sense the most common. The word could also mean anything rudimentary, such as the alphabet. Many Gentiles revered the elements of the universe, such as wind, fire, stars and sea, as deities. Keener writes that "Judaism had long since demythologized them as angels who ruled over nature" (compare Psalm 148:2-4). Most people of the time feared personified Fate, thought to work its will through the astral spirits that ruled the stars. Some pagan thinkers after Euhemerus counted the sun, moon, planets and stars as gods by nature, unlike gods invented by people. Gentiles kept festivals for their gods and counted some days lucky or unlucky. Judaism had its own calendar of holy days, new moons and sabbatical years. The cultural backgrounds notes call a return to "a ceremonial, calendrical religion regulated by heavenly bodies they once regarded as gods" a return to pagan bondage. Wright points to Wisdom of Solomon 7:17-19, which joins the activity of the elements to solstices, seasons, the cycles of the year and the constellations. He also cites Philo on people who revere the elements under the names Hephaestus, Hera, Poseidon and Demeter. Phrygia's native cults, such as that of the mother goddess, were closely tied to nature. Arnold notes that pagans and Jews alike used words such as powers and world rulers for the spirits of the stars. He adds that Paul uses stoicheia only in letters to churches in Asia Minor.
An analogy: someone who gives up reading the horoscope page but keeps a private list of lucky and unlucky days. The rules have changed, and the fear underneath has not.
Because the word could mean basic rules, the stuff of the world or the powers worshiped in the sky, Galatians 4:3-10 can set the old life of Jews and of Gentiles side by side as two kinds of slavery. Colossians 2:8 warns against philosophy that follows the elements of the world rather than Christ, and 2 Peter 3:10 uses the word for the elements of the physical world.
Not a pagan habit carried over. The analogy pictures one superstition kept under new rules. Paul sets the Jewish calendar of the law, which God gave, beside the Galatians' old pagan days, and several sources read the elements of Galatians 4:3 as the law itself.
What the elements are in Galatians. The cultural backgrounds notes give two options: rudimentary principles kept by Jews and Gentiles, or, as many scholars hold, elements of the universe treated as gods. Keener reads the nature spirits the Galatians once worshiped, chief among them astral spirits tied to special days. The ESV Study Bible reads elementary principles, the law for Jews and pagan religion for Gentiles. Wright once read the guardian deities of the nations, but now writes "not the tutelary deities of the nations, as I have previously supposed", taking them as astral bodies or idols. Heiser splits Paul's usage: the law in 4:3, "divine beings, probably astral deities" in 4:9. Arnold reads personal spirits in both verses, calling that "the most compelling view", though his evidence comes mostly from the second and third centuries. The same split runs through Colossians 2:8 and 2:20. Keener writes that "here it may refer, as usually, to elementary principles". The ESV Study Bible writes, "Paul is likely using it here to refer to demonic spirits", and Arnold reads spirits that "inspire this teaching". Carson, Moo and Morris allow either sense.
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- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Galatians 4:3, 4:8, 4:9 and 4:10
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Galatians 4:3, 4:8, 4:9 and 4:10
- ESV Study Bible, study note on Galatians 4:3
- CSB Study Bible, note on Galatians 4:3
- N. T. Wright, Galatians, Commentary, The New Exodus (4:1-7)
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians, comment on Galatians 4:1-7
- Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm, ch. 37, This Means War, endnote on stoicheia
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Colossians 2:8
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Colossians 2:8
- ESV Study Bible, study note on Colossians 2:8
- CSB Study Bible, note on Colossians 2:8
- Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness, ch. 3, The Elementary Spirits of This World, with its notes, and ch. 9, Slavery to the Elemental Spirits (Galatians)
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry elements, elemental spirits
- Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness, ch. 10, The Connection of the False Teaching with the Powers
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters, comment on Colossians 2:20-3:4
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 13, Colossians, Occasion
