Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Galatians 4:3
Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
3. Even so we ] Both Jews and Gentiles, as such, i.e. before conversion to Christ.
children ] minors, as in Gal 4:1.
the elements of the world ] The exact meaning of this expression is doubtful. The word rendered ‘elements’ is translated ‘rudiments’ in Col 2:8; Col 2:20, and there, as in this passage, it has the qualifying addition, ‘of the world’. The senses assigned to the word are: (1) the material elements, which are supposed to constitute the physical universe, such as earth, fire, water, air and the heavenly bodies; and (2) rudimentary instruction, the alphabet of the human race, which it was taught in times antecedent to the Gospel revelation a system of rites and ceremonies, the picture-lessons of its childhood.
It is used in the former sense in two passages of St Peter (2Pe 3:10; 2Pe 3:12) and is so understood in this place by most of the older commentators. Theod. Mops. explains it of the sun and moon, by which months and years are measured, and refers it to that observance of days and seasons and months, which the Apostle condemns Gal 4:10. Others see a reference to the worship of the great powers of nature among the heathen, and the honours virtually paid to them by the Jews in their observance of weeks and years.
Most modern expositors adopt the second explanation, and suppose St Paul to represent “the religion of the world before Christ, especially the Jewish, as an elementary religion, or a religion of childhood, full of external rites and ceremonies, all of which had a certain educational significance, but pointed beyond themselves to an age of manhood in Christ”. These systems are characterised ( Gal 4:9) as ‘weak and beggarly’ (see note there). In Col 2:8 these ‘rudiments of the world’ are placed in parallelism with ‘the traditions of men’, and are closely associated with ‘philosophy and vain deceit’ which Clement of Alexandria explains as referring to Greek philosophy. The expression here seems to include all those systems of religion and philosophy which prevailed in the world, prior and preparatory to the dispensation of the Spirit, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Subservience to these was slavery. Of the Jewish ceremonial we read that it consisted “only in meats and drinks and divers washings and ordinances of the flesh imposed, pressing heavily on them, until the time of reformation.” Heb 9:10. Yet more burdensome were the requirements of Rabbinic Judaism, and of most heathen systems of religion.
of the world ] Not only sensuous, material, as opposed to spiritual; but as embracing under various systems the whole human race.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Even so we – We who were Jews – for so I think the word here is to be limited, and not extended to the pagan, as Bloomfield supposes. The reasons for limiting it are:
- That the pagans in no sense sustained such a relation to the Law and promises of Gad as is here supposed;
- Such an interpretation would not be pertinent to the design of Paul. He is stating reasons why there should not be subjection to the laws of Moses, and his argument is, that that condition was like that of bondage or minorship.
When we were children – ( nepioi). Minors; see the note at Gal 4:1. The word is not huioi, sons; but the idea is, that they were in a state of non-age; and though heirs, yet were under severe discipline and regimen. They were under a kind of government that was suited to that state, and not to the condition of those who had entered on their inheritance.
Were in bondage – In a state of servitude. Treated as servants or slaves.
Under the elements of the world – Margin, Rudiments. The word rendered elements (sing. stoicheion), properly means a row or series; a little step; a pin or peg, as the gnomen of a dial; and then anything elementary, as a sound, a letter. It then denotes the elements or rudiments of any kind of instruction, and in the New Testament is applied to the first lessons or principles of religion; Heb 5:12. It is applied to the elements or component parts of the physical world; 2Pe 3:10, 2Pe 3:12. Here the figure is kept up of the reference to the infant Gal 4:1, Gal 4:3; and the idea is, that lessons were taught under the Jewish system adapted to their nonage – to a state of childhood. They were treated as children under tutors and governors. The phrase the elements of the world, occurs also in Col 2:8, Col 2:20. In Gal 4:9, Paul speaks of these lessons as beggarly elements, referring to the same thing as here.
Different opinions have been held as to the reason why the Jewish institutions are here called the elements of the world. Rosenmuller supposes it was because many of those rites were common to the Jews and to the pagan – as they also had altars, sacrifices, temples, libations, etc. Doddridge supposes it was because those rites were adapted to the low conceptions of children, who were most affected with sensible objects, and have no taste for spiritual and heavenly things. Locke supposes it was because those institutions led them not beyond this world, or into the possession and taste of their heavenly inheritance. It is probable that there is allusion to the Jewish manner of speaking, so common in the Scriptures, where this world is opposed to the kingdom of God, and where it is spoken of as transient and worthless compared with the future glory. The world is fading, unsatisfactory, temporary. In allusion to this common use of the word, the Jewish institutions are called the wordly rudiments. It is not that they were in themselves evil – for that is not true; it is not that they were adapted to foster a worldly spirit – for that is not true; it is not that they had their origin from this world – for that is not true; nor is it from the fact that they resembled the institutions of the pagan world – for that is as little true; but it is, that, like the things of the world, they were transient, temporary, and of little value. They were unsatisfactory in their nature, and were soon to pass away, and to give place to a better system – as the things of this world are soon to give place to heaven.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Gal 4:3
Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.
The elements of this world
The law was so called.
I. In respect of the fuller and complete doctrine of the new testament.
II. Because Jewry was a little school set up in a corner of the world and the law an A.B.C. or primer in which Christ was revealed in an elementary and obscure manner. Thus we see–
1. That Gods ancient people were heirs as well as we: the only difference is the manner which God used in dispensing His blessings.
2. That they were but children in respect of us;
(1) as regards the Mosaic regimen: they were kept subject to more laws than we;
(2) as regards revelation: God has revealed more to us than to them (Luk 10:24; Heb 1:1-2).
3. That we should increase in the knowledge and grace of God so as to be answerable to our condition. How sad that a Christian who should be a teacher is often a babe (Heb 5:12).
4. That we should rejoice in and live conformably to our privilege as sons. (W. Perkins.)
Children cannot have presented to them pure intellectual conceptions
They must first learn the import of external signs. They must learn language and letters. They must put together syllables and words. They must see thought through the medium of form, or learn to think of what is moral and spiritual by facts, parables, pictures, or such like appeals to the imagination and the senses. For a time words to the young mind are things–stories are facts. By and by the inward meaning of what has been learned comes to be understood. The outward ultimately falls off or loses its primary aspect and uses; and the man, with his fully developed and perfected faculties, is in immediate contact with the abstract and the spiritual. He then feels as if he apprehended it, and could reason about it, or at least meditate upon it, without the aid of words and signs. When I was a child, etc. (1Co 12:11-13). Then I saw through a glass darkly–feeling after truth as reflected from a mirror, or presented in a parable; now I look upon it face to face. (T. Binney, D. D.)
All mankind, the whole race of Adam, were until the Incarnation of Christ as children
1. Because of their want of knowledge of God and the feebleness of their intellect in the things of God.
2. Because of their condition as under the laws of nature or of ceremonies, so that they were no better than servants under the control of a taskmaster.
But to the Jews especially does this word children apply–
1. As being ordinarily busied about small things, minute observances–the occupation of children.
2. Because of the littleness of their knowledge of Divine things.
3. Because of their fear of correction, their timidity as children, going ever in the fear of death (W. Denton, M. A.)
The minor
I. His position–one of restraint, subservience, dependence.
II. His training–suitable (v. 3), wise, appointed and limited by the Father.
III. His prospects–well grounded, magnificent, conditional. (J. Lyth.)
Childhood is a period of–
I. Subjection.
II. Instruction.
III. Anticipation. (J. Lyth.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 3. Even so we] The whole Jewish people were in a state of nonage while under the law.
The elements of the world] A mere Jewish phrase, yesodey olam hazzeh, “the principles of this world;” that is, the rudiments or principles of the Jewish religion. The apostle intimates that the law was not the science of salvation, it was only the elements or alphabet of it; and in the Gospel this alphabet is composed into a most glorious system of Divine knowledge: but as the alphabet is nothing of itself, unless compounded into syllables, words, sentences, and discourses; so the law, taken by itself, gives no salvation; it contains indeed the outlines of the Gospel, but it is the Gospel alone that fills up these outlines.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Such children were all believers, the seed of Abraham; from the first designed to a gospel liberty, but that was not to be fully enjoyed, until the fulness of time should come when God intended to send his Son into the world; and during the time of their nonage they were kept under the law, as a tutor and governor, leading them unto Christ. He chiefly intendeth the ceremonial law, which, Act 15:10, Peter calleth a yoke, which neither they nor their fathers were able to bear. He calls these ordinances the elements of the world; so also Col 2:20; he means that discipline by which God instructed, and under which God by Moses at first tutored, the world, that is, the Jews, who were that part of the world to whom God pleased to make his oracles known. He calls those ritual observances, elements, or rudiments, because they were the first instructions God gave believers, leading them to Christ; like the first elements or rudiments in grammar learning.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3. wethe Jews primarily, andinclusively the Gentiles also. For the “we” in Ga4:5 plainly refers to both Jew and Gentile believers. TheJews in their bondage to the law of Moses, as the representativepeople of the world, include all mankind virtually amenable to God’slaw (Rom 2:14; Rom 2:15;compare Note, see on Ga3:13; Ga 3:23). Even theGentiles were under “bondage,” and in a state of disciplinesuitable to nonage, till Christ came as the Emancipator.
were in bondageas”servants” (Ga 4:1).
under the elementsor”rudiments”; rudimentary religion teaching of anon-Christian character: the elementary lessons of outward things(literally, “of the [outward] world”); such as the legalordinances mentioned, Ga 4:10(Col 2:8; Col 2:20).Our childhood’s lessons [CONYBEAREand HOWSON]. Literally,The letters of the alphabet (Heb5:12).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Even so we,…. Jews, for of such the apostle is only speaking, and to whom he applies the above case of heirs in minority; it was to the Jews he had spoken of the law, as being a military guard, a prison, and a schoolmaster to them; and then having addressed the Gentiles, as being the children of God, baptized into Christ, one in him, interested in him, the spiritual seed of Abraham, and heirs of all the blessings of grace and glory; he returns to the Jews, and represents their estate and condition under the law by the above simile, which he here makes an application of:
when we were children; not in age, but in knowledge of divine, spiritual, and evangelical things; which must be understood not of every individual person among them, for there were some grown men, men of great faith, light, knowledge, and experience; but of the bulk and generality of the people of the Jews, and that also in comparison of the clear understanding of the saints under the Gospel dispensation. The Jews were like children, peevish, froward, and perverse, and often stood in need of correction and chastisement; and as children are pleased with pictures, shows, sights, and gaudy amusements, so they were taken with an external pompous form of worship, and which they had, and was suited to their infant state; and which infant state of the Jewish church commenced from the time of their coming up out of Egypt, and lasted until the times of the Messiah; see Ho 11:1.
Were in bondage under the elements of the world; by which are meant, not the four elements of fire, water, earth, and air; nor the angels, who by some are thought to preside over them; nor the sun and moon, according to whose revolutions the festivals of the Jews were regulated; but the several institutions of the Mosaic economy, which were to the Jews what an A B C, or an alphabet of letters, is to one that is beginning to learn; or what an accidence and grammar be to such who are learning any language, and which contain the rudiments of it; as the physical elements are the first principles of nature, and the general rules of speech and language are the rudiments thereof, so the Mosaic institutions were the elements, rudiments, or first principles of the Jewish religion, taught them by the law, as their schoolmaster, and by which they were used as children: these are called “elements”, in allusion to the first principles of nature and learning; and the elements “of the world”, because they lay in outward worldly and earthly things, as meats, drinks, divers washings, c. and because that hereby God instructed the world, at least a part of it, the world of the Jews: or as the word may be rendered “beauty”, or “elegancy”, these were elegant elements, which in a most beautiful manner taught the people of the Jews the first principles of the doctrine of Christ: but nevertheless, whilst they were under the instructions and discipline of the law as a schoolmaster, “they were in bondage” referring not to their bondage in Egypt, nor in the several captivities into which they were carried by their neighbours; nor to the bondage of sin and Satan, common to all men in a state of nature; but to the bondage which the law naturally gendered, led them to, induced upon them, and kept them in, through its sanctions and penalties; for, through fear of death, they were under a servile disposition, and were all their lifetime subject to bondage; they carried a yoke of bondage upon their necks, and were under a spirit of bondage unto fear; they were like children closely kept to school to learn their letters, say their lessons, and perform their tasks; and, if not, receive due correction, which kept them in continual fear and bondage.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
When we were children ( ). Before the epoch of faith came and we (Jews and Gentiles) were under the law as paedagogue, guardian, steward, to use all of Paul’s metaphors.
We were held in bondage ( ). Periphrastic past perfect of , to enslave, in a permanent state of bondage.
Under the rudiments of the world ( ). is row or rank, a series. So is any first thing in a like the letters of the alphabet, the material elements in the universe (2Pe 3:10), the heavenly bodies (some argue for that here), the rudiments of any act (Heb 5:12; Acts 15:10; Gal 5:1; Gal 4:3; Gal 4:9; Col 2:8; Col 2:20). The papyri illustrate all the varieties in meaning of this word. Burton has a valuable excursus on the word in his commentary. Probably here (Lightfoot) Paul has in mind the rudimentary character of the law as it applies to both Jews and Gentiles, to all the knowledge of the world ( as the orderly material universe as in Col 2:8; Col 2:20). See on Matt 13:38; Acts 17:24; 1Cor 3:22. All were in the elementary stage before Christ came.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
We. Not Jewish Christians only, but all Christians. For in verse 5, Jewish Christians are distinctly characterized as those under the law, while the following we, subjects of Christian adoption, points back to the we in this verse. Again, elements of the world is too wide a conception to suit the law, which was given to Israel only.
Elements of the world [ ] . For the word stoiceia in N. T. see Col 2:8, 20; Heb 5:12; 2Pe 3:10, 12. See on 2Pe 3:10. Interpretations differ.
1. Elements of knowledge, rudimentary religiou s ideas. See Heb 5:12. The meaning of world will then be, the material as distinguished from the spiritual realm. Elements of the world will be the crude beginnings of religion, suited to the condition of children, and pertaining to those who are not Christians : elementary religious truths belonging to mankind in general. Thus the Jewish economy was of the world as appealing to the senses, and affording only the first elements of a spiritual system. The child – heir was taught only faint outlines of spiritual truth, and was taught them by worldly symbols.
2. Elements of nature – of the physical world, especially the heavenly bodies. See 2Pe 3:10, 12; Wisd. 7 17. According to this explanation, the point would be that the ordering of the religious life was regulated by the order of nature; “the days, months, times,” etc. (verse 10), as well as the heathen festivals, being dependent on the movements of the heavenly bodies. This was the patristic view (Ambrose, Augustine, Chrysostom, Theodoret).
3. The elements of the world are the personal, elemental spirits. This seems to be the preferable explanation, both here and in Col 2:8. According to Jewish ideas, all things had their special angels. In the Book of Jubilees, chapter 2, appear, the angel of the presence (comp. Isa 63:9); the angel of adoration; the spirits of the wind, the clouds, darkness, hail, frost, thunder and lightning, winter and spring, cold and heat. In the Book of Enoch, 82 10 – 14, appear the angels of the stars, who keep watch that the stars may appear at the appointed time, and who are punished if the stars do not appear (xviii. 15).
In the Revelation of John we find four angels of the winds (xiv. 18); the angel of the waters (xvi. 5); the age in the sun (xix. 17). In Heb 1:7 we read, “who maketh his angels winds.” Paul also recognizes elemental forces of the spiritual world. The thorn is “a messenger of Satan” (2Co 12:7); Satan prevents his journey to Thessalonica (1Th 2:18); the Corinthian offender is to be “delivered to Satan” (1Co 5:5); the Kingdom of God is opposed by “principalities and powers” (1Co 14:24); Christians wrestle against “the rulers of the darkness of this world; against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the upper regions” (Eph 6:12). In this passage the elements of the world are compared with overseers and stewards. This would seem to require a personal interpretation. In verse 8, “did service to them which by nature are no gods,” appears to be = “in bondage under the elements,” suggesting a personal interpretation of the latter. The Galatians had turned again to the observance of times and seasons (verse 10), which were controlled by the heavenly bodies and their spirits. 68
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Even so we, when we were children,” (houtos kai hemeis hote hemen nepioi) “So also we when we were infants).” Spiritually immature children under the law of Moses, during the law era of rituals, deeds, and ceremonies of the law ” we who were Jews, when infants.”
2) “Were in bondage”, (emetha dedoulomenoi) “We were having been enslaved,” to the daily doing of the law deeds that reminded them of their sinfulness and pointed in type to the coming Redeemer.
3) “Under the elements of the world,” (hupo ta stoicheia tou kosmou) “Under the elements of the world,” the world-order of persons and things, in spiritual darkness, guided by the moral precepts of the ten commandments, and civil and social forms of Greek and Roman laws. These were referred to as “weak and beggarly,” Verse 9. Enslaved attachment to the social, moral, and ethical standards and elements of the World order to obtain Divine righteousness is to be considered a conflict with Christian and Divine Standards, Col 2:8; Col 2:20; 1Jn 2:15-17; Jas 1:27.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
3. Under the elements of the world. Elements may either mean, literally, outward and bodily things, or, metaphorically, rudiments. I prefer the latter interpretation. But why does he say that those things which had a spiritual signification were of the world ? We did not, he says, enjoy the truth in a simple form, but involved in earthly figures; and consequently, what was outward must have been “of the world,” though there was concealed under it a heavenly mystery.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(3) We.That is, in the first instance, and specially, the Jews; but the Gentiles are also included. The Apostle is speaking from the point of view of the Christians: all who are now Christians, whatever their antecedents. Before the coming of Christ both Jews and Gentiles had been subject to law; and what the Apostle says of the law of Moses applies more faintly to the law of conscience and of nature.
Elements of the world.The word translated elements is peculiar. The simpler word from whence it is derived means a row. Hence the derivative is applied to the letters of the alphabet, because they were arranged in rows. Thus it came to mean the elements or rudiments of learning, and then elements of any kind. The older commentators on this passage, for the most part, took it in the special sense of the elements of nature, the heavenly bodies, either as the objects of Gentile worship or as marking the times of the Jewish festivals. There is, however, little doubt that the other sense is best: the elements (or rudiments, as in the margin) of religious teaching. These are called the elements of the world because they were mundane and material; they included no clear recognition of spiritual things. The earlier forms of Gentile and even of Jewish religion were much bound up with the senses; the most important element in them was that of ritual. The same phrase, in the same sense, occurs twice in the Epistle to the Colossians (Col. 2:8; Col. 2:20).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3. Even so Introducing the parallel growth of the child and of race in religion. The nice adjustment of parallel terms and phrases must be specially marked. Children answers to child, Gal 4:1; bondage to servant; elements to tutors and governors. We That Gentiles as well as Jews are included as children and heirs is clear from Gal 4:8. Gentilism is thus viewed in its aspect of a preparatory dispensation, a previous stage to Christianity. See notes on Act 17:22-23.
Elements The Greek word is derived from a root signifying a row, or any objects standing in rows, ranks, or orders. Hence it became a term for the letters of the alphabet.
And as nature is viewed in rows and orders, so it came to signify the elements of nature, which were then held to be earth, air, fire, and water. Thence, from their visible order, or from their orderly measurement of time, the term was applied to the heavenly bodies, the sun, moon, and stars. By the phrase elements of the world, here, most of the ancient interpreters understood the heavenly bodies, as objects of worship among Gentiles. But that does not fit the parallelism between the child and the early human race. The parallelism requires that alphabetic elements should be understood, adjusted to under tutors. These elements are of the world in that sense of the world in which it is in antithesis to the Christian Church, and so includes Judaism in its adverse aspect, as well as Gentilism.
The latter is viewed in its most favourable aspect in order to its being associated with Judaism. Both, then, are viewed as unknowing Christ, yet preparatory to Christ.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the rudiments (elements) of the world.’
All men are under some restraint, whether through the Law, or tradition, or their own laws, or regulations and rules, or the principles by which their society is governed, or by philosophical ideas, or even in their own minds by their belief in invisible forces and influences over which they have no control, mediums, fortune-tellers, astrologers, fate, and so on. Thus they are like children kept under by forces outside their control, and are in bondage.
‘Rudiments, elements (stoicheion).’ This refers to elements of learning, fundamental principles, basic religious ideas and even the spoken alphabet. It could also refer to the elemental spirits such as fire, air, earth and water, and to the heavenly bodies as having influence on the world. But the former would seem to be more in mind here, for it includes the subjection to the observance of days and months and seasons and years (Gal 4:10). Paul may, however, have intended to include all influences and restraints on men, whatever they were.
Thus man is under all kinds of ‘laws’. This reminds us that, while when Paul is speaking of the Law he has the Jewish Law firmly in mind, he also includes, in the background, whatever laws may control men. It is just as true of religious ‘laws’ today as it ever was.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Gal 4:3. Even so we, It is plain that St. Paul speaks here in the name of the Jews or Jewish church, which, though God’s peculiar people, yet was to pass a nonage,so St. Paul calls it,under the restraint and tutelage of the law; and not to receive the possession of the promised inheritance till Christ came.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Gal 4:3 . ] embraces Christians generally, the Jewish and Gentile Christians together . In favour of this view we may decisively urge, (1) the sense of (see below); (2) Gal 4:5 , where the first applies to the Jewish Christians, but the second, reverting to the first person, applies to Christians generally, because the address to the readers which follows in Gal 4:6 represents these as a whole, and not merely the Jewish Christians among them, as included in the preceding ; lastly, (3) that the and , said of the Galatians in Gal 4:7-8 , point back to the state of slavery of the in Gal 4:3 . Therefore is not to be understood as referring either merely to the Jewish Christians (Chrysostom and most expositors, including Grotius, Estius, Morus, Flatt, Usteri, Schott, Baumgarten-Crusius, de Wette, Wieseler); or as Hofmann in consistency with his erroneous reference of Gal 3:29 to the Gentile readers holds to “the Old Testament church of God, which has now passed over into the New Testament church;” or to the Jewish Christians pre-eminently (Koppe, Rckert, Matthies, Olshausen); or, lastly, even to the Gentile Christians alone (Augustine).
] characterizes, in terms of the prevailing comparison, the pre-Christian condition , which, in relation to the Christian condition of the same persons, was their age of boyhood . Elsewhere Paul has represented the condition of the Christians before the Parousia, in comparison with their state after the Parousia, as a time of boyhood. See 1Co 13:11 ; Eph 4:13 .
.] corresponds, as application, to the . The word which denotes primarily a stake or peg standing in a row, then a letter of the alphabet (Plat. Theaet . p. 202 E; Xen. Mem . ii. 1. 1; Arist. Poet . ii. 2; Lucian, Jud. voc . 12), then, like , element (see Rudolph on Ocell . p. 402 ff.) means here at all events element , [174] which signification has developed itself from the idea of a letter , inasmuch as a word is a series of the letters which form it (Walz, Rhetor . VI. p. 110). In itself, however, it might be used either in the physical sense of elementary substances , which Plato (Ruhnk. ad Tim . p. 283) calls also (2Pe 3:10 ; 2Pe 3:12 ; Wis 7:17 ; Wis 19:18 ; 4Ma 12:13 ; Plat. Tim . p. 48 B, 56 B, Polit . p. 278 C; Philo, de Opif. m . p. 7, 11, Cherub . p. 162; Clem. Hom . x. 9), as it frequently occurs in Greek authors applied to the so-called four elements (comp. Suidas, s.v .), or in the intellectual sense of rudimenta, first principles (Heb 5:12 ; Plut. de pueror. educ . 16; Isocr. p. 18 A; Nicol. ap. Stob . xiv. 7. 31; see Wetstein). In the latter sense the verb was used to signify the instruction given to catechumens; Constitt. ap . vi. 18. 1, vii. 25. 2. Comp. our expression the A, B, C of an art or science. [175] In the physical sense in which it is used by later Greek authors for designating the stars (Diog. L. vi. 102; Man. iv. 624; Eustath. Od . p. 1671, 53) it was understood by most of the Fathers: either as by Augustine ( de civ. D . iv. 11), who thought of the Gentile adoration of the heavenly bodies and of other nature-worship; or as by Chrysostom, Theodoret, Ambrose, Pelagius, who referred it to the Jewish observance of new moons, feasts, and Sabbaths, which was regulated by the course of the moon and sun. So, combining the Gentile and Jewish cultus, Hilgenfeld, p. 66 (comp. in his Zeitschr . 1858, p. 99; 1866, p. 314), who ascribes to the apostle the heterogeneous idea of “sidereal powers of heaven,” that is, of the stars as powerful animated beings (comp. Baur and Holsten); and Caspari (in the Strassb. Beitr . 1854, p. 206 ff.), in whose view Paul is supposed to have placed Mosaism in the category of star and nature worship; and likewise Reithmayr, although without such extravagances. But because the expression does not apply either merely to the circumstances of the heathen, or merely to those of the Jewish, cultus (see, on the contrary, Gal 4:8-10 ), to the latter of which it is in the physical sense not at all suitable, for the Jewish celebrations of days and the like were by no means a star-worship or other (possibly unconscious) worship of nature , under which man would have been in bondage, but were an imperfect worship of God and because the context suggests nothing else than the contrast between the imperfect and the perfect religion, as well as also on account of the correlation to , the physical sense of is altogether to be rejected. [176] Besides, it would be difficult to perceive why Paul, if he had thought of the stars, should not have written instead of . Hence Jerome (also in Theophylact, and Gennadius in Oecumenius, p. 747 D), Erasmus, Castalio, Beza, Calvin, Grotius, and most of the later expositors, though with various modifications, have correctly adhered to the sense rudimenta disciplinae , which alone corresponds to the notion of the (for the age of childhood does not get beyond first prineiples ). The are the elements of non-Christian humanity ( ; see 1Co 6:2 ; 1Co 11:32 , et al .), that is, the elementary things, the immature beginnings of religion, which occupy the minds of those who are still without the pale of Christianity. Not having attained to the perfect religion, the has still to do with the religious elementary state, to which it is in bondage, as in the position of a servant. Rudiments of this sort are expressly mentioned in Gal 4:10 ; hence we must understand the expression, not in a onesided fashion as the elementary knowledge , the beginnings of religious perception in the non-Christian world (comp. Kienlen, in the Strassb. Beitr . II. p. 133 ff.) with which neither the idea of the relation as slavery , nor the inclusion of the Jewish and Gentile worships under one category would harmonize but as the rudimenta ritualia , the ceremonial character of Judaism and heathenism , [177] with which, however, is also combined the corresponding imperfection of religious knowledge. Comp. Col 2:8 ; Col 2:20 . Against the explanation, “ religious elementary things of the world,” the objection has been made, that this idea is not suitable either to Judaism, in so far as the latter was a divine revelation, or even to heathenism, which, according to Paul, is something foreign to religion; see especially Neander. But the latter part of the objection is erroneous (Act 17:22-23 ); and the former part is disposed of, when in the light of the pretensions put forth by the apostle’s opponents, which were chiefly based on the ceremonial side of the law we take into account the relative character of the idea rudimenta , according to which Judaism, when compared with Christianity as the absolute religion, may, although a divine institution, yet be included under the notion of , because destined only for the and serving a transitory propaedeutic purpose. Comp. Baur, Paulus , II. p. 222, Exo 2 ; Weiss, bibl. Theol . p. 289; also Ritschl, altkath. K . p. 73. Most of the older expositors, as also Olshausen, Baumgarten-Crusius, de Wette (with many various and mistaken interpretations of ; see Wolf and Rckert in loc .), have referred the expression merely to Judaism (the law “as a means of training calculated only for the age of childhood,” de Wette, who is followed by Wieseler), whilst Koppe and Schott only allow the analogous nature of ethnicism to be included incidentally; but, besides what has been above remarked on , these views are at variance with the idea of . This idea is, at all events, too wide to suit the law , which was given to the people of Israel only; whether it be taken as applying to mankind generally (de Wette, Wieseler), or to the unbelieving portion of mankind , in contrast to the in a Christian sense. [178] Certainly it might appear unwise (see especially Wieseler) that Paul should have placed Judaism and heathenism in one category. But, in point of fact, he has to deal with Judaistic seductions occurring in churches chiefly Gentile-Christian : he might therefore, with the view of more effectually warning them and putting them to shame, so designate the condition of bondage to which by these seductions they were induced to revert, as to comprehend it in the same category with the heathen cultus, from the bondage of which they had been not long before liberated by Christianity. According to Hofmann, the . are contrasted with the promise given to Abraham of the , Rom 4:13 . He supposes that out of the destruction of the material elements of the present world (2Pe 3:10 ) the (Heb 2:5 ) will arise, and that this will derive its nature and character from the Spirit , the communication of which is the beginning of the fulfilment of that promise. Israel, however, has been in bondage under the material elements of which the present world is composed, inasmuch as in what it did and what it left undone it was subject to stringent laws, which had reference to the world in its existing materiality; it had to conform itself to the things of this corporeal world, whilst the promise had been made to it that it should be lord of all things . Apart from the erroneous application of (see above), every essential point in this interpretation is gratuitously introduced . In particular, the contrast on which it is based namely, that of the new world of the which is to come is utterly foreign not only to the whole context, but even to the words themselves; for, if Paul had had this contrast in view, he must, in order not to leave his readers wholly without a hint of it, have at least added a (1Co 7:31 ; 1Co 1:20 ; 1Co 3:19 ; Eph 2:2 ) to . [179] It is, moreover, incorrect to discover in the the opposite of the future world, so far as the latter has its nature from the Spirit . The world of the , as the new heaven and the new earth (2Pe 3:13 ), must likewise be corporeally material, and must have its , although the of the old world will have passed away (comp. on 1Co 7:31 ).
.] may be taken either together, or separately; the latter is to be preferred, because it corresponds more emphatically to the (Gal 4:1 ) and the (in Gal 4:2 ): we were enslaved ones .
[174] A point on which almost all expositors agree. Yet Luther, 1519, following the precedent of Tertull. c. Marc . v. 4, adopted the signification of letters: “pro ipsis literis legis, quibus lex constat. Mundi autem vocat, quod sint de iis rebus, quae in mundo sunt.” So also in 1524, and at least to a similar effect in 1538. More recently Michaelis has also explained it as letters; holding that the acts of the Levitical law were intended, because, taken as a whole, they had preached the gospel by anticipation. Similarly Nsselt, Opusc . II. p. 209, takes as signs (Arist. Eccl . 652, where it is used for the shadow of the plate on the sun-dial; comp. Lucian, Gall . 9, Cronos . 17), holding that the Jewish ceremonies are thus named because they prefigured the future Christian worship. These views are all erroneous, because the expression . applies also to Gentile habits.
[175] Comp. generally, Schaubach, Commentat. quid in N.T. sibi velint , Meining. 1862.
[176] With strange arbitrariness Schulthess ( Engelwelt , pp. 113, 129) has recently anticipated Hilgenfeld in re-asserting this sense; holding that the stars are meant, but that Paul is glancing at the Jewish ministry of angels (Job 38:7 (!)). More thoroughly Schneckenburger (in the theol. Jahrb . 1848, p. 445 ff.) has again defended the physical reference ( elements of the visible world ). Comp. Holsten, z. Ev. d. Paul. u. Petr . p. 323. In this interpretation the law must be excepted (as is done by Holsten) from the , an exception which is forbidden by the whole connection with ch. 3, and is also inconsistent with the concrete instances in vv. 8 and 10; see above. Neander also who, however, introduces the idea of the sensuous forms of religion would retain the physical reference, which is decidedly assumed by Lipsius ( Rechtfertigungsl . p. 83), who specially commends the interpretation of Hilgenfeld; whilst Messner ( Lehre d. Ap . p. 226) agrees in substance with Neander, holding that . is “the dependence of the religious consciousness on the earthly, sensuous, perishable things, of which this earthly , as to its fundamental elements, consists.” But why, then, the restriction “as to its fundamental elements? ” And the idea of perishableness is imported . Ewald understands by it the elements of the world , into the whole of which life must be brought through the spirit, and unity and meaning through God; it comprehends the Jewish observances as to meats and days, as well as the heathen star-worship. Yet how unsuited to popular apprehension (as pertaining to natural philosophy) would the whole expression thus be! an enigmatic designation for the heathen worship, and an unsuitable one for the Jewish cultus, which is based on divine precept. As to the way in which Hofmann understands the material elements of the world, see the sequel.
[177] Comp. Schaubach, l.c . p. 9 ff.
[178] Olshausen, feeling the difficulty which the idea of puts in the way of the reference to Judaism, hits upon the arbitrary expedient of taking the expression to apply to the merely external and literal way of apprehending the O. T., which confines itself merely to the actions, without considering the idea involved in them. “This was the procedure of the Judaists, and in this shape the Old Test. appeared not merely as the beginning of divine life, but also as given over to the world ,” etc.
[179] He does not add in Col 2:8 ; Col 2:20 , just because the contrast suggested by Hofmann was far from his thoughts.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
Ver. 3. When we were children ] Gr. , infants, babies, that must be pleased with rattles; so the old Church with carnal ceremonies.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
3 .] are Jews only here included, or Jews and Gentiles? Clearly, both : for . . is spoken of all believers in Christ. He regards the Jews as, for this purpose, including all mankind (see note on ch. Gal 3:23 ), God’s only positive dealings by revelation being with them and the Gentiles as partakers both in their infant-discipline, and in their emancipation in Christ.
refers, not to any immaturity of capacity in us , but to the lifetime of the church, as regarded in the : see below on Gal 4:4 .
] Aug. interprets this physically, of the worship of the elements of nature by the Gentiles: Chrys., Thdrt., al., of the Jewish new moons and sabbaths: Neander (Pfl. u. Leit. p. 370), of a religion of sense as opposed to that of the spirit. But it is more natural to take in its simpler meaning, that of letters or symbols of the alphabet, and not in its worst sense, but as in Heb 9:1 , , ‘belonging to the unspiritual outer world.’ Thus (as in reff. Col.) the words will mean, the elementary lessons of outward things (as Conybeare has rendered it in his note: ‘outward ordinances,’ in his text, is not so good). Of this kind were all the enactments peculiar to the Law; some of which are expressly named, Gal 4:10 . See well discussed in Ellicott’s note; and some useful remarks in Jowett, in loc.
Meyer prefers taking and separate: ‘we were under the elements of the world, enslaved:’ as answering better to above.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Gal 4:3 . : children, i.e. , spiritually children. The clause points to the stage of undeveloped spiritual life through which converts from heathenism had passed, the spiritual childhood which had been the lot of earlier generations before the time was ripe for the Advent. . The association of this word with fixes on it the conception of a rudimentary training to which the world was subjected during its spiritual infancy by way of preparation for the Gospel of Christ and the dispensation of the Spirit. Before men could enter into the spirit of His teaching, they had to learn the elementary principles of religion and morality. Compulsory obedience to definite rules of justice and order was a necessary preparation for the freedom of the Spirit. This preliminary education was given to the Hebrews in the Ten Commandments and the Law, it was imparted to a wider world in Greek civilisation and philosophy, in Roman law and government, and in other forms of national and social life. These rudiments are disparaged in Gal 4:9 as weak and beggarly in comparison with the teaching of the Spirit, for Christian men ought to have outgrown their spiritual childhood. So, again, in Col 2:8 ; Col 2:20 , they are condemned wherever their traditional hold on human society produces an antagonism to the higher teaching of Christ. But before the Advent they formed a valuable discipline for the education of the world.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Even so we = So we also.
in bondage = enslaved. Greek. douloo App-190.
elements = elementary rules. Greek. stoicheion. Here, Gal 4:9. Col 2:8, Col 2:20. Heb 5:12. 2Pe 3:10, 2Pe 3:12. Compare Rom 2:14, Rom 2:15.
world. Greek. kosmos. App-129.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
3.] -are Jews only here included, or Jews and Gentiles? Clearly, both: for . . is spoken of all believers in Christ. He regards the Jews as, for this purpose, including all mankind (see note on ch. Gal 3:23), Gods only positive dealings by revelation being with them-and the Gentiles as partakers both in their infant-discipline, and in their emancipation in Christ.
refers, not to any immaturity of capacity in us, but to the lifetime of the church, as regarded in the : see below on Gal 4:4.
] Aug. interprets this physically, of the worship of the elements of nature by the Gentiles: Chrys., Thdrt., al., of the Jewish new moons and sabbaths: Neander (Pfl. u. Leit. p. 370), of a religion of sense as opposed to that of the spirit. But it is more natural to take in its simpler meaning, that of letters or symbols of the alphabet, and not in its worst sense, but as in Heb 9:1, ,-belonging to the unspiritual outer world. Thus (as in reff. Col.) the words will mean, the elementary lessons of outward things (as Conybeare has rendered it in his note: outward ordinances, in his text, is not so good). Of this kind were all the enactments peculiar to the Law; some of which are expressly named, Gal 4:10. See well discussed in Ellicotts note; and some useful remarks in Jowett, in loc.
Meyer prefers taking and separate: we were under the elements of the world, enslaved: as answering better to above.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Gal 4:3. , under the elements of the world)-, an element) A certain first principle, from which other things arise and are constituted; in the universe, 2Pe 3:10, see note: and in letters (learning), Heb 5:12 (comp. , respecting the child in the womb, 2Ma 7:22): thence by Metonymy, elements of the world in this passage, likewise weak and beggarly elements, presently, Gal 4:9, i.e. principles of living, which depend on times marked out by the motion of the elements, i.e. of the sun and moon; likewise principles which refer to meat, drink, and other sublunary matters, all these being only material and external objects, Gal 3:28.-Comp. Col 2:8; Col 2:16; Col 2:20, etc. They are called tutors in the concrete, elements in the abstract. The Son of God, sent down from heaven, and the Spirit of the Son of God, Gal 4:6, are opposed to these worldly things.-, reduced to slavery [in bondage]) This answers to, He differs nothing from a slave [servant], Gal 4:1.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Gal 4:3
Gal 4:3
So we also, when we were children,-Even when they were children, incapable of being moved by promises of future good, God kept them for a time under the law of Moses before he granted to them the high honors and privileges of the gospel of Christ. This family through which the seed was to come he kept under the law, training and qualifying them to enjoy the privileges of the promises through Christ.
were held in bondage under the rudiments-Paul represents the Jewish system as an elementary religion of childhood, full of external rites and ceremonies, pointing beyond themselves to an age of manhood in Christ. The whole Old Testament dispensation was an elementary or a preparatory school for the gospel, a religion of types and shadows, of hope and promise, destined to lose itself in Christ as its substance and fulfillment.
of the world:-[Not the physical universe, but mankind which needed such a training for the coming Messiah. It may be that the expression comprehends the heathens as well as the Jews. But the Jews were in fact the religious representatives of the whole race of mankind in the motion towards Christ.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
world
kosmos = mankind. (See Scofield “Mat 4:8”)
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
when: Gal 3:19, Gal 3:24, Gal 3:25
in: Gal 4:9, Gal 4:25, Gal 4:31, Gal 2:4, Gal 3:23, Gal 5:1, Mat 11:28, Joh 8:31, Act 15:10, Rom 8:15
elements: or, rudiments, Gal 4:9, Col 2:8, Col 2:20, Heb 7:16
Reciprocal: Act 6:14 – change 2Co 11:20 – if a man bring Eph 4:6 – God Heb 7:11 – perfection Heb 9:10 – carnal
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Gal 4:3. , -Even so we also, when we were children-not individually or in our own previous personal lives, but the reference is to the church in its past immature state. is used in the comparison-the heir was for a time , and we too are -in pointed parallel. Klotz-Devarius, vol. 2.635; Winer, 53, 5.
Who are meant by has been disputed. The previous illustration as to spiritual relationship to Abraham and the spheres of law and faith leads naturally to the conclusion that the are Jewish Christians, especially as the Son of God is declared in the next verse to have been born under law-that is, Jewish law-to redeem them who were under it. Such is the view of Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, Grotius, Estius, Usteri, Schott, De Wette, Baumgarten-Crusius, and Wieseler. Others suppose that, while the special reference is to Jewish Christians, Gentiles are not excluded-as Koppe, Rckert, Matthies, Olshausen, and Ellicott. But it is difficult to see on what principle the subordinate reference to the Gentiles at this point is proved. The language is not in its favour, the spirit of the context does not imply it, and the direct address to Gentiles is postponed till Gal 4:8. The Jewish believers were children while the law was over them, and the Son of God was born under that law to redeem them who were under it. A third party take in a general sense-we Christians: so Winer, Borger, Trana, Meyer, Bagge, Ewald, and Webster and Wilkinson. The heir while a minor is under tutors and stewards, and differs nothing from a servant; and we too, as long as we were in nonage, were in a similar condition-
-were under the rudiments of the world kept in bondage. For the elements of the Authorized Version, Tyndale and Cranmer have ordinaunces, and the Genevan rudiments. The heir was in all respects as a ; so we have been and are -perfect participle. Winer, 45, 1. He is under tutors and guardians; , so we were under . The verb and participle may thus be taken separately–; -. The term , elementa, is used in reference to physical elements in 2Pe 3:10-12, Wis 7:17; especially the heavenly bodies- (Justin, Apolog. 2.5, p. 294, Op. vol. i. ed. Otto; and the term by itself has probably the same meaning, as it is said they never rest or keep Sabbath in Dial. c. Tryph. p. 78, vol. ii. do.). They are defined as sun, moon, stars, earth, sea, and all in them in Clement. Hom. 10.9, p. 218, ed. Dressel. The common numeration, , occurs in Hermas, Vis. 3.13, p. 29, Nov. Test. extra Canonem receptum, ed. Hilgenfeld, 1866; Plato, Timaeus, p. 48, B; Theophilus, ad Autol. 1.4, p. 14, ed. Otto. In this sense the word was regarded by many of the fathers (Chrysostom, Theodore Mops., and Pelagius) as referring to new moons, Sabbaths, and festivals ruled by the seasons, etc.; Augustine taking it to describe the Gentile worship of the physical elements-a thought excluded by the ; Hilgenfeld, Schneckenburger, and Caspari, regarding the phrase as denoting the adoration of the stars as living powers-a form of nature-worship with which the Mosaic cultus cannot certainly be identified. But the term means also in the New Testament rudiments or elementary teaching-primas legis literas (Tertullian)-as in Heb 5:12, where it is opposed to ; in Col 2:8 it has much the same meaning as in this place, for there it is opposed to traditions of men, and in Gal 2:20, where it is viewed as connected with ordinances. The noun also denotes letters, alphabetical symbols, what is suited to the tuition of infancy. The genitive , subjective in meaning, may not have a gross materialistic sense (Hofmann), nor that of humanity (Wieseler), but a sense similar to that of its adjective in the phrase -a worldly sanctuary, Heb 9:1. The words may thus mean elementary lessons of outward things (Conybeare). The Jewish economy was of the world as it was sensuous, made up of types appealing to the senses, and giving only but the first principles of a spiritual system. See under Col 2:8; Col 2:17. Cremer, sub voce. Bondage and pupillarity appear to be combined in the illustration-the are fitted to the , and necessary to them. The child-heir, when he was a child, was taught only faint outlines of spiritual truth suited to his capacity, and taught them to some extent by worldly symbols-the fire, the altar, and the shedding of blood, , Heb 9:10 -a state of dependence and subjection compared with the freedom and the fulness of enlightenment and privilege under the gospel, or after the fulness of the time. While the we seems to refer so distinctly to Jewish believers as under the law, it may be said, that as in the previous paragraphs the Mosaic law in its want of power to justify represents on this point all law, so this state of bondage under the elements of the world represented also the condition of the Gentile races as somewhat similar in servitude and discipline.
Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians
Verse 3. When we were children is still used in reference to the years before the Gospel Dispensation was introduced. The bondage means the preparatory state already described in sev-veral preceding verses. Elements is from STOICHEION, and Thayer’s general definition is, “any first thing, from which the others belonging to some series or composite whole take their rise; an element, first principle.” As the word is used in our verse, he explains it as follows: “The rudiments with which mankind, like minor children, were indoctrinated before the time of Christ, or the ceremonial precepts common alike to the worship of Jews and Gentiles.” World is from ‘cosmos, one definition of which is “the inhabitants of the earth, men, the human race.” It is used in the present connection in that sense because such elements as pertain to moral and religious conduct could apply only to intelligent beings.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Gal 4:3. So we also, when we were minors, the Jewish Christians before their conversion, comp. Gal 3:23. In a wider sense the words are applicable to the heathen Christians also, whose former religion was still more childish, though not divinely appointed as a preparatory school.
Enslaved under the elements (or rudiments) of the world. Comp. Gal 4:9. This is understood by the church fathers in a physical, by most modern interpreters in an ethical sense.
(1.) The elementary substances of the external world or physical universe (so 2Pe 3:10; 2Pe 3:12), as earth, fire, and especially the heavenly bodies. (a) The Jewish festivals (sabbaths, new moons, and passovers) which were regulated by the course of the sun and moon, and so far by the powers of nature. (Chrysostom.) (b) The heathen worship of the stars and other material substances. (Augustine.) (c) Religion of earthly, sensuous forms and rites generally (both Jewish and heathen), as distinct from spiritual religion and rational worship. (Neander.) Against this interpretation in all its forms is the omission of world after elements in Gal 4:9.
(2.) The elementary lessons, rudimentary instruction, the alphabet of learning (as Heb 5:12; comp. Col 2:8; Col 2:20). So Jerome, Calvin, Olshausen, Meyer, Wieseler, Ellicott, Lightfoot. This is much simpler and better suited to the context. Paul represents here the religion before Christ, especially the Jewish, as an elementary religion or a religion of childhood, full of external rites and ceremonies, all of which had a certain educational significance, but pointed beyond themselves to an age of manhood in Christ. This falls in naturally with what he said in the preceding chapter of the pedagogical mission of the law. The whole Old Testament dispensation was an elementary or preparatory school for the gospel, a religion of types and shadows, of hope and promise, destined to lose itself in Christianity, as its substance and fulfilment.
Of the world, not the physical universe (as in the first interpretation of the elements). but mankind which needed such a training for Christianity. The expression seems to imply that Paul comprehends the heathen also, comp. Gal 4:8. But the Jews were in fact the religious representatives of the whole race in its motion towards Christ.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the rudiments of the world
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Verse 3
The elements of the world. The Jewish institutions are obviously intended by this expression; but why they are, so designated is not very clear.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
4:3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the {b} elements of the world:
(b) The Law is called elements, because by the Law God instructed his Church as it were by elements, and afterward poured out his Holy Spirit most plentifully in the time of the Gospel.