Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Galatians 4:3

"So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the rudiments of the world:" — Galatians 4:3 (ASV)

Paul now applies the illustration as already indicated. Before Christ came we were children and slaves, slaves to the “basic principles” or “elemental spirits” (GK 5122) of the world (cf. v.9).

There has been much debate about what Paul means by this word here. Of the three major interpretations, the best one sees it as referring to the basic elements that the ancient world saw as making up the world—earth, fire, air, and water. These elements had been associated from the dawn of civilization with the gods. In Paul’s time it seems that this exceedingly early view had been expanded so that the elements also referred to the sun, moon, stars, and planets —all of them associated with gods or goddesses and, because they regulated the progression of the calendar (cf. “days and months and seasons and years” in vv.9–10), also associated with the great pagan festivals honoring the gods. In Paul’s mind these gods were demons (cf. “those who by nature are not gods” in v.8). Hence, he would be thinking of a demonic bondage in which the Galatians had indeed been held prior to the proclamation of the Gospel (cf. Romans 8:38–39; Ephesians 6:10–12). Thus, this whole issue takes on a cosmic and spiritual significance. The ultimate contrast to freedom in Christ is bondage to Satan and the evil spirits.