John Calvin 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)

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.