Glendora, July 8, 2006
This strange phrase is Greek and it is biblical, and – more importantly – it helps us understand what to do and what NOT to do as a church.
It's found in a book we've been studying this summer. Galatians 4:3 in the New King James Version says, "Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world."
The elements are Ta Stoicheia in Greek and it's a phrase that has different meanings. In its essence it could mean a series, a row, sort of like the elements of chemistry you learned in high school.
Hebrews 5:12 gives a more helpful translation. There it is rendered, the first principles of something. So we remember "elementary my dear Watson" which Sherlock Holmes said in the movies.
Colossians 2:8 and 20 add the helpful meaning of "rudiments" – the rudimentary principles behind something.
So these elements of the world (tou kosmou) refer to something pretty basic, almost primitive. In Galatians 4:9 Paul uses the term weak and beggarly elements. The elements, then, are not a good thing in Paul's thought, not at all.
Paul adds the thought that he is NOT happy to see the Galatians reverting back to these rudimentary points. He links their behavior to their rather surprising observance of days and months and seasons and years. Most Christian scholarship has been quick to jump in here and say that these days are a clear reference to the holy days of Leviticus 23, days the Worldwide Church of God once observed scrupulously.
Yes, that does seem to be the preferred reading of what Paul means here. I agree with the overall evaluation but – the explanation needs nuancing. We need to add some deeper shades of meaning.
To do that we need to backtrack and set up the context of this Galatians letter. We covered this two weeks ago when we looked at the two troublesome heresies in the first century. The first was early Gnosticism, Jesus was not really a man (key to the Da Vinci Code fracas). The other extreme was from the Judaizers – Jesus was not enough for your salvation.
Consider this. We know from Acts 13:16 that the churches of Galatia – Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe in central Turkey – were composed of both Jews and Greeks. The Jews who did not believe grew jealous of Paul, stoned him, left him for dead. This background of Jewish-engendered persecution is key to the Galatians letter.
Note Galatians 6:11. This is not stressed enough by interpreters of Galatians in my opinion. Paul alludes to his physical distress in Galatia in Galatians 4:13 and says that the fear of Jewish persecution is a major reason the false teachers are urging Paul's new converts to become as Jewish as they can. We know from history that many Jews had certain protections from the Roman state. This is what is behind his statement in Galatians 6:12.
Avoid persecution, go back to your holy days in the Law. Get as Jewish as you can. Follow the Law. You Gentiles would be wise to do that too – after all, didn't God Himself give Israel the Law? Doesn't circumcision trace back to Abraham? Wasn't it commanded forever? Yes.
In his Romans letter Paul has a lot to say about the Jewish way of life, the Nomos (Law) of the Jews. He puts it in its proper place – farrrrr below Christ.
In the Galatian letter Paul is furious because the Gentiles are being conned into some kind of mixture of Jewish liturgical practice – laws, days, months, straight out of the Old Covenant (see Hosea 2:11) – along with some reversion to older pagan practices. In Epistles class at Ambassador, Bricket Wood we took this book very seriously. We knew the validity of our then important Holy Days from Leviticus 23 was at stake. We were careful to stress the two audiences Paul was addressing. Typically, he addresses the Jewish believers as "we", and the Gentiles as "you". It is helpful to know this.
In Galatians 4:9 Paul once again mentions the STOIHEIA and calls them weak and beggarly. What does he mean? Well, the rudimentary principles of belief are seen at work in most religions. California's Chumash Indians commonly kept the New Moon observance, for example. It was vital to keep track of time both for planting and for liturgy. The Navajo art work relating to their corn festival is impressive, still attracts the attention of anthropologists. It is fascinating, it is impressive art, but theologically it is rudimentary only.
The startling thing about Paul's claim in Galatians is that he says that even Jews who observed those Levitical agricultural festivals needed to be redeemed. That's in Galatians 4:5. Lawkeepers needing redemption? Yes indeed. The implication is that compared to God's work in Christ Paul sees the Levitical days as weak and beggarly elements of the world. That is, in comparison to God's personal extension of Himself in Christ, these elements of the world – pagan and Jewish – have now been both fulfilled in and superseded by the Gospel. This includes the agricultural festivals of Judaism. In Colossians 2 Paul calls them shadows that pointed to Christ. More on this next week.
So, in Paul's theology, the Law had its place but also the Law made nothing perfect, he writes in Hebrews 7:19.
The elementary shadowy side of religion – yes even the religion of ancient Israel – has found fulfillment in Christ and the Church. One researcher writes: "To go back to an impersonal religious system after a personal relationship with God is now possible through the indwelling Holy Spirit is to go back to a state no better (in that sense) than paganism. While Paul stops short of calling the Law 'false' in the same sense as pagan religions, he insists that going under it as a Christian is a reversion as serious as a relapse into idolatry (Galatians 4:8-10)" (www.xenos.org).
For the WCG the big question was: Are we sure this includes Sabbaths and Festivals. The implication from other passages is clearly, Yes. See 2 Kings 4:23, Isaiah 1:10-15, Hosea 2:11, Amos 8:5, Ezekiel 46:3 for the interchangeability of the Sabbaths, new Moons and Feasts.
While there is no direct, unambiguous parallel between the WCG of the 1960s, say, and the Galatian predicament, the resemblance is close enough. We possess undeniable firsthand testimony that our church founder, Herbert W. Armstrong, a devout sabbatarian, was big enough to at least be worried by the thrust of Galatians. He especially brooded on Colossians 2:14-16. I heard him with my own ears explain how he had to wrestle with the verses back in his early days of ministry in the 1920s.
The great British scholar Norman T. Wright puts a nuance to the issue this way: "It's not that the Law was a bad thing and we're glad it's over, no, it was a pretty good thing now being fulfilled." See Climax of the Covenant, page 181.
This again brings up the whole Sabbath/Festival issue once so vital to our fellowship which we'll cover next time.