{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-5475","native_reference":{"book_number":550,"chapter_from":4,"chapter_to":4,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":3,"verse_to":3},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Ambrosiaster</b>: By the \"elements\" he means new moons and the sabbath. New moons are the lunar days that the Jews observe, while the sabbath is the day of rest. Therefore, before the promise came (that is, the gift of God's grace) and justified believers by purifying them, we were subject, like those who are infants and imperfect, to our fellow servants as though to custodians. Our pernicious freedom was the matrix of sin.<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE Galatians 4.3</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: Why does Paul include his own character in this description? He says not \"When you were small, you were subject to the elements of this world\" but \"When we were small we were in servitude under the elements of this world.\" This does not have any reference to the Jews, from whom Paul derived his origin. Rather it refers to his identification with the Gentiles in this place at least, since he can properly join himself with the character of those whom he was sent to evangelize.<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE Galatians 29 [1B.4.1-3]</i></p><p><b>Gaius Marius Victorinus</b>: The elements of the world were thought to have in themselves at the same time their own motions and, as it were, certain necessary consequences of the motion of other beings, such as stars, by whose revolution human life was brought under necessity. And so humans served the elements as the stars ordained and the course of the world required.<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE Galatians 2.4.3-4</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: He has used the name \"elements of the world\" for those whom he called tutors and overseers above.… Some hold that these are angels that preside over the four elements. … Many think that it is the heaven and earth with their inhabitants that are called the elements of the world, because the wise Greeks, the barbarians and the Romans, the dregs of all superstition, venerate the sun, the moon, … from which we are liberated by Christ's coming, knowing them to be creatures and not divinities. Others interpret the elements of the world as the law of Moses and the utterances of the prophets, because, commencing and setting out with these letters, we imbibe the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom.… The Mosaic law and the prophets can be taken as the elements of writing, because through them syllables and names are put together, and they are learned not so much for their own sake as for their usefulness to others.… Regarding our interpretation of the law and the prophets as the elements of the world, \"world\" is customarily taken to signify those who are in the world.<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE Galatians 2.4.3</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: (Verse 3.) And so we too, when we were little, were enslaved under the elements of this world. He called the elements of the world, the same ones he had mentioned before as tutors and guardians: because we were not yet able to receive the coming of the Son of God, we were being trained in the midst of them. Some think that these are angels who govern the four elements of the world: namely, earth, water, fire, and air: and it is necessary that before anyone believes in Christ, they be governed by these arbitrators. The elements of the world are the sky and the earth, and that which is within them is commonly called: the sun, the moon, the seas, the forests, and the mountains, which the wise men of Greece and the barbarian nations, as well as the Romans, worship as gods, the sink of all superstitions. When Christ comes, we are set free, understanding that these are creatures, not divine beings. Others interpret the elements of the world as the Law of Moses and the words of the prophets, through which we receive the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom. Finally, the Apostle writes in his letter to the Hebrews to those who should already be perfect but have neglected the truth and are still clinging to the principles of teachings: 'For when by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God' (Hebrews 5:12). On the contrary, it can be objected to us that the Apostle Paul, writing to the Colossians, called the principles of the world something different: 'See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ' (Colossians 2:8). But from what he added, according to the tradition of men and empty deceit, he shows that not the same elements are named for the Colossians as for the Galatians. For from these elements, once the fullness of time has come, we are redeemed and, advancing to greater things, receive the adoption of sons. But from those elements, nothing such is said to follow; but the elements are simply understood as letters. Therefore, as we said, the Law of Moses and the prophets can be understood as elements of letters, because they are joined by syllables and names for the benefit not so much of themselves as of something else, so that we are able to read a discourse composed, in which the meaning and order of words are considered more than the principles of letters. But as for the Law and the prophets, we have interpreted them as the elements of the world, which the world commonly accepts for those who are in the world, as Paul himself says: 'God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself.' And in the Gospel: 'And the world was made through Him, and the world did not receive Him.' Some also wander more freely in this matter: for example, they inquire whether the Law possesses the shadow of future goods in another world, about which the Savior says: 'I am not of this world,' so that we may first be like little children, and, being placed under the elements of the initiations, may gradually advance to the highest point, and receive the place of adoption which we once lost.<br/><i>— Commentary on Galatians</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: \"when we were children.\" He says \" children \" not in respect of age but of knowledge of God, indicating that God had willed to grant these things from the beginning, that is, adoption as sons, but that we are responsible for the delay, being children in our minds. Having then been permitted, by God's patience, to be enslaved to the elements, that is, to the course of the sun and the moon. For being enslaved to Sabbaths and new moons and observances of days, which were prescribed by the law, he says that for the most part we were subject to the sun and the moon, from which come the days and the months and the Sabbaths. Very desirous indeed to reduce those things in the law, he stops and says, \"Under the law we were in bondage,\" he said \"under the elemental principles.\"</p><p>— [THEODORET] When, he says, we were infants and immature, the law acted as a sort of guardian and steward over us. (For he spoke of the basic elements of the world, judicial observations.) Since night and day are named after the sun and moon, and from days weeks and months and years are formed, the law ordered that Sabbaths and new moons and annual festivals and the weeks of years be observed; for this reason he said: \"under the elemental principles,\" since time is also constituted from these. [end of the excerpt by Theodoret] —</p><p>— [GENNADIUS] \"under the elemental principles of the world.\" With the oversight of guardians and managers who, for the benefit of the young, guide those not yet mature, he received the elements of the world, with which we were enslaved because our knowledge was incomplete. Therefore, I do not think he took the sun and the moon as part of the order of guardians, because submission to those would be harmful; rather he calls them the elements of the world, or the elementary and introductory law. (For he was also writing to those faithful from the Jews, and here indicates the slightly aforementioned things, and that if you are circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.) He calls them elements: day, water, fire, which were observations of the law that brought into slavery. Days, namely Sabbaths and new moons and circumcisions. Water, in bodily purifications and baptisms. Fire, in not kindling fire on the Sabbaths, but in eating unseasoned food. See what Eusebius said about this as a foreigner in the fourth discourse of the Proof of the Gospel. [end of the excerpt by Gennadius] —<br/><i>— Commentary on Galatians</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"a2f3ea230a2c8d6577e0c42ffca03da5a92e971ffd4a8106d79108a3c8f816a5","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":5475,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"b802b1de9b6add69b8d83535fe78d4ebab46d112b0eea74cd793ab8889d5526f","translator":null,"work":null}