I was reading Galatians last night and something struck me. St. Paul speaks repeatedly of enslavement to the “elements of the cosmos.” (Gal 4:3, 8-9)

In the original Greek Saint Paul calls them “τὰ στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόσμου” and the Latin Vulgate renders them as “elementis mundi.”

[callout]People often ask me why I always endorse the Douay-Rheims English Catholic Bible and why I don’t like the Knox Catholic translation of the Bible. Here is one reason why. Knox wrongly translates “elements of the cosmos” as “the schoolroom tasks which the world gave us.” No, that is not what the Greek or Latin state! Everyone, please stick to the Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible for English translation. It’s more faithful.[/callout]

3 So we also, when we were children, were serving under the elements of the world.

4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law:

5 That he might redeem them who were under the law: that we might receive the adoption of sons.

6 And because you are sons, God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father.

7 Therefore now he is not a servant, but a son. And if a son, an heir also through God.

8 But then indeed, not knowing God, you served them, who, by nature, are not gods.

9 But now, after that you have known God, or rather are known by God: how turn you again to the weak and needy elements, which you desire to serve again?

What are “the elements” that Galatians want to serve again? If you follow St. Paul’s argument, these elemental spirits “enslaved” both the Jews under the Law and the Gentile Galatians under paganism.

St. Paul, following a line of Jewish interpretation, taught that the Law was not given directly by God but through the mediation of angels. (cf. Gal 3:19-20) Moreover, St. Paul believes that the idols of the Gentiles are representations of demons – fallen angels in this case.

Follow his line of thought in Gal 4:8-9:

8 But then indeed, not knowing God, you served them, who, by nature, are not gods.
9 But now, after that you have known God, or rather are known by God: how turn you again to the weak and needy elements, which you desire to serve again?

In other words, the Gentile Galatians were formerly serving “them, who, by nature, are not gods,” which is to say demonic idols. Now they want to “turn you again to the weak and needy elements” by becoming Judaizers and submitting to the Law.

Their reversion to Judaism is for Paul a “turning back again” to the elemental spirits or demons. I find this fascinating and I don’t know quite how to handle it. The Apostle, it seems, is saying:

“The Jews served the pedagogical ‘good angels’ (elemental spirits) and you Gentiles served the demonic ‘bad angels’ (also elemental spirits). Going back to either is regress. Turn, instead, to Christ who is consubstantially one with the Father.”

I can see how the heretic Marcion had a hey-day with this epistle and how he could use the language here to teach that the God of the Mosaic Law was actually a corrupt demiurge or “elemental spirit.” Marcion just flipped the script and made the Old Testament “spiritual being” into a bad angel, also.

Perhaps the best way to understand this is to read it in light of Hebrews chapter 1 where Saint Paul explains that Christ is far superior to angels. The Gospel of Christ is revealed through the incarnation of Christ. We come to “know God, or rather to be known by God” (Gal 4:8-9). The Law was given in the midst of thunder, clouds, and smoke, and through angelic spirits. Even so, it was mediated through a human man, Moses, who was not God.

When a person comes to Christ, his knowledge of God is directly through Christ. He can say “Abba” not through angels, elements, or men, but directly to God as a son to a father (Gal 4:6). It is not a mediated faith through non-divine angels nor through non-divine prophets.

For Paul, any attempt to know God in a way other than through faith in Christ is “slavery to the elemental spirits,” whether they be Jewish or pagan. The “fullness of time” has come for both Jews and Gentiles to receive the “adoption as sons” that Paul speaks about in the same chapter of Galatians, i.e. chapter 4.