19) Galatians 4:1-11
I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain. (Galatians 4:1-11, ESV Bible)
Have you ever heard that Christ redeemed us from the law? "God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law" (Galatians 4:4-5). Since Christ redeemed us from the law, why would we want to become enslaved all over again?
In Galatians 4, Paul seems to rebuke the Gentile Galatians for keeping the biblical festivals. An honest, impartial reading sounds like he rebuked them for observing "days and months and seasons and years" and warned them not to become "enslaved" again (Galatians 4:10). This leads us to believe that Paul viewed the celebration of the Sabbath and festivals as a step backwards for Gentile believers--a form of enslavement.
He said, "You observe days," meaning the Sabbath and festivals. He said, "You observe months," meaning the new moons and the biblical calendar. He said, "You observe seasons," meaning festival seasons like the counting of the omer, the days of repentance, and the days of awe. He said, "you observe years," meaning the sabbatical year of release.
Traditional Christian interpretation teaches that it is unChristian to keep the biblical calendar or honor the Bible's holy days such as the Sabbath. (Christian tradition sees no conflict between Galatians 4:10 and the celebration of "days," so long as they are Sundays; "months;" so long as they are not the biblical months, "seasons;" so long as they are Lent, Advent, Christmas, or Easter, and so forth.) In fact, Galatians 4:10 could be understood to mean that God-fearing Gentile believers are not allowed to have any holy days. They can watch the Jewish community do so, but they themselves are barred from participation in the Sabbath and the calendar.
Before reassessing this traditional Christian interpretation of Galatians 4:10, the passage should be placed in its broader context by studying from the beginning of the chapter.
Recap
At the conclusion of the third chapter of the Holy Epistle to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul told the God-fearing Gentile believers in the congregations and communities of Galatia: "If you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's [seed], heirs according to promise" (Galatians 3:29). That is, if you belong to Messiah, who is himself the promised seed of Abraham, then you, too, may be reckoned as the seed of Abraham, i.e., the spiritual children of Abraham and the fulfillment of God's promises to Abraham.
Abraham is a father of many nations. The believers from the nations become the spiritual seed of Abraham and attain a fellow citizenship with the Jewish people in the greater commonwealth of Israel. Nevertheless, the Gentile believer does not and need not become Jewish, but instead he retains his distinct nationality. The Greek is still a Greek and not a Jew, and the Jew is still a Jew and not a Greek. Though they are one in Messiah, yet they are not the same. Therefore, Abraham is called "the father of many nations," not "the father of one nation."
The God-fearing Gentile believers in Yeshua, then, are "heirs according to the promise."
The Slave and the Heir
In what manner did Paul consider the Gentiles as heirs of the Abrahamic promises? Were they not actually all polytheistic pagans? Paul introduced a new analogy to explain how the Gentiles can be considered heirs of Abraham.
I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. (Galatians 4:1-2)
Paul spoke of a Roman household in which the father of the house has both slaves and children. The father's son is the heir to the entire estate, slaves included, but he will not come into his inheritance until he has reached the age predetermined by his father. Paul would have us imagine a situation where the father has died and left his estate to his son, but with the provision that, so long as his son is a minor, he remains a ward of the estate. As a minor, the son is not free to dispose of the estate or even free on his own volition. Instead, he is entrusted to legal guardians and managers until a certain age when he will receive the inheritance.
For the sake of illustration, imagine the son will not receive sovereignty over the estate until the age of eighteen. When the son becomes eighteen, then he may assume the privileges of an adult. Until then, however, he remains under the custodianship of guardians and managers. Although he is the estate's heir, his status is not different than a slave of the estate until he comes of age. In that regard, his rights over the property are no better and no different than those of a slave who belongs to him.
In the parable, Abraham is the father of many nations. He has bequeathed the promises of God to all nations, his spiritual heirs. The heirs, however, did not receive those blessings immediately. They were not yet of the age to inherit. Therefore, they remained subject to a custodianship in the interim.
Likewise, the Jewish people were also heirs to the same promise. Paul said, "In the same way we [the Jewish people] also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world" (Galatians 4:3).
Elementary Principles
Paul explained that the Jewish people were once enslaved to "the elementary principles of the world." Likewise, the Gentiles were once slaves to "the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world" (Galatians 4:9).
No one is sure what Paul meant when he used this term: "elementary principles (stoicheia) of the world." Scholars bring a variety of opinions, but no one knows exactly what he meant. He used the same term in Colossians 2 regarding ascetic practices, and he used it twice in Galatians 4.
The Greek word stoicheion has to do with elements that comprise a series, essential parts, or members of a row. The term originally denoted a row, rank, or line in military formations. In Paul's day, the term was used of the degrees on a sundial by which time was calculated; of letters, syllables, or words in a sentence; of the basic elements of the cosmos (fire, earth, air, water); or even simple of the rudimentary fundamentals of a subject of study, like the three Rs: reading, writing, and arithmetic. No one is sure exactly what sense Paul intended. The analogy is notoriously cryptic. Two main theories seem possible: The elementary principles refer to Torah and Judaism or the elementary principles refer to paganism and idolatry.
Elementary Principles = The Torah
Paul criticized the God-fearing Galatian Gentiles for observing "days and months and seasons and years" (Galatians 4:10). In the larger context of the epistle, it seems reasonable to assume that he meant Sabbath days, new moon observances, festival seasons (like Passover and the high holidays), and Sabbatical years-all components of the Torah calendar. The thought seemed to distress him. He wondered if he has labored in vain for the Gentiles of Galatia. He did not understand why they would want to "turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world" and become enslaved by them again (Galatians 4:9).
If this interpretation is correct, then the elementary principles of the world must be Paul's way of referring to Torah and Judaism in general. If so, Galatians 4:3-5 can mean that the Messiah came to redeem the Jewish people from the keeping the law:
In the same way we also, when we were children, we were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world [i.e., the Torah]. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (Galatians 4:3-5)
According to this interpretation, Messiah was born under the Torah to rescue "those who were under the law" from further obligation to the Torah. The Jewish believer need no longer keep the Torah because the Messiah redeemed him from its jurisdiction.
This is why Paul speaks of the Jewish people as those "who were under the law," using the past tense form of the verb and implying that they are no longer under the law.
This interpretation has several problems. A literal translation of Galatians 4:5 does not have a past-tense form of the verb. It literally says "that those under law he may redeem" (Galatians 4:5). They are still under the law. To be under the law is just Paul's way of saying "legally Jewish" and obligated to observe the Torah. The Messiah did not redeem the Jewish people from the Torah; he redeemed them from sin and exile. He rescues from condemnation, but not from obligation to obedience.
Moreover, this interpretation has Paul speaking of the Torah as something "weak and worthless" (Galatians 4:9), something he considers on the same level as "those that by nature are not gods (Galatians 4:8). If we accept that Paul was indeed speaking about the Sabbath, the festivals, and the Torah's ceremonies, then we must admit that he puts God's holy commandments into a category that he considers no different than idolatry. He refers to the holiness of the Sabbath, the holiness of the festivals, and the holiness of the Torah as "weak and worthless elementary principles of the world." In other words, Paul considers the Torah as the equivalent of a pagan idol, and he considers Torah observance and Judaism as the same as idol worship.
This explanation does not work unless we see Paul as a blasphemer. It contradicts the Bible, the other apostles, the Master's clear teaching about the Torah, and Paul's own life as an observant Jew.
Elementary Principles = Paganism
Alternatively, the "elementary principles" of which Paul spoke refer only to paganism and idolatry and not to Torah or Judaism at all. This definition can be derived from Galatians 4:8:
Formerly, when you [Gentile believers] did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. (Galatians 4:8)
In this verse, Paul obviously speaks about idolatry. The Gentiles in the Roman world were polytheistic idolaters, required by law to participate in the Roman cult and the worship of the emperor. They needed to be part of an approved religious affiliation, all of which were idolatrous and polytheistic except for Judaism. Paul contrasted the Gentile believers' former state with their current state. In their former state, they were enslaved to the idols they worshipped. In their current state, they know the one true God:
But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! (Galatians 4:9-10)
In this context, the "weak and worthless elementary principles of the world" are the idolatrous rituals and religion from which the God-fearing Gentiles had recently come. In that case, the "days and months and seasons and years" which the Gentiles observed and became enslaved by once more must be pagan holidays and celebrations.
In an article called "A Torah Observant Paul," Mark Nanos argues that Paul is not speaking about the Jewish calendar at all but rather about the pagan calendar. Likewise, Justin Hardin makes the same argument in Galatians and the Imperial Cult.
The God-fearing Galatian believers were, of course, ex-pagans who participated in the imperial cult, worshipping the gods and the emperors as required by law. This was a critically important part of their previous life, as much a center to their society as getting a driver's license and a Social Security number is to ours. Observing the calendar of the imperial cult was a required civic duty. To abstain from participation in these civic religious functions disrupted relationships with family, friends, business associates, and civic authorities. It also placed a person in jeopardy of persecution, arrest, and possibly execution for the crime of atheism. Roman law exempted only Jews from participation.
The Galatian Gentile believers were not legally recognized converts to Judaism. They were God-Fearers, guests in the synagogue, so to speak. Though the Jewish community might have granted them the honorary guest status in the synagogue as God-Fearers, that was not official legal status or religion. Claiming, "I'm a God-Fearer" would not exempt them from the duty of observing the imperial cult. This left the God-fearing believers in a state of social limbo: not fully accepted by Judaism and, at the same time, in conflict with the authorities, their extended families, and all of society around them.
The solution was to go the full distance and convert to Judaism. As Jews, they would be free from the pressure to conform to paganism or to observe the imperial-cult calendar. The Galatian Gentile believers felt forced to choose between two options:
convert to Judaism and become legally Jewish
at least nominally observe the calendar of the imperial cult
Apparently, Paul was concerned that most of his readers were considering the former route. It may be that many others had already gone back to observing the events of the imperial cult and its calendar of days, months, seasons, and years and their appropriate observances, alongside their faith in Messiah. They were effectively trying to live in both worlds. It's an easy thing for the polytheistic mind to do: worship these gods one day and this God another day.
If this is the case, then it is possible that we should read the Epistle to the Galatians as an address to both groups, arguing against both options, and calling for a third option. Paul's third option calls for an identity in Messiah that completely breaks with "those that by nature are not gods" to which they were formerly enslaved, but it also maintains a distinct Gentile identity by not becoming Jewish.
If so, Paul warned the Galatian Gentiles not to return to observing the days of the imperial cult. This, he argues, would be a return to enslavement under those who are by nature not gods (i.e., the emperor-seen-as-a-deity). "Do you want to be their slaves all over again?" he asked.
The Fullness of Time
In that case, Galatians 4:3 speaks of Israel's enslavement to the same elementary principles of the world- not as a reference to Torah at all, but rather as a reference to the nation's own previous history of enslavement in Egypt and its periods of apostasy with idolatry. Might Paul be speaking of the exile, of which it says in the Torah, "And the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known" (Deuteronomy 28:64)?
The Messianic Redemption brings the end of the exile. Paul says, "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons" (Galatians 4:4-5).
This requires a radical rereading of Galatians 4, but it provides a more satisfactory explanation of the passage. Consider the following:
I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father [i.e., the Messianic Redemption]. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world [to pagan nations and their gods, to the Roman power, and the authority of the emperor]. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, [the Messiah] born of woman, born under the law, [i.e., born Jewish] to redeem those who [are] under the law [i.e., those who are Jewish], so that we might receive adoption as sons [in the final redemption]. And because you [Gentile believers also] are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave [to idols either], but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years [of the Roman imperial cult]! I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain. Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, [Torah-keeping] for I also have become as you are. (Galatians 4:1-12)
Abba!
Paul taught that believers, both Jewish and Gentile believers, have received the adoption as sons, not just sons of Abraham, but as sons of God. And how did this happen? When we placed faith in Yeshua of Nazareth and bound ourselves to him and his faithfulness, then "God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!' (Galatians 4:6).
This is the source of the concept of having Jesus in your heart. In Paul's Hebraic idiom, the "heart" is not the organ that pumps the blood, but the seat of one's intellect, the mind, the brain, the seat of will and reason. It is the same concept communicated in the Shema: "You shall love the LORD with all your heart ... these words that I command you today shall be on your heart" (Deuteronomy 6:5-6). That is to say that the commandments are to be in a person's mind, in his memory, his thoughts, meditated upon and mentally rehearsed.
Paul said that the Spirit of Messiah is sent forth into the heart of the believer-that is the mind, the intellect, the will and reason of the believer- and that the Spirit of Messiah cries out from within the inner being of the believer, "Abba! Father!"
The Greek text actually says, "Abba," alpha-beta-beta-alpha, a transliteration of the Aramaic word for "father" used in Hebrew much like the English word "Papa." Abba serves as an emphatic form of the Hebrew av ("father"). It appears here as an apostolic-age memory, passed on to Paul and the early believers. They remembered that this is how the Master addressed God when he prayed. He spoke to God as "Abba." That explains why Paul brought it into the Greek text as a transliteration. The apostles remembered the sound of Yeshua's voice as he prayed, "Abba!"
The apostles remembered how he prayed. "In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence" (Hebrews 5:7). He continues to cry out now in our hearts, "Abba!" Because of that Spirit of sonship within us, Abba has adopted us as sons and daughters.
Referneces
This lesson was curated from teachings from First Fruits of Zion “Holy Epistle to the Galatians.”