I am so much enjoying this thread.
Votivesoul, I’m thrilled you see the I/You distinctions mentioned in
Gal 4. I’ve never heard anyone else say that after I shared my thoughts with them. That is a definite key to understanding the chapter. In fact, it’s for that very reason that the issue cannot be pagan days, though.
After chapter 3 clearly stated that the law was like a schoolmaster for those like Paul who were Israelites (THE WE), Paul said that the tutors and governors, as you wonderfully pointed out, are representative that same old covenant Law. The illustration continues from chapter 3 talking about law. And it is for this reason that we know LAW is the elements of the world in 4:3. In interpreting the mini parable of the heir’s childhood being practically the same as a servants, -- seeing as he does no more practical activity in the inheritance before he actually inherits it – Paul said that the heir is no different than the servant. We later learn that Gentiles to whom he wrote – THE YOU and YE – were the servants to idols. But Paul did not say that while they were servants to idols that they were under the tutors of governors that Israel was under before Christ. That is common sense, because, of course, being under law before Christ was only referring to Israel.
But Israel was under the tutors and governors of the elements of the world according to 4:3. Paul then rephrased that same point of being under law by coming right out and saying Israel was redeemed from Law in verse 4-5. This makes Law the elements of the world in verse 3. Verses 4 and 5 interpret what the tutors and governors are in verse 2 just as chapter 3:24 identifies law using the picture of a schoolmaster.
Gentiles
were not under the elements of the world that Paul identified in 4:3 in their times before Christ, since that verses uses the pronoun “WE” to indicate Israel’s schoolmaster. And I say “before Christ” because these Gentiles were under idols then. But that does not mean they were under idols immediately before they became Christians.
So, those under Law, or under the schoolmaster and elements of the world, were the Israelites. And the Israelites were redeemed from beneath the law and elements of the world when Christ came when we compare verse 5 with 3. They received adoption of sons.
Then Paul directs his words to the Gentiles, and changes pronouns to say “YE” in verse 6, who were the servants in 4:1, and says there was also a change in them. They were no more servants but sons.
The key, here, is that nothing was said about idols at all so far in the context. Elements referred to Law. We’re not told that Gentiles were servants to idols when we’re told they were servants in verse , until verses 8 introduces that thought. They did service to non-existent gods – verse 8. But because Paul already identified elements of the world in verse 3 to be law in verse 5, for Paul to ask the gentiles why they would RETURN to weak and beggarly elements means that,
somehow, they were returning to LAW. “Elements of the world” are the same elements that were weak and beggarly in verse 9.
For this reason, others on the forum cannot agree with you and I that versed 3’s elements of the world was law. You see they were law, though, because you see the same distinction that I saw in the pronouns WE and YOU referring to Jews and Gentiles.
We cannot change the reference of “elements of the world” from law in verse 3 to idolatry in verse 9. It’s the same “elements” that are necessary, basal and fundamental to the New covenant, because in this way the aspects of Law were the schoolmaster that led them to Christ in precisely the way that you described chapter 3.
Idolatry is not the antecedent for the “elements of the world” in neither verse 3, especially, or verse 9. Elements are God-ordained elementary school of Law for both verses.
“Elements” were first referred to as Law in verses 3 through 5. Paul would not use that term to describe something other than law later, or he’d be inconsistent and confusing.
There are two ways to reconcile the points that the service to idols in verse 8, and the common denominator of verse 3’s and verse 9’s reference to ELEMENTS, makes comprehensive reading out of Paul’s words. Both of the only two possibilities, though, conclude that the days, months and years in verse 10 cannot be pagan days, but Israel’s religious time periods of Law.
1. The Gentiles were in a form of bondage to idols and were going back into bondage again, BUT IN A DIFFERENT FORM, by going under the schoolmaster of elements of the world that God freed Israel from. Paganism and Law were both forms of bondage.
2. The Gentiles had come out of paganism and
went into Law-keeping before they eventually found Christ in the church at Galatia, which means they indeed did return to the Israelite Law they put themselves under before they found Christ but after they left paganism.
Either way, it does not add up that the religious time periods were elements of verse 9 due to the use of the term in verse 3.
Scholars have noticed this and claim it must be one of the two instances I laid out above.
ADAM CLARKE: on verse 9:
To the weak and beggarly elements - After receiving all this, will ye turn again to the ineffectual rites and ceremonies of the Mosaic law - rites too weak to counteract your sinful habits, and too poor to purchase pardon and eternal life for you? If the Galatians were turning again to them, it is evident that they had been once addicted to them. And this they might have been, allowing that they had become converts from heathenism to Judaism, and from Judaism to Christianity. This makes the sense consistent between the 8th and 9th verses.
ALBERT BARNES on verse 9:
To the weak and beggarly elements - To the rites and ceremonies of the Jewish law, imposing a servitude really not less severe than the customs of paganism. On the word elements, see the note at Gal_4:3. They are called “weak” because they had no power to save the soul; no power to justify the sinner before God. They are called “beggarly” (Greek πτωχὰ ptōcha, poor), because they could not impart spiritual riches. They really could confer few benefits on man. Or it may be, as Locke supposes, because the Law kept people in the poor estate of pupils from the full enjoyment of the inheritance; Gal_4:1-3.
They had been freed by the gospel from the galling servitude of paganism, and they now again had sunk into the Jewish observances, as if they preferred slavery to freedom, and were willing to go from one form of it to another.
These scholars realize that the elements of verse 9 are the same as verse 3, and, therefore, have to be law because of what 5 interprets them to be.
The only way that the time periods could be pagan in verse 10 is for verse 9's reference to use a different antecedent for Law than what currently exists in the verse. We cannot have two different antecedents for elements referred to in both verses 3 and 9. And LAW is the only consistent antecedent because there truly were religious time periods under Law. If verse 9’s elements are referring to idolatry, and Paul already established that ELEMENTS in verse 3 was LAW in verse 5, then it’s pretty confusing when we realize Law did indeed have time periods that were KEPT as ORDINANCES. Consistency can only be found in law and paganism both serving as BONDAGE, making gentiles going back under bondage that is under law instead of bondage under idols. And that still puts the religious time periods to be those of law.
Furthermore, Bondage is stated to be law in the additional mini parable of Hagar and Sarah.
Galatians 4:24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
One COVENANT gendered to bondage, and the new covenant gendering to freedom. Had it been correct to say that the religious time periods of verse 10 were pagan, then Paul would not say that their bondage under the elements of verse 9 was expounded upon to be seen as the old covenants in verse 24!
And then Chapter 5:1-2 continues to say that the BONDAGE was Law, with not a hint of expounding information about verse 9’s bondage of the gentiles being times of paganism.
Basically, Paul said, “You gentiles are going n the kindergarten bondage that Israel was supposed to leave and be freed from when Christ came, when us Jews are not even under that bondage any more!”