So also, when we were children, we were enslaved under the basic principles of the world.
Parallel translations
- WEB So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental principles of the world.
- KJV Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
- NKJV Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.
- NASB So we too, when we were children, were held in bondage under the elementary principles of the world.
- NLT And that’s the way it was with us before Christ came. We were like children; we were slaves to the basic spiritual principles of this world.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Before Christ, we were held in bondage under the 'elemental principles of the world.' Paul describes life under law and the old order as a kind of spiritual slavery.
Overview
The phrase 'elemental principles' (Greek stoicheia) is debated: it may refer to basic religious regulations, the law as a system of external observance, or the spiritual powers behind pagan and legal bondage. Either way, Paul's point is that this was a state of immaturity and slavery from which Christ has freed us. The contrast sets up the liberating work of God's Son in the verses that follow.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Col 2:8See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ.
- Col 2:20If you have died with Christ to the spiritual forces of the world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its regulations:
- Gal 4:9But now that you know God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you are turning back to those weak and worthless principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?
- Gal 2:4This issue arose because some false brothers had come in under false pretenses to spy on our freedom in Christ Jesus, in order to enslave us.
- Gal 4:31Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.
- Acts 15:10Now then, why do you test God by placing on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear?
- Rom 8:15For you did not receive a spirit of slavery that returns you to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
- John 8:31So He said to the Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, you are truly My disciples.
- Gal 3:19Why then was the law given? It was added because of transgressions, until the arrival of the seed to whom the promise referred. It was administered through angels by a mediator.
- Gal 3:23–25Before this faith came, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until faith should be revealed.
- Heb 7:16one who has become a priest not by a law of succession, but by the power of an indestructible life.
- Matt 11:28Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
- Gal 4:25Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present-day Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.
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Christ at the center
Christ became a curse for us to redeem us from the law's curse, that we might receive the Spirit and be sons — justified by faith in him, not by works.
How Galatians 4:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.