Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
Parallel translations
- WEB So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental principles of the world.
- BSB So also, when we were children, we were enslaved under the basic principles 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 2:8Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
- Col 2:20Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,
- Gal 4:9But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
- Gal 2:4And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage:
- Gal 4:31So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.
- Acts 15:10Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
- Rom 8:15For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
- John 8:31Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
- Gal 3:19Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.
- Gal 3:23–25But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
- Heb 7:16Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.
- Matt 11:28Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
- Gal 4:25For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage 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.