Galatians 4:8

(Verse 8, 9) But at that time, not knowing God, you served those who by nature are not gods. But now, knowing God, or rather being known by God, how are you turning again to the weak and impoverished elemental forces, to which you desire to be enslaved again? He reproves the Galatians for having turned from the worship of idols to the true faith of God, and asks how they, after abandoning the idols which are not gods by nature, and knowing God, or rather being known by Him, and even receiving the Spirit of adoption, can return as it were to their earlier state of infancy, desiring to be under tutors and guardians, and enslaved again to weak and impoverished elemental forces, which were given to the weak and impoverished people in the desert because they could not bear greater things. However, the same elements that he now called weak and needy, he placed only above the elements of the world. And where the elements of the world are mentioned, there it is not added, weak and needy. Hence again, where they are called weak, world, as we said above, is a silent name. Therefore, I think as long as someone is little and has not fulfilled the appointed time by the father, so that he may be called a son and heir, he is under the elements of the world, namely the Law of Moses. But when he returned to the Law, which he owed to his son after his freedom, desiring to be circumcised and to follow the whole letter of Jewish superstition, then those things which had previously been the elements of the world for him are also called weak and needy beginnings. For they are so useless to their worshippers that they are not even able to provide them with what they had previously bestowed, Jerusalem, with the temple and altar destroyed. […]

Here turning to the Gentile believers he says that it is an idolatry, this rigid observance of days, and now incurs a severe punishment. To enforce this, and inspire them with a deeper anxiety, he calls the elements "not by nature Gods." And his meaning is,-Then indeed, as being benighted and bewildered, ye lay grovelling upon the earth, but now that ye have known God or rather are known of Him, how great and bitter will be the chastisement ye draw upon you, if, after such a treatment, ye relapse into the same disease. It was not by your own pains that ye found out God, but while ye continued in error, He drew you to Himself. He says "weak and beggarly rudiments," in that they avail nothing towards the good things held out to us.

These [heretics now referred to], being the disciples of those mentioned, render such as assent to them worse than the heathen. For the former "serve the creature rather than the Creator," and "those which are not gods," notwithstanding that they ascribe the first place in Deity to that God who was the Maker of this universe.

Here he addresses those who believed from among the Gentiles, showing that the observance of days is idolatry and that they sin more than before. Previously, he says, you at least did not know God, since you lived in darkness and error and because of …

Having disclosed the pre-eminence of the gift of grace and explained it with a human example, the Apostle here censures the Galatians, who scorned this grace, for being ungrateful for so great a gift. First, he censures them for ingratitude; Secondly, he excuses himself, explaining …

Indeed then when ye knew not God, ye served them that by nature - That is, in reality. Are no gods - And so were under a far worse bondage than even that of the Jews.

Howbeit then, when ye know not God,....

They might still have known Him, in a measure, from His works, but as a matter of fact they knew Him not, so far as His eternity, His power as the Creator, and His holiness, are concerned. are no gods--that is, have no existence, such as their worshippers attribute to them, in the nature of things, but only in the corrupt imaginations of their worshippers (see on 1Co 8:4;

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

Howbeit - But, ἀλλὰ alla. The address in this verse and the following is evidently to the portion of the Galatians who had been pagan. This is probably indicated by the particle ἀλλὰ alla, but denoting a transition. In the previous verses Paul had evidently had the Jewish converts more particularly in his eye, and had described their former condition as one of servitude to the Mosaic rites and customs, and had shown the inconveniences of that condition, compared with the freedom imparted by the gospel. To complete the description, he refers also to the Gentiles, as a condition of worse servitude still, and shows Gal 4:9 the absurdity of their turning back to a state of bondage of any kind, after the glorious deliverance which they had obtained from the degrading servitude of pagan rites. The sense is, “If the Jews were in such a state of servitude, how much more galling and severe was that of those who had been pagans. Yet fron that servitude the gospel had delivered them, and made them freemen. How absurd now to go back to a state of vassalage, and to become servants under the oppressive rites of the Jewish law!” When ye knew not God - In your state of paganism, when you had no knowledge of the true God and of his service. The object is not to apologize for what they did, because they did not know God; it is to state the fact that they were in a state of gross and galling servitude. Ye did service - This does not express the force of the original. The meaning is, “Ye were “slaves” to (ἐδουλεύσατε edouleusate); you were in a condition of servitude, as opposed to the freedom of the gospel;” compare Gal 4:3, where the same word is used to describe the state of the Jews. […]