The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 216

llo3ovl\.coµlva, to connect it with the words Di'l'ine appoiotmcnt, while the genitive "of which precede, is recommended by the pa- the flesh" marks its comparative imperfec- rallel, which the worde1 "were under the tion. They were,as Conybeare parapbr:ises, rudiments of the worlct," then present to "their childhood's olementarv lessons of out- ,the words," is under guardians and stewards," ward things." This desigoaiion of Levitical iu ver. 2; while the participle "brought ceremonies as being an " A, B, C," or into bond-service" reproduces the notion ex- " rudiments, of the world," appears to have pressed by the words, " is no . better than a become a set phrase with the apostle, who bond-servant," of ver. 1. The participle uses it again twice in the Colossians (ii. 8, "brought into bond-service," then, stands 20), where he appears, if we may judge from upart, in the same way as the participle "shut the context, to have in view a (perhaps up" does in eh. iii. 23. Thie, however, is mongrel)form ofJewish ceremonialism wbich, only a question of style; the substantial ele- with circumcision (meotioned in ver. 11), ments of thought remain the same in either conjoined other "ordinances" (1io-yµa.Ta.) men- way of construing. 'fhe Greek word rr-ro,- tioned in vers. 14, 20, relating to meata and X''" calls for a few remarks, founded upon drinks and observance of times, illustrated the illustration of its use given by Schneider in vers. 16, 21. This, he tells the Colos- in his ' Greek Lexicon.' From the primary sians, might have been all very well if they sense of ''stakes placed in a row,"for example, were still "living io the world" (ver. 20) ; to fasten nets upon, the term was applied to but now they were risen with Christ !-with the letters of the alphabet as placed in rows, Christ, who had taken that" bond" (x«p<l- and thence to the primary constituents of -ypa.cpov, ver. H)outofthe way; and therefore speech; then to the primary constituents of were called to care for higher things than all objects in nature, as, for example, the such merely earthly ones as these. Some four "elements" (see 2 Pet. iii. 10, 12); aod to suppose that the apostle has reference to the the "rudiments" or first" elements'' of any religious ceremooialisms of the idolatrous branch of koowledge. It is in this last sense Geotiles, as well as tho,e of the Mosaic Law. that it occurs in Heh. v. 12, " What are the These former ceremonialisms belooged, in- (,r.,.01xeiir.) rudiments (of the beginning, or) deed, to "the world," both in the sense above of the first principles of the oracles of God" pointed out and as tinged with the moral (on which compare the passage from. Galen pravity characterizing the "present evil quoted by Alford at the place). This must world " in general. But these cannot be be the meaning of the word here; it recites here intended, forasmuch as it was not to the rudimental instruction of children, as such that God's people were by bis ordin- if the apostle had said, "under the A, H, C, ance subjected. The other rendering of ,r-ro,- of the world." This is evidently intended xeiir.-" elements"-which the Authorized to describe the ceremonial Law ; for in ver. 5 Version puts into the text, but the Revised the phrase, "those under the Iiaw," recites Version into the margin, was probably the same persons as are here described. as selected in deference to the view of most of " under the rudiments of the world ; " as the Fathers, who, o.s Meyer observes, took tbe again the" weak and beggarly rudiments," Greek word in its physical sense : Augus- in ver. 9, are surely the same sort of" rudi- tine 1·eferring it to the heathen worship of ments" as are illustrated io ver. 10 by the the heavenly bodies and the other cults of words, "Ye obse1-ve days, and months, and nature; Chrysostom, Tbeodoret, and Am- seasons, and years." Since the Law under brose to the new moons and sabbatbs of the which the people of God were placed was Jews, viewed as determined by the motions God's own ordinaoce, we must infer that, of the sun and moon; Jerome, however, in- when it is here designated as "the A, Il, C, terpreting it rud-imenta disciplinre. On the of the world," tho genitive co.n neither de- other hand, in Col. ii. 8, 20, both of our Ver- note the origin of these l"Udiments nor yet sions h11ve "rudiments" in the text and any qualification of moral pravity, but ouly " elements" in the margin ; in 2 Pet. iii. 10, the qualification of imperfection and in- 12, " elements" only. " Brought into bond- feriority ; that is, it denotes the ceremonial service" (6,6ou;l.wµ,vo1), namely, by the uct institutions of the Law as appertaining to this of the supreme Fe.ther imposing upon us the earthly material sphere of existence, as con- yoke of his Law. trasted with a higher spiritual sphere. Thus Ver. 4.-But when the fulness of the time "the A, B, C, of the world" is o.n expression Wll,8 00m8 (8TE 6~ -ijll.9E -rO 11'1\.'qpwµa. TOU as nearly as possible identio,il with that of xp&vou); but iohen the completion of the term "carnal ordinances" (litemlly, ordinancea (Greek, time) came. "The completion of the of the flesh), used to describe the external term" is the notion nnswering to "the tiine eeremonialism of tho Law in Heh. ix. 10; appointed of the father" in ver. 2. The which phrase, like the one before us, is used "time" (xp&vos) here most probably cor- with n full recognition, in the word "ordi- respon,:; to the period terminated by the nBD.ces" (6.,,a,wµa.,.a), of the Le.w as of .,,pa9E<Tµ,v.: that is, it is tue interval which  182 THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.