former Pagans in Gal 4 "turn again" (return) to the observance of some pagan days.
Hint: Pagans worshiped "those which by nature are in fact NOT (gods)" - as everyone knows.
NIV - "8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were
slaves to those who by nature are not gods
Commentaries agree - as noted here
#10
8 But then, indeed,
when you did not know God, you served
those which by nature are not gods.
9 But now after you have known God, or
rather are known by God, how do you
turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you
desire again to be in bondage?
10 You observe days and months and seasons and years.
11 I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.
Paul condemns those gentile converts who used to worship idols / false gods
and who then "turn again" -- as converted Christians "turn again" (return) to those pagan weak and beggerly elements of their former life - a mix of paganism with Christianity as can be seen by the fact that even while observing the pagan days they are still reading this letter of Paul addressed to them.
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speaking of the former-pagans verses in Gal 4:
8 But then, indeed,
when you did not know God, you served
those which by nature are not gods.
9 But now after you have known God, or
rather are known by God, how do you
turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you
desire again to be in bondage?
They previously served by nature those which were not gods. check
They did not know the living God. check.
They now know God and are known by Him verse 9 check. Because they are born again.
They are now returning to weak and beggarly elements. check.
Yes this is the part too obvious to deny... agreed.
Clearly they are returning to paganism "you TURN AGAIN" to the
9 But now that you have come to know God,..., how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles, to which you want to be enslaved all over again?
"return AGAIN" to what? what ELSE was a former pagan in Greece going to "Return AGAIN to"?? -- being a atheist in Asia? being an Eskimo? no.
How about - "being a pagan in Greece"???
How does Paul contrast Judaism with paganism in the NT.
Rom 3:1 "what advantage has the Jew? - great in every respect"
"Then what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? 2 Great in every respect. First, that they were entrusted with the actual words of God. 3 What then? If some did not believe
Rom 2 - salvation "to the Jew first and also to the Greek"
1 Cor 8 - the Jews were far in advance of the pagans - in worshipping the one true God - monotheists. (post 16 on this same page - #16 )
Matt 17 - Moses and Elijah with Christ IN GLORY before the cross... FAR from "just like paganism"!
Pagans had the practice of observing "observe days and months and seasons and years" also condemned in the OT --
KJV - Gal 4:10 "Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years."
Lev 19: 26 "You shall not eat anything with the blood, nor observe times" (KJV).
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Bible scholars have long recognized the
pagan system being referenced here.
#10
Martin Luther "Almost all doctors have interpreted this reference as concerning the astrological days of the Chaldeans"
A commentary on St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, rev, trans, [London: James Clarke, 1953], 392
Troy Martin agrees with Luther
“In 4.8 Paul mentions t
he former pagan life of the Galatian Christians. In 4.9, he asks them how they can
desire their former life again. He then proposes their observance of the time-keeping scheme in 4.10 as a demonstrative proof of their reversion to their old life…Considering only the immediate context of Gal 4.10 the list must be understood as a pagan temporal scheme”
“Pagan and Judeo-Christian Time-keeping Schemes in Gal 4:10 and Col 2:16” NTS 42 (1996):105-119 ( p 113) Troy Martin
R. A. Cole “it
is not necessary…to see any Jewish influence in these Galatians; in all forms of paganism there is some form of ‘casting horoscopes’, with consequent ‘lucky’ and ‘unlucky’ days”
(The Epistle of Paul to the Galatians: An Introduction and Commentary,, R. A. Cole. TNTC [London: Tyndale, 1969], 119)
S. Mitchell writes “the major obstacle which stood in the way of the progress of Christianity, and the force which would have drawn new adherents back to conformity with the prevailing paganism, was the public worship of he Emperor. The packed calendar of the ruler cult dragooned the citizens…into observing days, months, seasons and years which it laid down for special recognition and celebration”
S. Mitchell, Anatolia; Land, Men and Gods in Asia Minor, Volume 2 The rise of the Church (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), P. 10.
You are insisting that v. 10 implies a return to paganism. .
true.
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If you can prove verse 10 is a reference to paganism, you have not shown it, ...
easy "note the details" already given.
Here is what Paul says about the Laws of the OT - the Commandments of God:
Paul says "
What MATTERS is KEEPING the Commandments of God" 1 Cor 7:19
Paul says that the very SAME LAW of Moses that condemns all mankind Rom 3:19-20 is the one
ESTABLISHED by faith Rom 3:31
Paul lists the very
SAME pre-cross commands of Moses in Romans 13 that Christ's lists in Matt 19 as binding on all Christians.
Paul says that the same unit of TEN where the "
first commandment with a promise" is the 5th commandment - is the LAW that binds Christians to that very day - in Eph 6:1-2
As for this affirmation of the OT Ten Commandments by Bible Scholars in almost all Christian denominations on planet Earth --
#1
======================
In Heb 11 we see the saints of the OT held high as examples - giants of faith - before the NT readers --
And then there is "god fearing gentiles" --
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.. there were gentiles - god-fearing saved gentiles that went to the synagogues (so not pagan at all) is already accepted. That is not what Paul is condemning. In fact in Acts 13 he approves them in that state!!
Acts 13
15 After the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the synagogue officials sent word to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say it.” 16 Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said,
“Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen: 17 The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, ...23 From the descendants of this man, according to promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus,...
26 “Brothers, sons of Abraham’s family, and those among you who fear God, to us the message of this salvation has been sent
Just as we see in Acts 10
Now there was a man in Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort, 2 a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, and made many charitable contributions to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually. 3 About the ninth hour of the day he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had just come in and said to him, “Cornelius!” 4 And he looked at him intently and became terrified, and said, “What is it, lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and charitable gifts have ascended as a memorial offering before God.
.
Adam Clarke Commentary on Gal 4:8
"When ye knew not God - Though it is evident, from the complexion of the whole of this epistle, that the great body of the Christians in the Churches of Galatia were converts from among the Jews or proselytes to Judaism; yet from this verse it appears that there were some who had been converted from heathenism;"
Yep - and that is not what is being condemned by Paul as was just noted above... details matter.