Elementary Errors: Philosophers, Idolaters, and τὰ στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόσμου in Paul and Clement of Alexandria

Abstract

Historically, interpreters of Gal. 4 have found the literal sense of τὰ στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόσμου, “the elements of the world” to be unintelligible in context. Although a compelling Pauline vision of enslavement to these στοιχεῖα has remained elusive, this paper argues that it is possible to recapture that vision with recourse to the traditional usage of the phrase in ancient Greek philosophical literature. By examining one of the earliest extant quotations of Gal. 4 – i.e., that of Clement of Alexandria in his Protrepticus (c.190 CE) – and the philosophical language with which Clement associates Paul’s στοιχεῖα, this paper argues that Paul uses the phrase τὰ στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόσμου according to its meaning in the ancient philosophical Sondersprache. Because an ambiguity between matter and divinity already characterized ancient philosophical thought about στοιχεῖα, Paul’s “elements” need not be either “cosmological” or “principial” (as most previous interpreters have thought), but both.