Elements

The Greek word stoicheia, translated "elements" in the New Testament, carries a range of meanings that have generated significant interpretive debate. In its primary sense it denotes the basic constituents or rudimentary principles of any system. Peter uses it for the physical elements of the cosmos that will be dissolved at the last day (2 Peter 3:10, 12). Paul's usage is more controversial: in Galatians 4:3, 9 and Colossians 2:8, 20, stoicheia appears in the context of the Mosaic law and Gentile religious observance — "weak and beggarly elements" or "elements of the world" to which Paul says believers were formerly enslaved.

Interpreters debate whether Paul means (a) the basic spiritual forces or powers behind pagan religion and the law as externally imposed systems, (b) the elementary teachings or "ABCs" of pre-Christian religion, or (c) angelic intermediaries associated with the cosmos. In any reading, Paul's point is that faith in Christ has freed believers from bondage to these elementary principles, and returning to them — whether through Jewish calendar observances or Colossian asceticism — represents a regression rather than spiritual advance.