Corpus-Paul

["Jim Hester" <hester AT jasper.uor.edu>]

In an earlier posting,  someone -- sorry but my e-mail program tanked and I
lost my archive! -- mentioned stoicheia in Gal. 4.  I want to play off the
thread that Mark and Moon have been pursuing and try out an idea I have had
for some time to see if I be convinced that I am wrong.

No need to review the discussions about the meaning and importance of the
phrase "stoicheia tou kosmou" in 4:3, and the disparaging reference to the
stoicheia in 4:9.  My problem is that I am not convinced that we must
understand the word to refer to "elements that constitute the world's
foundation", to use Martyn's phrase. The immediate context of the expression
in 4:3 has to do with cultural and social conditions that apply to a minor,
not to philosophical ideas. While "stoicheia" can refer to supernatural
powers, it can also refer to basic principles and natural substances and in
rhetoric can refer to the principles or elements of argumentation. At least
in 4:3, the "principles of the world" might refer to cultural and social
constraints, or even culturally imposed spiritual constraints, experienced
by believers. And, in 4:9, the inadequacy of these constraints and the
arguments used to support them might be the reference.

My search of the TLG indicates that the phrase "stoichia tou kosmou" is
first found in Paul and is usually found in Christian literature after Paul.
It is not a phrase used commonly by secular writers.  It looks to me --
forgive the reference to Symbolic Convergence Theory -- like Paul's phrase
was chained out by later writers and that we might just be reading their
meaning back into Paul rhetoric.

I have discussed this idea with several folks, including Bob Hall and
Frederick Danker, who were kind enough not to be derisive, but they failed
to persuade me entirely that I was wrong. I'd be grateful for the input of
others.  What am I overlooking?
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Hester                   "Never be afraid to try something new.
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