Galatians 4:8

τοῖς φύσει μὴ οὖσι θεοῖς אABCD*cP vulg. τοῖς μὴ φύσει οὖσι θεοῖς Text. Rec. with DbGKL etc. syrHarcl; omitting φύσει K d aeth. Irenint.

8. This and the following verses are a “sad and startling contrast to Galatians 4:7” (Beet), seen in their turning back to the weak and beggarly elements.

ἀλλὰ. To be joined with πῶς ἐπιστρέφετε, which expresses the principal thought of the passage, the intervening words serving as a preparation for πάλιν.

τότε μὲν, Romans 6:21. Before their conversion, which was implied in οὐκέτι εἶ δοῦλος (Galatians 4:7), St Paul here directly applying to Gentiles the language of Galatians 4:1-7, which had referred primarily to the Jews.

οὐκ εἰδότες θεὸν. For εἰδέναι θεόν see 1 Thessalonians 4:5; 2 Thessalonians 1:8; Titus 1:16[121]. They lacked any natural or intuitive knowledge of God.

[121] Is affixed to a word it means that all the passages are mentioned where that word occurs in the New Testament.

ἐδουλεύσατε. This suggests more willingness and personal action than ἤμεθα δεδουλ. in Galatians 4:3.

τοῖς φύσει (Galatians 2:15) μὴ οὖσι θεοῖς, “to them which by nature are not gods.” See notes on Textual Criticism, i.e. Whatever may be attributed to them by their worshippers; if they are gods they are not so by origin, but by man’s deification of them; cf. 1 Corinthians 8:4-5. Observe that this would include both the worship of Caesar (though so expressed that no offence could be taken) and that of demons (1 Corinthians 10:19-20), as well as all other forms of heathen worship. In Alford’s translation “to gods, which by nature exist not,” φύσει is really tautological.