Elements (στοιχε ῖ α, elementa)
στοιχε ῖ ον is properly a stake or peg in a row (στο ῖ χος); then, one of a series, a component part, an element. The special meanings or στοιχε ῖ α are: (a) the letters or the alphabet; (b) the physical elements or constituents of the universe; (c) the heavenly bodies; (d) the rudiments or principia of a subject; (e) the elementary spirits, angels, genii, or demons of the cosmos. Each of these meanings, with the exception of the first, has been found by exegetes in one or other of the NT passages in winch στοιχε ῖ α occurs. In one case (Hebrews 5:12) the interpretation (d) is beyond dispute; the others have given rise to much discussion.
From Plato downwards στοιχε ῖ α frequently denotes the elements of which the world is composed. Empedocles had already reckoned four ultimate elements-fire, water, earth, and air-but called them ῥ ιζώματα (ed. Sturz, 1805, p. 255ff.). Plato preferred to speak of the στοιχε ῖ α το ῦ παντός (Tim . 48 B; cf. Theœt . 201 E). In the Orphic Hymns (iv. 4) the air (α ἰ θήρ) is called κόσμου στοιχε ῖ ον ἄ ριστον. Aristotle distinguished στοιχε ῖ α from ἀ ρχαί (though the terms were often interchanged) as the material cause from the formal or motive (Metaph . IV. i. 1, iii. 1). The Stoic definition of a στοιχε ῖ ον is ‘that out of which, as their first principle, things generated are made, and into which, as their last remains, they are resolved’ (Diog. Laert., Zeno, 69). στοιχε ῖ οα has this meaning in Wis 7:17 : ‘For himself gave me an unerring knowledge of the things that are, to know the constitution of the world, and the operation of the elements’ (κα ὶ ἐ νέργειαν στοιχείων; cf. 19:18). In 2Ma 7:22 a mother says to her seven martyr sons: ‘It was not I that brought into order the first elements (στοιχε ἰ ωσιν) of each one of you.’
This is probably the meaning of the term in 2 P 3:10: ‘The day of the Lord shall come a s a thief; in which … the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat’ (στοιχε ῖ α δ ὲ καυσούμενα λυθήαεται [or λυθήαονται]); and v. 12: ‘the elements shall melt (τήκεται) with fervent heat.’ Here RVm [Note: Vm Revised Version margin.] gives the alternativ e ‘heavenly bodies,’ which is a meaning the word came to have in early ecclesiastical writers. The stars were called στοιχε ῖ α either as the elements of the heavens, or-a less likely explanation-because in them the elements of man’s life and destiny were supposed to reside. Justin speaks of τ ὰ ο ὐ ράνια στοιχε ῖ α (Apol . ii. 5). Theoph. of Antioch has στοιχε ῖ α θεο ῦ (ad Autol . i. 4), and the word bears the same meaning in Ep. ad Diog . vii. 2. In 2 P 3:10 the situation of στοιχε ῖ α between ο ὐ ρανοί and γ ῆ favours this interpretation; the universe seems to consist of the vault of heaven, the heavenly bodies, and the earth. but as the writer of the Epistle is not methodical, and as, in painting a lurid picture of final destruction, he evidently uses the strongest langu age at his command, it is probable that the στοιχε ῖ α whose burning he contemplates are the elements of the whole universe.
The Gr. word frequently denoted the rudiments or principia of a science, art, or discipline. The στοιχε ῖ α of geometry, grammar, or logic are the first principles; στοιχε ῖ α τ ῆ ς λέξεως are the parts of speech (Aris. Poet . xx. 1); στοιχε ῖ α τ ῆ ς ἀ ρετ ῆ ς, the elements of virtue (Plut. de Lib. Educ . xvi. 2). The word unquestionably has this meaning in Hebrews 5:12, ‘the rudiments of the first princi ples (τ ὰ στοιχε ῖ α τ ῆ ς ἀ ρχ ῆ ς) of the oracles of God’-the ABC of Christian education, what is milk for babes but not solid food for men (v. 13).
The phrase in regard to which there is most division of opinion is τ ὰ στοιχε ῖ α το ῦ κόαμον (Galatians 4:3, Colossians 2:8, Colossians 2:20; το ῦ κόαμον is clearly implied in Galatians 4:8). (i.) Many take στοιχε ῖ α in the intellectual sense: ‘the elementary things, the immature beginnings of religion, which occupy the minds of those who are still without the pale of Christianity’ (Meyer on Galatians 4:3); ‘the elements of religious training, or the ceremonial precepts common alike to the worship of Jews and of Gentiles’ (Grimm-Thayer [Note: rimm-Thayer Grimm’s Gr.-Eng. Lexicon of the NT, tr. Thayer.], s.v.). To this view there are strong objections. Those w ho are in bondage to the στοιχε ῖ α of the world are compared with heirs who are still under guardians and stewards (Galatians 4:2, Galatians 4:3), where the parallel suggests the personality of the στοιχε ῖ α. To serve the στοιχε ῖ α is the same thing as serving them that by nature are no gods (4:8)-a statement by no means evident if the στοιχε ῖ α are the rudiments of religious instruction. The relapse from God to the στοιχε ῖ α (4:9) can scarcely be a return to a mere abstraction. The observance of times and seasons is according to the στοιχε ῖ α of the world, not according to Christ (Colossians 2:8)-a contrast which suggests that the στοιχε ῖ α and Christ are personal rivals. When men died with Christ from the στοιχε ῖ α of the world (v. 20), this was more than a death to rudimentary teaching. The στοιχε ῖ α are apparently identical with the principalities and powers of which Christ is Head and over which He triumphs (vv. 10-15). Finally, a man’s knowledge of the στοιχε ῖ α is not approved as his beginning of religious education, but condemned as hi s ‘philosophy and vain deceit’ (v. 8).
(ii.) Those interpreters come nearer the facts of the case who suggest that the στοιχε ῖ α to which the Galatian and Colossian Christians were reverting were the heavenly bodies conceived as animated and therefore to be worshipped. Such worship was certainly common enough among the Gentiles. ‘They say that the stars are all and every one real parts of Jove, and live, and have reasonable souls, and therefore are absolute gods’ (Aug. de Civ. Dei, iv. 11). Nor was the belief in astral spirits confined to pagans. In the Prœdicatio Petri (ap. Clem. Alex. Strom . vi. 5) the Jews are represented as λατρεύοντες ἀ γγέλοις καί ἀ ρχαγγέλοις μην ὶ κα ὶ σελήν ῃ, and this worship is classed with that of the heathen. Clear evidence of this belief is found in Philo (de Mundi Op . i. 34) and in the Book of Enoch (xli, xliii.). The animated heavenly bodies, however, would rather be described as τ ὰ στοιχε ῖ α το ῦ ο ὐ ρανο ῦ, and the στοιχε ῖ α of the ‘co smos’ must include those of earth as well as those of heaven.
(iii.) Many recent expositors therefore maintain that the στοιχε ῖ α are the angels or personal elemental spirits which were supposed to animate all things. There is evidence that this view was wi de-spread. The Book of Enoch (lxxxii. 10f.) speaks of the angels of the stars keeping watch, the leaders dividing the seasons, the taxiarchs the months, and the chiliarchs the days. Stars are punished if they fail to appear when due (xviii 15). The Book of Jubilees (ch. ii.) refers to the creation of the angels of the face (or presence), and the angels who cry ‘holy,’ the angels of the spirit of wind and of hail, of thunder and of lightning, of heat and of cold, of each of the seasons, of dawn and of evening, etc. The same species of animism is found in the Ascension of Isaiah (iv. 18), 2Es 8:21 f, Sibyll. Orac . (vii. 33-35). In the Testament of Solomon (Migne, Patr. Gr . cxxii. 1315) the spirits who come before the king say: ‘We are the στοιχε ῖ α, the rulers of this under world’ (ο ἱ κοσμοκρ ἀ τορες το ῦ σκότους τούτου). The belief survives in modern Greek folk-lore, in which the tutelary spirit who is supposed to reside in every rock, stream, bridge, and so forth, is called a στοιχε ῖ ον.
Not a few passages in the NT indicate the prevalence of this conception. The four winds have their four angels (Revelation 7:1, Revelation 7:2), and the fire has its angel (14:18). Each of the Seven Churches has its angel (2:3). Angels take the form of winds and fire (Hebrews 1:7 || Psalms 104:4). The inferiority of the law to the gospel is due to its administration by angels (Galatians 3:19). The belief in a world of intermediate spirits is the basal thought of Gnosticism, which St. Paul encounters in its incipient forms. ‘Jewish worship of law and pagan worship of gods are for him fundamentally the same bondage under the lower world-powers which stand between God and men.’ Grant that this language is paradoxical, ‘it is still extremely significant that Paul dares to speak in this way of the law’ (Bousset in Die Schriften des NT, ii. 62).
Even in 2 P 3:10, 12 it is possible that the στοιχε ῖ α, which are to be ‘dissolved,’ or ‘melted,’ are elemental spirits. ‘This may or may not seem strange to us, but we must ever learn anew that bygone times had a different conception of the world’ (Hollmann in Die Schriften des NT, ii. 594), Schœttgen quotes the Rabbinical words: ‘No choir of angels sings God’s praises twice, for each day God creates new hosts which sing His praises and then vanish into the stream of fire from under the throne of His glory whence they came.’ A closer parallel is found in Test. of the XII. Patr., ‘Levi,’ 4, where it is said that on the Judgment Day all creation will be troubled and the invisible spirits melt away (κα ὶ τ ῶ ν ἀ οράτων πνευμ ἀ των τηκομένων).
Literature.-Hermann Diels, Elementum: Eine Vorarbeit zum griechischen und lateinischen Thesaurus, 1899; E. Y. Hinks, ‘The Meaning of the Phrase τ ὰ στοιχε ῖ α το ῦ κόσμου’ in JBL [Note: BL Journal of Biblical Literature.], vol. xv. [1896], p. 183ff.; artt. [Note: rtt. articles.] by G. A. Deissmann in EBi [Note: Bi EncyclopAEdia Biblica.]; by M. S. Terry in SDB [Note: DB Hastings’ Single-vol. Dictionary of the Bible.]; by J. Massie in HDB [Note: DB Hastings’ Dict. of the Bible (5 vols.).] .
James Strahan.