Element

A word, with its original uroixfiov (always in pi.) and its derivative (rroixf'wiris, entirely confined in sacred literature to the Apocr. and n't. AV renders the Greek variously : six times as 'elements' (Wis 7" 19'S Gal 4»- », 2 P y- "=), twice as ' rudiments ' (Col 2s- -"»), once as ' princiides ' (He 5'-), once {aTOix^twcris) as ' members ^ (2 Mac 7*^). RV gives ' elements ' in Wis, 2 Mac, and 2 P ; elsewhere (St. Paul and He) ' rudiments.' In the untranslated (LXX) Apocr.

it occurs once, 4 Mae 12", plainly meaning elements. In Wis, as in 2 P, it means unmistak- ably the physioAl elements of which the cosmos is composed; in 2 and 4 Mac those of which the human body is composed ; in Hebrews its dehning genitives show that it stands with them for the elements of Christian knowledge.

All these signi- fications march with the usage of the word IB secular Greek and follow from its original signi- fication— that which stands in a (rroixos, ' row,' ' series ' ; then (1) in pi. the letters of the alphabet, not as written signs, but as the primary elements of words (Plat., Aristot.) ; (2) the primary elements of the universe (from Plat, downwards) ; (3) as suggested by tlie usage in Xenoph. {Mem. II. i. 1) and Aristot. (see Bonitz, Index Arist. p.

702), — where it occurs as the simplest elements of an argument or demonstration, — but definitely only in later Greek from Cornutus (Ist cent. A.D.), Plut., Diog. L., downwards, the primary elements, the first principles, of knowledge, almost always with a defining genitive or a guide from tne context determining wliat the knowledge is. The passages in St. Paul alone remain. Gal 4'- ', Col 2'- ^.

In each of these there is the defining genitive toS KSa^ov, except in Gal 4*, where, how- ever, the ToO K&a 11.0V of v.' clearly fixes the context. The first natural impression, therefore, is that the oToixf'o in all these places should be interpreted in the same way ; and the second is that, as toC Kbujiov is not a branch of instruction, like Xoylwv in He, or dper^j in Plut. (Z>e puer. educ.

16), the basis of the interpretation should be physical, as with the other instances in biblical literature (of. for the influence of Wis upon St. Paul, Sanday- Headlara, Romans, p. 51), rather than ethical; ' elements of the material world ' (cf. Philo, De Vita Contempl. ii. 472), rather than ' elements [ol religious knowledge] furnished by the material world ' (Lightfoot), or ' elements [of religious knowledge] characteristic of the non-Christian world,' i.e.

elements of religious truth belonging to mankind in general (Meyei). The 'religious knowledge ' and ' religious tiuth,' with theii' alleged relation to toG Kbaixov, seem to be imported to help interpreters out of a difficulty. The impression in favour of the pliysical inter- pretation (the interpretation of the word in Clem. Mom. X. 9) is confirmed by the context of the passages.

In Col 2" wliat is referred to is not an elementary knowledge from which a moral and spiritual advance could be made, not a circumcision and a ceremonial law with which the heathen cultus would in its ritual have something in common, but a 'philosophy' and a 'deceit,' a delusive speculation oH'ered as superior to the ordinary belief in Christ, and spoken of later (v.'") as characterized by a false humility and a worship of angels.

In Gal 4"- " the ' elements of the world,' ' the weak and beggarly elements,' to whose service Jew and lieatlien Christians were set oil returning, are put parallel to 'them that by nature are not gods, and such service is exemplified in the keeping of days and months and seasons and years. This context at once suggests the worsliip of the heavenly bodies, which were called especially oroixfia as elements of the universe (Just. Mart. Dinl. 23 ; Polycrates in Euseb. HE iii. 31 ; Epiphanius, adv.

Hmr. i. in hcer. Pharismomm, '2), and whose movements regulated the calendar (Just. Mart. Apol. ii. 5 ; Letter to Diognetus, 4) ; the Colossian worship of angels finding its explanation in the fact that the heavenly bodies were supposed by Jew and lieatlien to be animated heavenly beings ; cf. Philo, Mundi op. i. 34 ; Enoch 41. 43 ; Clem. Alex. Strom. vL 5 ; Orig.

on Jn 4- ; and, within the Scriptures them- selves, Job 38' (wiomin'7 stars = sons <^ God), 1 Co IS-" {bodies clothing spirits), Ja 1" {Father of the lights). Cf. also Iloltzmann, Neutest. Theol. 52L, and Meyer-Haupt on Col 2*.

But a philosophy of astral spirits (which reminds na of modem theosophical speculation) is not quit« homogeneous, after all, with the reference to food and drink in Col 2", though, no doubt, food and ELEMENT ELEPHAXT 683 drink were ' features of tlie world's life,' which, for its times and seasons, was under tlie govern- ance of the henvenly m-wxt'o. And, further, Koatiot, as predoininiintly used in bihiic.

il Greek, seems to lead us away from rather than towards ovpavot, and must, at any rate, emphatically include the world inhabited by men. Hence, apparentl}', we must seek a consistent interpreta- tion for tlie Pauline passages in a meaning of oToixf 'a clearly sanctioned bj- usage at a later date, and also in harmony with ideas prevalent in St. Paul's day.

It may be called an extension of the meaning we have just been considering, for it maintained that not only the heavenly bodies, but all things, in the heavens and in the earth alike, had their angels, and were under the govern- ance of spirits. This view reveals itself not only in the later Jewish literature, but also in OT and NT.

In the former region we find, for exami)le, in the Book of Jubilees, a Jewish comi)osition belong- ing to the century immediately preceding the Christian era (see Charles, Eth. Version of the Heb. Book of Jubilees, Oxford, 1895), the following fiassage (c.

2) : ' On the first day created he the leavens which are above and the earth and the waters and all the spirits that serve before him, and the angels of the face (or presence), and the angels that cry " holy," and the angels of the spirit of fire, and the angels of the spirit of wind, and the angels of the spirit of the clouds of dark- ness and of hail and of hoarfrost, and the angels of the depths and of thunder and of lightning, and the angels of the spirits of cold and of heat, of winter and of spring, of autumn and of summer, and of all the spirits of his works in the heavens and on the earth and in all depths, and of darkness and of light, and of dawn and of evening, which he has prepared according to the discernment of his nnclerstandin<^' Everlin"; (see appended literature) quotes also Enoch 82'""^ (angels of the stars, with names of leaders), 60"- (angels appointed over the various phenomena of nature) ; Ascensin Isnia: {2nd cent.

A.D., according to Harnack) 4' (angel of the sun, etc.), 2 Es (81-9G A.D., ace. to Schiirer) 8'"- (army of angels ... in wind and fire), and Sihtjll. Omc. (2nd cent.) 1'°-^ (angels of fire, rivers, citie.s, winds). The same view is found in the region of OT and NT. In Ps 104 (according to the LXX, as quoted also in He 1') angels take the shape of winds and fire ; in Kev T' there are the four angels of the four winds, in 14" there is an angel of the fire, in IG' an angel of the waters (cf.

the angel of the pool of licthesda in the spurious passage Jn 5'). In Dn 10"- " we have angels as princes of Persia and Greece, and in 12' Michael as the great prince 'stiinding' for Israel, just as he stands for the Church as a whole (Rev 12'), and as each of the seven Churches has its angel (Rev 2. 3), and perhaps also each individual human being (Mt 18'"). Every- thing that hapjiens is wrought by angels: 'tlicre are no secondary causes.'

Angel powers are the in- visible background of human life and of nature. Such angels are sometimes called ' gods,' as in Ps 82'- «, being 'sons of the Most High' (the Pe.shitta actually gives anr/cls in both clauses of the first ver.><e), and God Himself is tlie 'God of goils' and 'Lord of lords' Dt 10", I's i;!(i-'; cf. A/mc. of Ziphnniiih. ' In the fifth heaven . . angels called lords,' quoted by Clem. Alex. Strom. V. xi. 77 Hence St.

Paul's expression I Co 8' 'are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, ju.st as there are gods many and lords many,' yet (Gal 4") ' by nature not gods ' like the ' one (Jod ' and the 'one Lord' (1 Co 8"). Thus there was common pround for heathen nature worship and for Jewish legnlism, for the law liml lieen ' administered by angels ' Gal 3". He 2», Ac 7*^ " (cf. Jos. Aut. xv. v. 3 ; II. i.

3), and was thus on a level lower than the new dispensation ; He 2^ ' For not to angels did he subject the world to come, whereof we speak.'

Angels were the media of God's government ; and, havin" 'a certain independence in the discharge of their functions, could stand (to use Ritschl's phrase) in " relative opposition to God," so that, in some cases, their service was an imperfect representation of God, in other cases an actual misrepresentation of Him, and consequently a veiling rather than an unveiling of Him. In this light we can moie easily under.stand how St.

Paul can attribute to angels the imperfect and transitory dispensation of the law ; and the perplexing passage Col 2", where Christ is said to have " stripped off from himself the principalities and the powers, and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in [his cross]," — or, as it may be otherwise worded, "exhibited them in their real nature, leading them in his triumphal train," — may pos- sibly lind its elucidation in tlie idea that these dp^ai and iiovaiai (cf.

^^ovtrlav 4irl tQiv voo-tuv Rev 1 1^) had hidden His personal activity, and even attracted worship to themselves.' This relative opposition may become absolute, the relative independence may become absolute insubordination, as in the case of the Prince of Persia (Dn 10"), and Satan and his angels (2 P 2, Jude "), yet never in the dualistic sense. Accordingly, Christ can speak of ' the prince of this world ' (Jn 12^'), and St.

Paul of the ' god of this age ' (2 Co 4'') : both can attribute evils and hindrances to Satan (Lk 13", Mk S^, 2 Co 12', I Th 2'*), and St. Paul can see the Saiixivia. in the dark background of idolatry (1 Co lO™').

Over all these powers Christ is to triumph (1 Co 15-''), either by crushing insubordination and destroying the insubordinate (Rev lO™), or by displaying His real headship, which by the 'tradition of men' has been concealed (Ph 2'°, Eph l->"-, Col 2"- '»), and delivering the ' heirs ' from the tutelage of the iirlTpoTToi, the ' governors, the aroLxf^o. toD koV/xou, under whom they had been enslaved (Gal 4'") (cf. Everling, Angelulogie, 74 n.

, for Michael as called iTrirpoiroi of Israel in later .Jewish literature, the word being transliterated into Hebrew). The suggestion by St. Paul in his tois <f>6<ret ht) otffi deoh ((jal 4*), that by his o-Toixeia he means angelic powers, is not illustrated by any actual use of the word in this sense in the extant litera- ture of the 1st cent. ; but Everling (p. 70) quotes the following passage from the Testament of Solomon (date uncertain, probably not very early ; Harnack, Gcsch. Alt.

Christ. Lit. 1. 2, 858), where the spirits that appear to Solomon say, ' We are the so-called sroix^'a, the world rulers of this world.' For the ' Stoicheiolatry ' of the modern Greeks and their belief that there is a (rroiXfiof everywhere to be jiropitiated, see Kean in Expos. Times, viii. (1897) 514. LiTKRATUBi!.— Klopper, Bnr/andlt Kol. 18S2; .Spitta, Zweitt Brief df* I'etnu, lb8.'> ; .Me.

vcr-Iiuiipt, />iV (ifjantjpiutcht^fu- brie/e, 1807 ; Everling, Die I'aulinijfche A nietot»jiir utid llnmon- ologie, 1888; Iliiicks, Journal of Bib. Lit., Bosu>n, ISUli, pp. 183-192 ; and Kean, as above quoted. J. MaSSIE. ELEPH (I^Ni?), Jos 18»»only.— A town of Ben- jamin, proliably the present village Lifta \V. of Jerus., which has often been wrongly identified with Nephtoah. See SWP vol. iii. slieet xvii. C. R. CONDKR.