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== | == Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament <ref name="term_55742" /> == | ||
2 Peter 3: | <p> (στοιχεῖα, <i> elementa </i> ) </p> <p> στοιχεῖον is properly a stake or peg in a row (στοῖχος); then, one of a series, a component part, an element. The special meanings or στοιχεῖα are: ( <i> a </i> ) the letters or the alphabet; ( <i> b </i> ) the physical elements or constituents of the universe; ( <i> c </i> ) the heavenly bodies; ( <i> d </i> ) the rudiments or <i> principia </i> of a subject; ( <i> e </i> ) 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 στοιχεῖα occurs. In one case (Hebrews 5:12) the interpretation ( <i> d </i> ) is beyond dispute; the others have given rise to much discussion. </p> <p> From [[Plato]] downwards στοιχεῖα 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 ῥιζώματα (ed. Sturz, 1805, p. 255ff.). Plato preferred to speak of the στοιχεῖα τοῦ παντός ( <i> Tim </i> . 48 B; cf. <i> Theœt </i> . 201 E). In the Orphic [[Hymns]] (iv. 4) the air (αἰθήρ) is called κόσμου στοιχεῖον ἄριστον. [[Aristotle]] distinguished στοιχεῖα from ἀρχαί (though the terms were often interchanged) as the material cause from the formal or motive ( <i> Metaph </i> . IV. i. 1, iii. 1). The Stoic definition of a στοιχεῖον 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., <i> [[Zeno]] </i> , 69). στοιχεῖοα has this meaning in [[Wisdom]] of [[Solomon]] 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’ (καὶ ἐνέργειαν στοιχείων; cf. Wisdom of Solomon 19:18). In 2 [[Maccabees]] 7:22 a mother says to her seven martyr sons: ‘It was not I that brought into order the first elements (στοιχεἰωσιν) of each one of you.’ </p> <p> This is probably the meaning of the term in 2 Peter 3:10 : ‘The day of the Lord shall come as a thief; in which … the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat’ (στοιχεῖα δὲ καυσούμενα λυθήαεται [or λυθήαονται]); and 2 Peter 3:12 : ‘the elements shall melt (τήκεται) with fervent heat.’ Here Revised Version margin gives the alternative ‘heavenly bodies,’ which is a meaning the word came to have in early ecclesiastical writers. The stars were called στοιχεῖα 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 τὰ οὐράνια στοιχεῖα ( <i> Apol </i> . ii. 5). Theoph. of [[Antioch]] has στοιχεῖα θεοῦ ( <i> ad Autol </i> . i. 4), and the word bears the same meaning in <i> Ep. ad Diog </i> . vii. 2. In 2 Peter 3:10 the situation of στοιχεῖα between οὐρανοί and γῆ 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 language at his command, it is probable that the στοιχεῖα whose burning he contemplates are the elements of the whole universe. </p> <p> The Gr. word frequently denoted the rudiments or <i> principia </i> of a science, art, or discipline. The στοιχεῖα of geometry, grammar, or logic are the first principles; στοιχεῖα τῆς λέξεως are the parts of speech (Aris. <i> [[Poet]] </i> . xx. 1); στοιχεῖα τῆς ἀρετῆς, the elements of virtue (Plut. <i> de Lib. Educ </i> . xvi. 2). The word unquestionably has this meaning in Hebrews 5:12, ‘the rudiments of the first principles (τὰ στοιχεῖα τῆς ἀρχῆς) of the oracles of God’-the ABC of [[Christian]] education, what is milk for babes but not solid food for men (Hebrews 5:13). </p> <p> The phrase in regard to which there is most division of opinion is τὰ στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόαμον (Galatians 4:3, Colossians 2:8; Colossians 2:20; τοῦ κόαμον is clearly implied in Galatians 4:8). (i.) Many take στοιχεῖα 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’ (Thayer Grimm’s Gr.-Eng. Lexicon of the NT, tr. Thayer, <i> s.v. </i> ). To this view there are strong objections. Those who are in bondage to the στοιχεῖα of the world are compared with heirs who are still under guardians and stewards (Galatians 4:2-3), where the parallel suggests the personality of the στοιχεῖα. To serve the στοιχεῖα is the same thing as serving them that by nature are no gods (Galatians 4:8)-a statement by no means evident if the στοιχεῖα are the rudiments of religious instruction. The relapse from [[God]] to the στοιχεῖα (Galatians 4:9) can scarcely be a return to a mere abstraction. The observance of times and seasons is according to the στοιχεῖα of the world, not according to [[Christ]] (Colossians 2:8)-a contrast which suggests that the στοιχεῖα and Christ are personal rivals. When men died with Christ from the στοιχεῖα of the world (Colossians 2:20), this was more than a death to rudimentary teaching. The στοιχεῖα are apparently identical with the principalities and powers of which Christ is [[Head]] and over which He triumphs (Colossians 2:10-15). Finally, a man’s knowledge of the στοιχεῖα is not approved as his beginning of religious education, but condemned as his ‘philosophy and vain deceit’ (Colossians 2:8). </p> <p> (ii.) Those interpreters come nearer the facts of the case who suggest that the στοιχεῖα 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. <i> de Civ. Dei </i> , iv. 11). Nor was the belief in astral spirits confined to pagans. In the <i> Prœdicatio Petri </i> (ap. Clem. Alex. <i> Strom </i> . vi. 5) the Jews are represented as λατρεύοντες ἀγγέλοις καί ἀρχαγγέλοις μηνὶ καὶ σελήνῃ, and this worship is classed with that of the heathen. [[Clear]] evidence of this belief is found in [[Philo]] ( <i> de Mundi Op </i> . i. 34) and in the <i> [[Book]] of [[Enoch]] </i> (xli, xliii.). The animated heavenly bodies, however, would rather be described as τὰ στοιχεῖα τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, and the στοιχεῖα of the ‘cosmos’ must include those of earth as well as those of heaven. </p> <p> (iii.) Many recent expositors therefore maintain that the στοιχεῖα are the angels or personal elemental spirits which were supposed to animate all things. There is evidence that this view was wide-spread. The <i> Book of Enoch </i> (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 <i> Book of Jubilees </i> (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 <i> [[Ascension]] of Isaiah </i> (iv. 18), 2 [[Esdras]] 8:21 f, <i> Sibyll. Orac </i> . (vii. 33-35). In the <i> [[Testament]] of Solomon </i> (Migne, <i> Patr. Gr </i> . cxxii. 1315) the spirits who come before the king say: ‘We are the στοιχεῖα, the rulers of this under world’ (οἱ κοσμοκρἀτορες τοῦ 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 στοιχεῖον. </p> <p> Not a few passages in the NT indicate the prevalence of this conception. The four winds have their four angels (Revelation 7:1-2), and the fire has its angel (Revelation 14:18). Each of the [[Seven]] Churches has its angel (Revelation 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 <i> [[Die]] Schriften des NT </i> , ii. 62). </p> <p> Even in 2 Peter 3:10; 2 Peter 3:12 it is possible that the στοιχεῖα, 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 <i> Die Schriften des NT </i> , 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 <i> Test. of the XII. Patr. </i> , ‘Levi,’ 4, where it is said that on the [[Judgment]] Day all creation will be troubled and the invisible spirits melt away (καὶ τῶν ἀοράτων πνευμἀτων τηκομένων). </p> <p> Literature.-Hermann Diels, <i> Elementum: Eine Vorarbeit zum griechischen und lateinischen Thesaurus </i> , 1899; E. Y. Hinks, ‘The Meaning of the Phrase τὰ στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόσμου’ in <i> JBL </i> [Note: BL Journal of Biblical Literature.], vol. xv. [1896], p. 183ff.; articles by G. A. Deissmann in <i> Encyclopaedia Biblica </i> ; by M. S. Terry in <i> Hastings’ Single-vol. Dictionary of the [[Bible]] </i> ; by J. Massie in <i> Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) </i> . </p> <p> James Strahan. </p> | ||
== | == Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words <ref name="term_77525" /> == | ||
<p> ( | <div> 1: Στοιχεῖον (Strong'S #4747 Noun Neuter stoicheion stoy-khi'-on ) </div> <p> used in the plural, primarily signifies any first things from which others in a series, or a composite whole, take their rise; the word denotes "an element, first principle" (from stoichos, "a row, rank, series;" cp. the verb stoicheo, "to walk or march in rank;" see WALK); it was used of the letters of the alphabet, as elements of speech. In the NT it is used of (a) the substance of the material world, 2 Peter 3:10,12; (b) the delusive speculations of gentile cults and of [[Jewish]] theories, treated as elementary principles, "the rudiments of the world," Colossians 2:8 , spoken of as "philosophy and vain deceit;" these were presented as superior to faith in Christ; at [[Colosse]] the worship of angels, mentioned in Colossians 2:18 , is explicable by the supposition, held by both [[Jews]] and [[Gentiles]] in that district, that the constellations were either themselves animated heavenly beings, or were governed by them; (c) the rudimentary principles of religion, Jewish or Gentile, also described as "the rudiments of the world," Colossians 2:20 , and as "weak and beggarly rudiments," Galatians 4:3,9 , RV, constituting a yoke of bondage; (d) the "elementary" principles (the A.B.C.) of the OT, as a revelation from God, Hebrews 5:12 , RV, "rudiments," lit., "the rudiments of the beginning of the oracles of God," such as are taught to spiritual babes. See [[Principles]] , Rudiments. </p> | ||
== | == Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary <ref name="term_80628" /> == | ||
<p> | <p> στοιχεια , the elements or first principles of any art, whence the subsequent parts proceed. The elements or first principles of the [[Christian]] doctrine, Hebrews 5:12 . St. [[Paul]] calls the ceremonial ordinances of the [[Mosaic]] law, "worldly elements," Galatians 4:3; Colossians 2:8; Colossians 2:20; "weak and beggarly elements," Galatians 4:9 . Elements, as containing the rudiments of the knowledge of Christ, to which knowledge the law, as a pedagogue, Galatians 3:24 , was intended, by means of those ordinances, to bring the Jews; worldly, as consisting in outward worldly institutions, Hebrews 9:1; weak and beggarly, when considered in themselves, and set up in opposition to the great realities to which they were designed to lead. But, in Colossians 2:8 , the elements or rudiments of the world are so closely connected with philosophy and vain deceit, or an empty and deceitful philosophy, that they must be understood there to include the dogmas of [[Pagan]] philosophy; to which, no doubt, many of the Colossians were in their unconverted state attached, and of which the [[Judaizing]] teachers, who also were probably themselves infected with them, took advantage to withdraw the Colossian converts from the purity of the Gospel, and from [[Christ]] their living head. And from the general tenor of this chapter, and particularly from Colossians 2:18-23 , it appears, that these philosophical dogmas, against which the [[Apostle]] cautioned his converts, were partly Platonic, and partly Pythagorean; the former teaching the worship of angels, or demons, as mediators between [[God]] and man; the latter enjoining such abstinence from particular kinds of meats and drinks, and such severe mortifications of the body, as God had not commanded. </p> | ||
== Morrish Bible Dictionary <ref name="term_66064" /> == | == Morrish Bible Dictionary <ref name="term_66064" /> == | ||
<p> στοιχεῖον, 'rudiments, first steps.' </p> <p> 1. [[Applied]] to children at the 'commencement' of their training; and to the law as the 'early' way of God's dealing with Israel; but now called 'beggarly' because it has lost its glory through the failure of man, and the introduction of [[Christ]] Himself. Galatians 4:3,9 . The word, with a similar meaning, is translated 'rudiments' in Colossians 2:8,20 , and 'principles' in Hebrews 5:12 . </p> <p> 2. The material elements of the universe, which will be melted with great heat in the day of the Lord. 2 Peter 3:10,12 . </p> | <p> στοιχεῖον, 'rudiments, first steps.' </p> <p> 1. [[Applied]] to children at the 'commencement' of their training; and to the law as the 'early' way of God's dealing with Israel; but now called 'beggarly' because it has lost its glory through the failure of man, and the introduction of [[Christ]] Himself. Galatians 4:3,9 . The word, with a similar meaning, is translated 'rudiments' in Colossians 2:8,20 , and 'principles' in Hebrews 5:12 . </p> <p> 2. The material elements of the universe, which will be melted with great heat in the day of the Lord. 2 Peter 3:10,12 . </p> | ||
== | == Fausset's Bible Dictionary <ref name="term_35329" /> == | ||
< | <p> (Galatians 4:9): "weak and beggarly" rudiments; the elementary symbols of the law, powerless to justify, in contrast to the justifying power of faith (Galatians 3:24; Hebrews 7:18); beggarly, in contrast with the riches of the believer's inheritance in [[Christ]] (Ephesians 1:18). The child (Galatians 4:1-3) under the law is "weak," not having attained manhood. "beggarly," not having attained the inheritance. </p> | ||
== | == Easton's Bible Dictionary <ref name="term_31417" /> == | ||
2 Peter 3:10Galatians 4:3,9Colossians 2:8,20 | |||
== Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature <ref name="term_38878" /> == | == Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature <ref name="term_38878" /> == | ||
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<references> | <references> | ||
<ref name=" | <ref name="term_55742"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/hastings-dictionary-of-the-new-testament/elements Elements from Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament]</ref> | ||
<ref name=" | <ref name="term_77525"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/vine-s-expository-dictionary-of-nt-words/elements Elements from Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words]</ref> | ||
<ref name=" | <ref name="term_80628"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/watson-s-biblical-theological-dictionary/elements Elements from Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary]</ref> | ||
<ref name="term_66064"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/morrish-bible-dictionary/elements Elements from Morrish Bible Dictionary]</ref> | <ref name="term_66064"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/morrish-bible-dictionary/elements Elements from Morrish Bible Dictionary]</ref> | ||
<ref name=" | <ref name="term_35329"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/fausset-s-bible-dictionary/elements Elements from Fausset's Bible Dictionary]</ref> | ||
<ref name=" | <ref name="term_31417"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/easton-s-bible-dictionary/elements Elements from Easton's Bible Dictionary]</ref> | ||
<ref name="term_38878"> [https://bibleportal.com/encyclopedia/cyclopedia-of-biblical-theological-and-ecclesiastical-literature/elements Elements from Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature]</ref> | <ref name="term_38878"> [https://bibleportal.com/encyclopedia/cyclopedia-of-biblical-theological-and-ecclesiastical-literature/elements Elements from Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature]</ref> | ||
