ELEMENTAL SPIRITS IN NEW TESTAMENT TIMES

By: Guillermo Santamaria

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

This book argues that Paul’s phrase “the elemental spirits of the world” (ta stoicheia tou kosmou) in Colossians and Galatians refers to a blend of hostile spiritual powers and the basic religious “ABC’s”—rules, rituals, and philosophies—through which those powers enslave people before Christ.

1. What stoicheia meant in the ancient world

• In classical Greek, stoicheia usually means elements or building blocks: letters of the alphabet, basic principles, or the four elements (earth, air, fire, water).

• In Jewish and Greco-Roman thought, these “elements” and the stars could be spirit-filled or personified, tied to angels, demons, or astral powers. This sets the stage for “elemental spirits” language.

2. How Paul uses the phrase

• Colossians 2:8, 20 connects the stoicheia with human traditions, regulations (“do not handle, do not taste, do not touch”), and a deceptive “philosophy” that is “not according to Christ.”

• Galatians 4 speaks of people being “enslaved” to the stoicheia and then wanting to return to “weak and beggarly stoicheia,” tying them to spiritual bondage and religious systems.

3. Main interpretive options

The paper lays out three major readings and then combines them:

1. Elementary principles: basic religious/ethical ABC’s, whether Jewish law or pagan ritual.

2. Elemental spirits: personal spiritual beings (angels/demons, cosmic powers).

3. Both-and view (the paper’s favored reading):

   • Stoicheia are real spiritual powers that operate through religious rules, philosophies, and ascetic practices.

   • So they are both beings and systems—powers and the structures they inhabit.

4. Jewish and pagan background

• Jewish apocalyptic and mystical texts: complex angelologies, spirits linked to stars, elements, wilderness, etc., so “elements” and angels can blur into each other.

• Jewish folklore and mysticism: demons, shedim, Lilith-type figures, spirits in waste places or trees, and angels overseeing elements.

• Greek/Roman world: daimones as semi-divine spirits in the air and stars; elements and heavenly bodies often seen as divine or animated.

• Together, these form a worldview where cosmos = structured, spirit-inhabited system, so talking about “elements” easily implies spiritual powers.

5. The Colossian situation

• Colossae was a religious mash-up: Judaism, Greek philosophy, local Phrygian cults, folk magic, imperial cult, etc.

• The “heresy” Paul counters is syncretistic, mixing:

  • Jewish legalism (circumcision, food laws, days)

  • Ascetic practices and visions

  • Concern over spiritual/cosmic powers and angels

• The stoicheia are the cosmic-religious framework behind this blend—powers that make people feel they must add rules, rituals, and intermediaries to Christ.

6. Why Paul calls them enslaving

• They demand submission to regulations and promise spiritual safety or fullness, but are “according to human precepts and teachings.”

• They displace Christ’s sufficiency, making people trust systems, calendars, asceticism, or spiritual intermediaries instead of Christ alone.

• To live under them after union with Christ is to act as if one still belongs to the old world-order.