Does Paul reject the idea of celebrating holidays in Galatians?

Question

Paul has some very strong words against the Galatians implying that they are returning to their former state:

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.—Galatians 4:8-11 (ESV)

It seems the evidence he cites is that they are "[observing] days and months and seasons and years!" I interpret that to mean certain holidays (whether Pagan or Jewish, I don't know). The NET Bible seems to agree with that interpretation of Galatians 4:9:

You are observing religious¹ days and months and seasons and years.

The note reads:

1 tn The adjective “religious” has been supplied in the translation to make clear that the problem concerns observing certain days, etc. in a religious sense (cf. NIV, NRSV “special days”). In light of the polemic in this letter against the Judaizers (those who tried to force observance of the Mosaic law on Gentile converts to Christianity) this may well be a reference to the observance of Jewish Sabbaths, feasts, and other religious days.

If this is a good understanding of what Paul meant by the phrase, does that mean that he was suspicious of all holiday celebrations (such as the upcoming Thanksgiving (US) and Advent seasons)? Or was this a particular sign of trouble for these particular churches?

Answer 1

"Is it a good interpretation of the phrase?"

In substance, yes--context shows it is the Jewish holidays being referred to. Martin Luther, in his Commentary on Galatians, agrees, commenting on "days and months and times and years" with:

The Apostle Paul knew what the false apostles were teaching the Galatians: The observance of days, and months, and times, and years. The Jews had been obliged to keep holy the Sabbath Day, the new moons, the feast of the passover, the feast of tabernacles, and other feasts. The false apostles constrained the Galatians to observe these Jewish feasts under threat of damnation. Paul hastens to tell the Galatians that they were exchanging their Christian liberty for the weak and beggarly elements of the world.

But in spirit, no--it is not so much the days themselves but that they show the Galatians' faith being weakened. The book of Galatians (seen as a whole) is a tirade against this church that had begun taking on Jewish custom in the belief that the Mosaic Law needed to be followed for salvation.

He speaks of encountering the behaviour previously when he was in Antioch (Galatians 2:14-16): (NIV quoted)

When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified."

Paul attempts in this book to separate the idea of salvation from the idea of following the law. The promise of salvation, given to Abraham, is separate from the Law, which was much later given to Moses, and for a different reason (cf. Galatians 3:15-19). Since Christ has come, the purpose of the Law is fulfilled, and we can rely instead on Christ alone (Galatians 3:23-25):

Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

The idea is that for those who have accepted Christ, no additional custom or law is necessary: you have already been saved by Christ, so what is putting yourself under additional restraint going to do for you?

So when we ask: "Does it mean he was suspicious of all holiday celebrations, or was this a particular sign of trouble for these particular churches?" we can only say that it is the latter. Because their faith in Christ's ability to save had weakened, they took to shoring it up with observances of Jewish Law--and we see from other parts of the book (e.g. Galatians 5:1-12) that it was not only holidays, but circumcision as well.

It is not likely that we can apply this to our holidays today. The Jewish days, we understand, were religious obligations--but our modern holidays are free celebrations, and do not promise us any justification. That we are under no obligation to keep them, and that they are not supposed to effect our salvation, puts them out of the way of at least this argument of Paul's.

Answer 2

It seems from the context (see Gal. 3) that Paul was not rejecting holidays, even Jewish ones, rather, he was making the point to them that since we have been saved, we are free from the bondage of the law and should not enslave ourselves again. He was telling them that as we have been saved by faith, we should also walk by faith, not trusting in the works of the law (such as keeping the Jewish sabbaths, holidays, etc.).

Answer 3

Jon, great question.

My first observation is that I never use a Bible translation that supplies words to make its translators' views clear. I am sitting here with my Nestle-Aland 27th ed., and can verify that there is in the cited passage no word that could possibly be translated religious or anything like it. The translators here, perhaps well meaning, have not clarified but circumscribed possible interpretation. What's worse, they've funneled their readers into their interpretation. That's not the proper role of a translator even if to some degree it happens inevitably.

I like the Revised Standard Version. Derived from the King James with the help of better manuscripts than were available in King James's time, and with an ecumenical translation team, it is an elegant, accurate, and formal (rather than dynamic) translation.

St. Paul is essentially criticizing his audience for something like backsliding. He asks them, "How can you turn back again...?" (v. 9) To understand the criticism, therefore, it may be useful to understand that into which they are backsliding, which means understanding that from which they have come.

The idea that these days, months, seasons, and years are holy days of any religion comes out of the blue. Feast days and such aren't mentioned elsewhere in the letter that I see.

The reference to elemental spirits (which appears also in my beloved RSV) is a stretch because the word spirits doesn't appear in the Greek (or, for that matter, in Jerome's Latin translation from the 4th century): only τὰ ἀσθενῆ καὶ πτωχὰ στοιχεῖα, the weak and poor elements. Here, I think the addition is more acceptable because for the ancient Greeks (and for polytheistic religion in general) natural matter is infused with divinity to varying degrees: rivers with gods, trees with spirits, and so on. The word is used to refer to stars and planets, in particular, as manifestations of divinities, like Jupiter, Venus, or Mars.

Given the early Christian concern with apostasy (back to Judaism in Hebrews, back to paganism in the letters to Greeks) and with St. Paul's concern with astrology (a view offered by, inter al., Nancy Calvert-Koyzis, formerly of Wheaton College), it strikes me as likely that St. Paul is concerned that they are reverting to their previous idolatry (worshiping created matter) and astrology, which usually go hand in hand.