Galatians 4:8
New International Version
Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.

New Living Translation
Before you Gentiles knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods that do not even exist.

English Standard Version
Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.

Berean Standard Bible
Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.

Berean Literal Bible
But at that time indeed, not knowing God, you were enslaved to those by nature not being gods.

King James Bible
Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.

New King James Version
But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods.

New American Standard Bible
However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are not gods.

NASB 1995
However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods.

NASB 1977
However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods.

Legacy Standard Bible
However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods.

Amplified Bible
But at that time, when you did not know [the true] God and were unacquainted with Him, you [Gentiles] were slaves to those [pagan] things which by [their very] nature were not and could not be gods at all.

Christian Standard Bible
But in the past, since you didn’t know God, you were enslaved to things that by nature are not gods.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
But in the past, when you didn’t know God, you were enslaved to things that by nature are not gods.

American Standard Version
Howbeit at that time, not knowing God, ye were in bondage to them that by nature are no gods:

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
For then when you had not known God, you served those which by their nature were not gods.

Contemporary English Version
Before you knew God, you were slaves of gods that are not real.

Douay-Rheims Bible
But then indeed, not knowing God, you served them, who, by nature, are not gods.

English Revised Version
Howbeit at that time, not knowing God, ye were in bondage to them which by nature are no gods:

GOD'S WORD® Translation
When you didn't know God, you were slaves to things which are really not gods at all.

Good News Translation
In the past you did not know God, and so you were slaves of beings who are not gods.

International Standard Version
However, in the past, when you did not know God, you were slaves to things that are not really gods at all.

Literal Standard Version
But then, indeed, having not known God, you were in servitude to those [that are] not by nature gods,

Majority Standard Bible
Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.

New American Bible
At a time when you did not know God, you became slaves to things that by nature are not gods;

NET Bible
Formerly when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods at all.

New Revised Standard Version
Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods.

New Heart English Bible
However at that time, not knowing God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.

Webster's Bible Translation
However then, when ye knew not God, ye did service to them which by nature are no gods.

Weymouth New Testament
But at one time, you Gentiles, having no knowledge of God, were slaves to gods which in reality do not exist.

World English Bible
However at that time, not knowing God, you were in bondage to those who by nature are not gods.

Young's Literal Translation
But then, indeed, not having known God, ye were in servitude to those not by nature gods,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Paul's Fears for the Galatians
7So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, you are also an heir through God. 8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. 9But now that you know God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you are turning back to those weak and worthless principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?…

Cross References
2 Chronicles 13:9
But did you not drive out the priests of the LORD, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites? And did you not make priests for yourselves as do the peoples of other lands? Now whoever comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams can become a priest of things that are not gods.

Isaiah 37:19
They have cast their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods, but only wood and stone--the work of human hands.

Jeremiah 2:11
Has a nation ever changed its gods, though they are no gods at all? Yet My people have exchanged their Glory for useless idols.

Jeremiah 5:7
"Why should I forgive you? Your children have forsaken Me and sworn by gods that are not gods. I satisfied their needs, yet they committed adultery and assembled at the houses of prostitutes.

Jeremiah 16:20
Can man make gods for himself? Such are not gods!"

1 Corinthians 1:21
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know Him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.

1 Corinthians 8:4
So about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one.


Treasury of Scripture

However, then, when you knew not God, you did service to them which by nature are no gods.

when.

Exodus 5:2
And Pharaoh said, Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go.

Jeremiah 10:25
Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.

John 1:10
He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

ye did.

Joshua 24:2,15
And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods…

Psalm 115:4-8
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands…

Psalm 135:15-18
The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men's hands…

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Beings Bondage Exist Formerly Gentiles Gods Howbeit However Indeed Nature Reality Right Servants Service Servitude Slaves Time
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Beings Bondage Exist Formerly Gentiles Gods Howbeit However Indeed Nature Reality Right Servants Service Servitude Slaves Time
Galatians 4
1. We were under the law till Christ came, as the heir is under the guardian till he be of age.
5. But Christ freed us from the law;
7. therefore we are servants no longer to it.
14. Paul remembers the Galatians' good will to him, and his to them;
22. and shows that we are the sons of Abraham by the freewoman.














(8-11) The results of the foregoing argument are now turned against the Galatians. In their old heathen state they had been in bondage to gods that were no gods. From this bondage they had been delivered. They had been raised to a true knowledge of God, and received a Father's recognition from Him. How then could they possibly think of returning to a system of mere ceremonialism. All this painful observance of times and seasons could only make the Apostle think that his labours on their behalf had been thrown away.

(8) Them which by nature are no gods.--The gods of the heathen are called by St. Paul "devils." (See 1Corinthians 10:20 : "The things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to devils, and not to God.")

Verse 8. - Howbeit (ἀλλά); a strongly adversative conjunction, belonging to the whole sentence comprised in this and the next verse, which are closely welded together by the particles μὲν and δέ. In contravention of God's work of grace just described, they were renouncing their sonship and making themselves slaves afresh. Then (τότε μέν). The μέν, with its balancing δέ, here, as often is the case, unites together sentences not in their main substance strictly adverse to each other, but only in subordinate details contrasted, of which we have an exemplary instance in Romans 8:17, Κληρονόμους μὲν Θεοῦ συγκληρονόμους δὲ Ξριστοῦ. In such cases we have often no resource in English but to leave the μὲν untranslated, as our Authorized Version commonly does; "indeed" or "truly," for example, would be more or less misleading. The truth is, the apostle in these two verses is heaping reproach upon the Galatian Judaizers; first, in this verse, for their former (guilty) ignorance of God and their idolatries, and then, in the next verse, for their slighting that blessed friendship with God which they owed only to his preventing grace. In dealing with Gentile Christians the apostle repeatedly is found referring to their former heathenism, for the purpose of enforcing humility or abashing presumption, as for example in Romans 11:17-25; Romans 15:8, 9; 1 Corinthians 12:2; Ephesians 2:11-13, 17. In the case of the Galatians his indignation prompts him to use a degree of outspoken severity which he was generally disposed to forbear employing. The "then" is not defined, as English readers might perhaps misconstrue the Authorized Version as intending, by the following clause, "not knowing God," which in that version is "when ye knew not God" - a construction of the words which the use of the participle would hardly warrant; rather the time referred to by the adverb is the time of which he has before been speaking, when God's people were under the pedagogy of the Law. This, though when compared with Christ's liberty a state of bondage, was, however (the apostle feels), a position of high advancement as compared with that of heathen idolaters. These last were "far off," while the Israelites were "nigh" (compare the passages just now referred to). During that time of legal pedagogy the Galatians and their forefathers, all in the apostle's view forming one class, were wallowing in the mire of heathenism. When ye knew not God (ou)k ei)do/te Qeo/n); ye knew not God and, etc. "Knowing not God" describes the condition of heathens also in 1 Thessalonians 4:5," Not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles which know not (τὰ μὴ εἰδότα) God;" 2 Thessalonians 1:8, "Rendering vengeance to them that know not (τοῖς μὴ εἰδόσιν) God." Both of these passages favour the view that the apostle does not in the least intend in the present clause to excuse the idolatries which he goes on to speak of, but rather to describe a condition of godlessness which, as being positive rather than merely negative, inferred utter pravity and guiltiness. He uses οὐκ with the participle here, in place of the μὴ in the two passages cited from the Thessalonians, as intending to state an historical fact viewed absolutely - a sense which is made clear in English by substituting an indicative verb for the participle. Ye did service unto (ἐδουλεύσατε); served; devoted yourselves to. The verb is, perhaps, used here in that milder sense in which it frequently occurs; as in Matthew 6:24; Luke 15:29; Luke 16:13; Acts 20:19; Romans 7:6, 25; Romans 14:18; 1 Thessalonians 1:9. The Revised Version, however, gives "were in bondage to" in the present instance, but "serve" in the passages now cited. The aorist, instead of an imperfect, describes the form of religious life which they then led as a whole. Them which by nature are no gods (toi = fu/sei mh\ ou = si θεοῖς). The Textus Receptus has τοῖς μὴ φύσει οϋσι θεοῖς, which would apparently mean "which arc not gods by nature, but only in your imagination;" like "There be that are called gods," in 1 Corinthians 8:5 - Zeus, Apollo, Here, etc., mere figments of imagination (comp. 1 Corinthians 8:4). The more approved reading suggests rather the idea that the objects they worshipped might not be non-existent, but were certainly not of a Divine nature; "by nature," that is, in the kind of being to which they belong (Ephesians 2:3; Wisd. 13:1, μάταιοι φύσει). The question may be asked - If they were not gods, what then were they? The apostle would probably have answered, "Demons;" for thus he writes to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 10:20): "The things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to devils (δαιμονίοις), and not to God." Alford renders, "to gods which by nature exist not," etc.; but the more obvious sense of οϋσιν is that of a copula merely (comp. 2 Chronicles 13:9, Septuagint, "He became a priest (τῷ μὴ ὄντι θεῷ)").

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
Formerly,
τότε (tote)
Adverb
Strong's 5119: Then, at that time. From ho and hote; the when, i.e. At the time that.

when you did not know
εἰδότες (eidotes)
Verb - Perfect Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 1492: To know, remember, appreciate.

God,
Θεὸν (Theon)
Noun - Accusative Masculine Singular
Strong's 2316: A deity, especially the supreme Divinity; figuratively, a magistrate; by Hebraism, very.

you were slaves
ἐδουλεύσατε (edouleusate)
Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 1398: To be a slave, be subject to, obey, be devoted. From doulos; to be a slave to.

to those who
τοῖς (tois)
Article - Dative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

by nature
φύσει (physei)
Noun - Dative Feminine Singular
Strong's 5449: From phuo; growth, i.e. natural production; by extension, a genus or sort; figuratively, native disposition, constitution or usage.

are
οὖσιν (ousin)
Verb - Present Participle Active - Dative Masculine Plural
Strong's 1510: I am, exist. The first person singular present indicative; a prolonged form of a primary and defective verb; I exist.

not
μὴ (mē)
Adverb
Strong's 3361: Not, lest. A primary particle of qualified negation; not, lest; also (whereas ou expects an affirmative one) whether.

gods.
θεοῖς (theois)
Noun - Dative Masculine Plural
Strong's 2316: A deity, especially the supreme Divinity; figuratively, a magistrate; by Hebraism, very.


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NT Letters: Galatians 4:8 However at that time not knowing God (Gal. Ga)
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