Galatians 4:8

BSB · Public Domain (CC0)

“Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.”

What this verse means

A short, plain-language explanation of Galatians 4:8 goes here — the kind of answer a reader (or an AI assistant) can quote in one breath. Original meaning coming soon.

Compare translations
BSBPD

“Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.”

Berean Standard Bible · Public Domain (CC0)
KJVPD

“Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.”

King James Version · Public Domain
ASVPD

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

American Standard Version · Public Domain
YLTPD

“But then, indeed, not having known God, ye were in servitude to those not by nature gods,”

Young's Literal Translation · Public Domain
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Cross references

Other passages that echo Galatians 4:8 — 24 related verses from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.

  1. Exodus 5:2But Pharaoh replied, “Who is the LORD that I should obey His voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and I will not let Israel go.”
  2. Joshua 24:2And Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your fathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates and worshiped other gods.
  3. Joshua 24:15But if it is unpleasing in your sight to serve the LORD, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!”
  4. 2 Chronicles 13:9But 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.
  5. Psalms 115:4Their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men.
  6. Psalms 135:15The idols of the nations are silver and gold, made by the hands of men.
  7. Isaiah 37:19They 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.
  8. Isaiah 44:9All makers of idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Their witnesses fail to see or comprehend, so they are put to shame.
  9. Jeremiah 2:11Has a nation ever changed its gods, though they are no gods at all? Yet My people have exchanged their Glory for useless idols.
  10. Jeremiah 10:3For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut down a tree from the forest; it is shaped with a chisel by the hands of a craftsman.
  11. Jeremiah 10:25Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge You, and on the families that do not call on Your name. For they have devoured Jacob; they have consumed him and finished him off; they have devastated his homeland.
  12. John 1:10He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him.
  13. Acts 14:12Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.
  14. Acts 17:23For as I walked around and examined your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore what you worship as something unknown, I now proclaim to you.
  15. Acts 17:29Therefore, being offspring of God, we should not think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by man’s skill and imagination.
  16. Romans 1:23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
  17. Romans 1:28Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
  18. 1 Corinthians 1:21For 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.
  19. 1 Corinthians 8:4So 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.
  20. 1 Corinthians 10:19Am I suggesting, then, that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything?
  21. 1 Corinthians 12:2You know that when you were pagans, you were influenced and led astray to mute idols.
  22. Ephesians 2:11Therefore remember that formerly you who are Gentiles in the flesh and called uncircumcised by the so-called circumcision (that done in the body by human hands)—
  23. Ephesians 4:18They are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts.
  24. 1 Thessalonians 1:9For they themselves report what kind of welcome you gave us, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God

Cross-reference data: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain) via OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

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