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some planetary ideas. Indeed, whatever view we take of the doubtful phrase, it is clear that St Paul does regard the Judaism of the Galatians as being to a great extent a return to paganism.
An important link between these two may perhaps be found in the phrase which appears in the parallel passage of the Colossians, where 'worshipping of angels' is one of the errors associated with the bondage to the 'elements of the world.' We not infrequently find hints of the identification of the angels with the stars or planets[1]. In later times we find the seven archangels, whose names were current among the Jews before our era, identified with the seven planets[2]. The analogy indeed is asserted as early as Clement of Alexandria when he says[3] that the first-born and mightiest of the angels are seven,
- ↑ Thus in the 'Preaching of Peter' quoted by Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, VI (Potter, p. 760), the Jews are accused of worshipping 'angels and archangels, the sun and moon.' Philo, De Opificio Mundi, 50 (144), seems to say that the stars are bodies of angels. Compare also Book of Enoch (ed. Charles), ch. 86.
- ↑ V. Schürer, p. 21. In the 'Slavonic' Enoch or Book of the Secrets of Enoch (edited by Charles and assigned by him to the first century A.D.) we find seven heavens, each with their planet in the normal order just as in Cicero and Dante, and in each of these heavens angels are located, though they are not identified with the planets. Cf. also a curious document in Cat. Cod. Astr. Graec. VII, p. 179, where the angels for each day of the week are named.
- ↑ Stromateis, VI (Potter, p. 813)
