Galatians 4:8 - New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition 2021

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

More versions

King James Version (Oxford) 1769

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

Amplified Bible - Classic Edition

But at that previous time, when you had not come to be acquainted with and understand and know the true God, you [Gentiles] were in bondage to gods who by their very nature could not be gods at all [gods that really did not exist].

American Standard Version (1901)

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

Common English Bible

At the time, when you didn’t know God, you were enslaved by things that aren’t gods by nature.

Catholic Public Domain Version

But then, certainly, while ignorant of God, you served those who, by nature, are not gods.

Douay-Rheims version of The Bible - 1752 version

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

Galatians 4:8 Cross References

2 Chronicles 13:9

Have you not driven out the priests of the Lord, the descendants of Aaron, and the Levites and made priests for yourselves like the peoples of other lands? Whoever comes to be consecrated with a young bull or seven rams becomes a priest of what are no gods.

Exodus 5:2

But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should listen to him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.”

Isaiah 37:19

and have hurled their gods into the fire, though they were no gods but the work of human hands—wood and stone—and so they were destroyed.

Jeremiah 10:25

Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not know you and on the peoples that do not call on your name, for they have devoured Jacob; they have devoured him and consumed him and have laid waste his habitation.

Jeremiah 16:20

Can mortals make for themselves gods? Such are no gods!”

Jeremiah 2:11

Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for something that does not profit.

Jeremiah 5:7

How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me and have sworn by those who are no gods. When I fed them to the full, they committed adultery and trooped to the houses of prostitutes.

John 1:10

He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him.

Acts 14:12

Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.

Acts 17:23

For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.

Romans 1:23

and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.

Romans 1:28

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to an unfit mind and to do things that should not be done.

1 Corinthians 1:21

For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of the proclamation, to save those who believe.

1 Corinthians 12:2

You know that when you were gentiles you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak.

1 Corinthians 8:4

Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “no idol in the world really exists” and that “there is no God but one.”

Galatians 4:3

So with us; while we were minors, we were enslaved to the elemental principles of the world.

Ephesians 4:18

they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart.

1 Thessalonians 1:9

For they report about us what kind of welcome we had among you and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God

1 Thessalonians 4:5

not with lustful passion, like the gentiles who do not know God;

2 Thessalonians 1:8

in a fiery flame, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

Joshua 24:15

Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living, but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Joshua 24:2

And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Long ago your ancestors—Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor—lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods.

1 Peter 4:3

You have already spent enough time in doing what the gentiles like to do, living in debauchery, passions, drunkenness, revels, carousing, and lawless idolatry.

1 John 3:1

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.