19 For what is known of God is evident among them; for God made (it) evident to them.
20
For the unseen things of him from the creation of the world, being
understood by the things made, are perceived clearly, both his
everlasting power and deity, so that they are without excuse.
21
For, having known God, they did not honour (him) as God or give thanks,
but were made vain in their thoughts and their uncomprehending heart
was darkened.
22 Professing to be wise, they were shown to be foolish,
23
and they changed the glory of the imperishable God into the likeness of an image of a perishable person and of birds and four-footed animals and reptiles.
24 For this reason God gave them up, in the desires
of their hearts, to uncleanness in order to dishonour their bodies
among themselves,
25 such as who exchanged the truth of God for
the lie and worshipped and served the created thing rather than the
creator, who is blessed for ever, amen.
26 For this reason God
gave them up to passions of dishonour; for on the one hand their
females exchanged natural use for that against nature,
27 and
likewise, on the other, the males, having abandoned the natural use of
the female, burned with their desire for one another, males with males
committing indecency and receiving in themselves the
corresponding-reward which was necessary for their error.
28 And as they did not think-fit to have God in knowledge, God gave them up to an unfit mind, to do what (is) not proper,
29
having been filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness,
malice; full of envy, murder, strife, maliciousness; gossips,
30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, proud, braggers, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
31 mindless, faithless, heartless, merciless;
32
they are such as, knowing the decree of God that theose doing such
things are worthy of death, not only do them but also give approval to
those doing (them).
Submitted by andrew on Thu, 19/04/2007 - 15:03.
What follows is a lengthy passage in which Paul attributes the sexual and moral corruption of humanity to the failure to honour the creator God and the substitution of the likeness of an image of corruptible man and of birds and of animals and of reptiles for the glory of the incorruptible God.
The scriptural template for the critique, however, is taken from the story of Israel’s idolatry in the wilderness. Romans 1:23, for example, recalls the account of the making of the golden calf in Psalm 106:20 ESV: ‘They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass.’ Paul’s expansion of the line to include images of humans and other creatures makes it clear that he has adapted the argument to encompass pagan idolatry, but there may also be an underlying indictment of Israel’s repudiation of the covenant. The repeated assertion that God gave them up to the consequences of their idolatry is reminiscent of another retelling of the exodus story. Because Israel refused to listen to the voice of the Lord who brought them out of Egypt and bowed down to a foreign god, God ‘gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels’ (Ps. 81:12).
Paul makes a similar case against pagan idolatry in Acts 17:22-31: humanity has rejected the theistic potential implicit in its createdness and has reduced the God who ’made the world and everything in it’ to the dimensions of images ’formed by the art and imagination of man’. The resurrection of Jesus is for Paul a clear sign that this state of affairs cannot go on indefinitely. He calls the ’men of Athens’ to repent because their belief system is threatened with obsolescence: it will be judged in the way that God has judged other dominant and domineering cultures. The reference to God judging the world in righteousness echoes texts such as Ps. 9:8; 96:13; 98:9, which speak of a historical and contingent judgment on the nations, especially on Israel’s enemies: ’The enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins; their cities you rooted out; the very memory of them has perished’ (Ps. 9:6). The assumption ought to be that Paul conceives of judgment on the Greek-Roman world in similar terms
20 The phrase ’things made’ (tois poiēmasin) is usually understood to refer to created reality. In Ephesians 2:10 poiēma is used to describe the believing community as God’s ’workmanship’ or ’creation’ in Christ Jesus, behind which is probably Isaiah 29:16 LXX: ‘Shall the thing formed (to poiēma) say to him that formed it…?’ But Psalm 142:5
LXX (cf. 92:4 LXX) may be more relevant: ‘I remembered the days of old;
and I meditated on all your doings: I meditated on the works (poiēmasin)
of your hands’. Here the word refers not to created things but to what
YHWH has done in the past, not least in delivering his people from
their enemies.
19 For what is known of God is evident among them; for God made (it) evident to them.
20 For the unseen things of him from the creation of the world, being understood by the things made, are perceived clearly, both his everlasting power and deity, so that they are without excuse.
21 For, having known God, they did not honour (him) as God or give thanks, but were made vain in their thoughts and their uncomprehending heart was darkened.
22 Professing to be wise, they were shown to be foolish,
23 and they changed the glory of the imperishable God into the likeness of an image of a perishable person and of birds and four-footed animals and reptiles.
24 For this reason God gave them up, in the desires of their hearts, to uncleanness in order to dishonour their bodies among themselves,
25 such as who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshipped and served the created thing rather than the creator, who is blessed for ever, amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to passions of dishonour; for on the one hand their females exchanged natural use for that against nature,
27 and likewise, on the other, the males, having abandoned the natural use of the female, burned with their desire for one another, males with males committing indecency and receiving in themselves the corresponding-reward which was necessary for their error.
28 And as they did not think-fit to have God in knowledge, God gave them up to an unfit mind, to do what (is) not proper,
29 having been filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, maliciousness; gossips,
30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, proud, braggers, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
31 mindless, faithless, heartless, merciless;
32 they are such as, knowing the decree of God that theose doing such things are worthy of death, not only do them but also give approval to those doing (them).
What follows is a lengthy passage in which Paul attributes the sexual and moral corruption of humanity to the failure to honour the creator God and the substitution of the likeness of an image of corruptible man and of birds and of animals and of reptiles for the glory of the incorruptible God.
The scriptural template for the critique, however, is taken from the story of Israel’s idolatry in the wilderness. Romans 1:23, for example, recalls the account of the making of the golden calf in Psalm 106:20 ESV: ‘They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass.’ Paul’s expansion of the line to include images of humans and other creatures makes it clear that he has adapted the argument to encompass pagan idolatry, but there may also be an underlying indictment of Israel’s repudiation of the covenant. The repeated assertion that God gave them up to the consequences of their idolatry is reminiscent of another retelling of the exodus story. Because Israel refused to listen to the voice of the Lord who brought them out of Egypt and bowed down to a foreign god, God ‘gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels’ (Ps. 81:12).
Paul makes a similar case against pagan idolatry in Acts 17:22-31: humanity has rejected the theistic potential implicit in its createdness and has reduced the God who ’made the world and everything in it’ to the dimensions of images ’formed by the art and imagination of man’. The resurrection of Jesus is for Paul a clear sign that this state of affairs cannot go on indefinitely. He calls the ’men of Athens’ to repent because their belief system is threatened with obsolescence: it will be judged in the way that God has judged other dominant and domineering cultures. The reference to God judging the world in righteousness echoes texts such as Ps. 9:8; 96:13; 98:9, which speak of a historical and contingent judgment on the nations, especially on Israel’s enemies: ’The enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins; their cities you rooted out; the very memory of them has perished’ (Ps. 9:6). The assumption ought to be that Paul conceives of judgment on the Greek-Roman world in similar terms
20 The phrase ’things made’ (tois poiēmasin) is usually understood to refer to created reality. In Ephesians 2:10 poiēma is used to describe the believing community as God’s ’workmanship’ or ’creation’ in Christ Jesus, behind which is probably Isaiah 29:16 LXX: ‘Shall the thing formed (to poiēma) say to him that formed it…?’ But Psalm 142:5 LXX (cf. 92:4 LXX) may be more relevant: ‘I remembered the days of old; and I meditated on all your doings: I meditated on the works (poiēmasin) of your hands’. Here the word refers not to created things but to what YHWH has done in the past, not least in delivering his people from their enemies.
See also:
TheoGeek: Stowers and Romans 1:18-32