ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

Romans 1.24

Book: Romans · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

There are ads on our codex that pay for hosting and keep the codex free. If you can, please consider whitelisting ris3n.com or allowing scripts to support the work.

Sponsored

Brands, events, influencers advertise here

ASV

22. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23. and changed the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.

24. Wherefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts unto uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves:

  1. for that they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26. For this cause God gave them up unto vile passions: for their women changed the natural use into that which is against nature: (Romans 1:22-26, ASV)
WEB

22. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23. and traded the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things.

24. Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves,

  1. who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26. For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For their women changed the natural function into that which is against nature. (Romans 1:22-26, WEB)
KJV

22. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23. And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

24. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:

  1. Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. more: or, rather 26. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: (Romans 1:22-26, KJV)
YLT

22. professing to be wise, they were made fools, 23. and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of fowls, and of quadrupeds, and of reptiles.

24. Wherefore also God did give them up, in the desires of their hearts, to uncleanness, to dishonour their bodies among themselves;

  1. who did change the truth of God into a falsehood, and did honour and serve the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed to the ages. Amen. 26. Because of this did God give them up to dishonourable affections, for even their females did change the natural use into that against nature; (Romans 1:22-26, YLT)

See this page's graph and discover linked topics

Setting

  • Speaker: Paul the Apostle
  • Audience: the Roman house churches (mixed Jewish-Gentile), whom Paul had not yet met
  • Location: Corinth, near the close of the third missionary journey
  • Time period: c. AD 56-57

Theological reading

The first of the chapter's three paredōken statements, at verses 24, 26, and 28. The verb is judicial, used of handing a prisoner over to a sentence, and it reframes what follows. God's wrath here is not a lightning bolt but a release of restraint.

The structure is consistent across all three: an exchange is named, then God hands them over to its consequence. Here they exchanged God's glory for images (v. 23), so God gave them over en tais epithymiais tōn kardiōn autōn, in the desires of their hearts, to impurity, "that their bodies might be dishonoured among themselves." Verse 25 then restates the exchange in its sharpest form, the truth of God for the lie, worship and service given to the creature rather than the Creator.

Two implications follow that matter for how the passage is used. First, the desires are described as already theirs; God gives them over to what they wanted, which is why the passage cannot be read as God implanting the corruption he then punishes. Second, because the giving-over is itself the judgment, the resulting condition is a sign of wrath rather than merely a cause of it. Paul closes the sentence with a doxology, "who is blessed forever, Amen," which is not decoration: it asserts that the Creator's worth is undiminished by the refusal to acknowledge it.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Lexicon:

Guides:

Passages:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

  • ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
  • WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
  • KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
  • YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.