Ver. 21 ff. εἰς τὸ εἶναι αὐτοὺς avarro- λογήτους would naturally express pur- pose: to make men inexcusable is one, though not the only or the ultimate, intention of God in giving this revela- tion. But the διότι almost forces us to take the εἰς τὸ as expressing result: so that they are inexcusable, because, etc. (see Burton’s Moods and Tenses, § 411). In vers. 21-23 the wrong course taken by humanity is described. Nature shows us that God is to be glorified and thanked, i.e., nature reveals Him to be great and good. But men were not content to accept the impression made on them by nature; they fell to reasoning upon it, and in their reasonings (διαλογισµοί, “perverse self-willed reasonings or speculations,” S. and H.) were made vain (ἐματαιώθησαν); the result stulti- fied the process; their instinctive per- ception of God became confused and uncertain ; their unintelligent heart, the seat of the moral consciousness, was darkened. In asserting their wisdom they became fools, and showed it con- spicuously in their idolatries. They resigned the glory of the incorruptible God (i.e., the incorruptible God, all glorious as He was, and as He was seen in nature to be), and took instead
10---28.
a 4 9 A πετεινῶν καὶ τετραπόδων καὶ ἑρπετῶν.
593
24. 8d kat? 7 παρέδωκεν y Ephiv.rg.
- ~ - ~ , αὐτοὺς 6 Θεὸς ἐν ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις τῶν καρδιῶν αὐτῶν εἰς ἀκαθαρσίαν,
Tot ἀτιμάζεσθαι τὰ σώματα αὐτῶν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς: 25. οἵτινες µετήλλαξαν
x u - a> a , λα τὴν ἀλήθειαν τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐν τῷ ψεύδει, καὶ τῇ κτίσει παρὰ τὸν κτίσαντα, ὅς ἐστιν εὐλογητὸς εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας. 26. διὰ τοῦτο παρέδωκεν αὐτοὺς ὁ Θεὸς εἰς πάθη ἀτιμίας -
ἀμήν.
ἐσεβάσθησαν καὶ ἐλάτρευσαν 2 Here only,
cf. Acts XVii. 23; 2 Thess. ii, 4.
ai τε γὰρ θήλειαι αὐτῶν µετήλλαξαν τὴν Φυσικὴν χρῆσιν εἰς τὴν παρὰ φύσιν" 27. ὁμοίως τε” καὶ οἱ ἄρσενες, ἀφέντες τὴν φυσικὴν Χχρῆσιν τῆς θηλείας, ἐξεκαύθησαν ἐν τῇ ὀρέξει αὐτῶν εἰς ἀλλήλους,
ἄρσενες ἐν ἄρσεσι τὴν ἀσχημοσύνην κατεργαζόµενοι, καὶ τὴν " ἀντι- 44 Cor. vi 13.
µισθίαν ἣν ἔδει τῆς πλάνης αὐτῶν ἐν “ἑαυτοῖς ἀπολαμβάνοντες.
, 28. Καὶ καθὼς οὐκ ἐδοκίμασαν τὸν Θεὸν ἔχειν ἐν ἐπιγνώσει, παρέ-
δωκεν αὐτοὺς ὁ Θεὸς εἰς ἀδόκιμον νοῦν, ποιεῖν τὰ μὴ καθήκοντα,
1 διο και: om. και NABC; insert DGKL.
b Acts xxii 20.
εαντοις D°EGK; αυτοις NABC 1,
2 For te which is found in BD*°KL, δε is read by AD!G; C has neither.
of Him some image of a corruptible, even of a vile creature. The expression ἤλλαξαν τὴν δόξαν κ.τ.λ. is borrowed in part from Ps. cv. 20 (LXX): ἠλλάξαντο τὴν δόξαν αὐτῶν ἐν ὁμοιώματι µόσχου ἔσθοντος χόρτον. The reduplication of the same idea in ἐν ὁμοιώματι εἰκόνος shows the indignant contempt with which the Apostle looked on this empty and abject religion in which God had been lost. The birds, quadrupeds and reptiles could all be illustrated from Egypt.
With ver. 24 the Apostle turns from this sin to its punishment. Because of it (816) God gave them up. To lose God is to lose everything: to lose the con- nection with Him involved in constantly glorifying and giving Him thanks, is to sink into an abyss of darkness, intel- lectual and moral. It is to become fitted for wrath at last, under the pressure of wrath all the time. Such, in idea, is the history of humanity to Paul, as inter- preted by its issue in the moral condition ofthe pagan world when he wrote. Ex- ceptions are allowed for (ii. το), but this is the position as a whole. παρέδωκεν in all three places (ver. 24, εἰς ἀκαθαρσίαν ; νετ. 26, εἷς πάθη aripias; ver. 28, els ἀδόκιμον νοῦν) expresses the judicial action of God. The sensual impurity of religions in which the incorruptible God had been resigned for the image of an animal, that could not but creep into the imagination of the worshippers and debase it, was a Divine judgment. τοῦ ἀτιμάζεσθαι τὰ σώματα αὐτῶν ἐν αὗτοῖς,