29. πεπληρωµένους πάσῃ ἀδικίᾳ, πορνείᾳ,] πονηρίᾳ, πλεονεξίᾳ, κακίᾳ - μεστοὺς φθόνου, φόνου, ἔριδος, δόλου, κακοηθείας: 30. ψιθυριστὰς, καταλάλους, θεοστυγεῖς, ὑβριστὰς, ὑπερηφάνους, ἀλαζόνας, ἐφευρετὰς
κακῶν, γονεῦσιν ἀπειθεῖς, 31.
> , ἀσυνέτους, ἀσυνθέτους, ἀστόργους, ἀσ-
ε Ch. ii. 26; πόνδους,” ἀνελεήμονας: 32. οἵτινες τὸ " δικαίωµα τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐπιγνόντες,
d Acts viii. a 1, Xxii. 2ο. ποιουσιν,
1 πορνεια om. with KABCK.
ασπονδους CD°KL, vulg., Syr., is omitted by 8'ABD'G fuld.}
on ασυνθετους.
« ~ ὅτι οἱ τὰ τοιαῦτα πράσσοντες ἄξιοι θανάτου εἰσίν, οὐ µόνον αὐτὰ
ἀλλὰ καὶ " συνευδοκοῦσι τοῖς πράσσουσι.ὸ
Probably a gloss
3 Westcott and Hort suppose some primitive error probable here; see their N. T.,
vol. 2, Appendix, p. 108.
For ποιονσιν . . . συνενδοκουσιν B reads ποιουντες .. .
συνενδοκουντες; and the construction is then completed by various additions, such as ουκ ενοησαν D, ουκ εγνωσαν G, non intellexerunt Orig. int.
Ver. 28 ff. In vers. 28-30 we have the third and last παρέδωκεν expanded. As they did not think fit, after trial made (ἐδοκίμασαν), to keep God in their know- ledge, God gave them up to a mind which cannot stand trial (ἀδόκιμον). The one thing answers to the other. Virtually, they pronounced the true God ἀδόκιμος, and would have none of Him ; and He in turn gave them up to a vos ἀδόκιμος, a mind which is no mind and cannot discharge the functions of one, a mind in which the Divine distinctions of right and wrong are confused and lost, so that God’s condemnation cannot but fall on it atlast. νοῦς is not only reason, but conscience; when this is perverted, as in the people of whom Paul speaks, or in the Caananites, who did their abominations unto their Gods, the last deep of evil has been reached. Most of the words which follow describe sins of malignity or inhumanity rather than sensuality, but they cannot be classified. τὰ μὴ καθήκοντα covers all. καθήκοντα is the Stoic word which Cicero renders officia. κακοηθία, the tendency to put the worst construction on everything (Arist. Rh. ii. 13), and κακία are examined in Trench’s Synonyms,§ xi.,and ὑβριστής, ὑπερήφανος, ἁλάζων in § xxix. εο- στυγεῖς appears to be always passive in the classics, not God hating, but God hated: Deo odibiles, Vulg. The char- acters are summed up, so to speak, in ver. 32: οἵτινες τὸ δικαίωµα τοῦ θεοῦ ἐπιγνόντες κ.τελ.: Such persons as, though they know the sentence of God, that those who practise such things are worthy of death, not only do them, but give a whole-hearted complacent assent to those who follow the same practice.
τὸ δικαίωµα τοῦ θεοῦ is that which God has pronounced to be the right, and has thereby established as the proper moral order of the world. θάνατος is death, not as a natural period to life, but asa Divine sentence executed on sin: it is not to be defined as physical, or spiritual, or eternal; by all such abstract analysis it is robbed of part of its meaning, which is as wide as that of life or the soul. ἀλλὰ καὶ cuvevdoxoverr : to be guilty of such things oneself, under the impulse of passion, is bad; but it is a more . malignant badness to give a cordial and disinterested approval to them in others.
It is a mistake to read these verses as if they were a scientific contribution to comparative religion, but equally a mistake to ignore their weight. Paul is face to face with a world in which the vices he enumerates are rampant, and it is his deliberate judg- ment that these vices have a real con- nection with the pagan religions. Who will deny that he was both a competent observer and a competent judge? Re- ligion and morality in the great scale hang together, and morality in the long run is determined by religion. Minds which accepted the religious ideas of Phenicia, of Egypt or of Greece (as re- presented in the popular mythologies) could not be pure. Their morality, or rather their immorality, is conceived as a Divine judgment upon their religion; and as for their religion, nature itself, the Apostle argues, should have saved them from such ignorance of God, and such misconceptions of Him, as de- formed every type of heathenism. A converted pagan (as much as Paul) would be filled with horror as he re-