All men, without distinction of nation or culture, are Paul's creditors, "He owes them his life, his person, in virtue of the grace bestowed upon him, and of the office which he has received." (Godet).

Greeks - Barbarians

Gentiles without distinction. Paul takes the conventional Greek division of all mankind into Greeks and non-Greeks. See on Acts 6:1. The question whether he includes the Romans among the Greeks or the Barbarians, is irrelevant.

To you refers to the christian Church, not to the population generally. In every verse, from Romans 1:6 to Romans 1:13, ὑμεῖς you refers to the Church.

Marking the transition from the introduction to the treatise. "I am ready to preach at Rome, for, though I might seem to be deterred by the contempt in which the Gospel is held, and by the prospect of my own humiliation as its preacher, I am not ashamed of it." The transition occupies Romans 1:16, Romans 1:17.

The Gospel

Omit of Christ.

Power (δύναμις)

Not merely a powerful means in God's hands, but in itself a divine energy.

First

Not principally, nor in preference to the Greek; but first in point of time. Compare John 4:22; Romans 3:1; Romans 9:1; Matthew 15:24.

Rev., more correctly, therein is revealed a righteousness of God. The absence of the article denotes that a peculiar kind of righteousness is meant. This statement contains the subject of the epistle: Righteousness is by faith. The subject is not stated formally nor independently, but as a proof that the Gospel is a power, etc.

This word δικαιοσύνη righteousness, and its kindred words δίκαιος righteous, and δικαιόω to make righteous, play so important a part in this epistle that it is desirable to fix their meaning as accurately as possible.

Classical Usage. In the Greek classics there appears an eternal, divine, unwritten principle of right, dwelling in the human consciousness, shaping both the physical and the moral ordering of the world, and personified as Themis (Θέμις). This word is used as a common noun in the phrase θέμις ἐστὶ it is right (fundamentally and eternally), like the Latin fas est. Thus Homer, of Penelope mourning for Ulysses, θέμις ἐστὶ γυναικός it is the sacred obligation of the wife (founded in her natural relation to her husband, ordained of heaven) to mourn ("Odyssey," 14, 130). So Antigone appeals to the unwritten law against the barbarity of refusing burial to her brother.

"Nor did I deem thy edicts strong enough,

That thou, a mortal man, shouldst overpass

The unwritten laws of God that know not change."

Sophocles, "Antigone," 453-455.

See, also, "Odyssey," 14, 91; Aristophanes, "Clouds," 140; "Antigone," 880.

This divine ordering requires that men should be shown or pointed to that which is according to it - a definite circle of duties and obligations which constitute right (δίκη). Thus what is δίκαιος righteous, is properly the expression of the eternal Themis. While δίκη and θέμις are not to be distinguished as human and divine, δίκη has a more distinctively human, personal character, and comes into sharper definition. It introduces the distinction between absolute right and power. It imposes the recognition of a moral principle over against an absolutely constraining natural force. The conception of δίκη is strongly moral. Δίκαιος is right; δικαιοσύνη is rightness as characterizing the entire being of man.

There is a religious background to the pagan conception. In the Homeric poems morality stands in a relation, loose and undeveloped indeed, but none the less real, to religion. This appears in the use of the oath in compacts; in the fear of the wrath of heaven for omission of sacrifices; in regarding refusal of hospitality as an offense against Zeus, the patron of strangers and suppliants. Certain tribes which are fierce and uncivilized are nevertheless described as δίκαιοι righteous. "The characteristic stand-point of the Homeric ethics is that the spheres of law, of morals, and of religion are by no means separate, but lie side by side in undeveloped unity." (Nagelsbach).

In later Greek literature this conception advances, in some instances, far toward the christian ideal; as in the fourth book of Plato's "Laws," where he asserts that God holds in His hand the beginning, middle, and end of all things; that justice always follows Him, and punishes those who fall short of His laws. Those who would be dear to God must be like Him. Without holiness no man is accepted of God.

Nevertheless, however clearly the religious background and sanction of morality may be recognized, it is apparent that the basis of right is found, very largely, in established social usage. The word ethics points first to what is established by custom. While with Mr. Grote we must admit the peculiar emphasis on the individual in the Homeric poems, we cannot help observing a certain influence of social sentiment on morals. While there are cases like the suitors, Paris and Helen, where public opinion imposes no moral check, there are others where the force of public opinion is clearly visible, such as Penelope and Nausicaa. The Homeric view of homicide reveals no relation between moral sentiment and divine enactment. Murder is a breach of social law, a private and civil wrong, entailing no loss of character. Its penalty is a satisfaction to the feelings of friends, or a compensation for lost services.

Later, we find this social aspect of morality even more strongly emphasized. "The city becomes the central and paramount source of obligation. The great, impersonal authority called 'the Laws' stands out separately, both as guide and sanction, distinct from religious duty or private sympathy" (Grote). Socrates is charged with impiety because he does not believe in the gods of the state, and Socrates himself agrees that that man does right who obeys what the citizens have agreed should be done, and who refrains from what they forbid.

continued...

All men require this mode of justification, for all men are sinners, and therefore exposed to God's wrath.

The wrath of God (ὀργὴ Θεοῦ)

Not punishment, but the personal emotion. See on John 3:36.

Ungodliness and unrighteousness (ἀσέβειαν καὶ ἀδικίαν).

Irreligiousness and immorality. See on godliness, 2 Peter 1:3; also 2 Peter 2:13.

Hold (κατεχόντων)

Not possess: compare Romans 1:21. Rev., correctly, hold down; i.e., hinder or repress. Compare 2 Thessalonians 2:6, 2 Thessalonians 2:7; Luke 4:42.

The truth

Divine truth generally, as apparent in all God's self-revelations.

So A.V. and Rev., as equivalent to that which is knowable. But that which is knowable was not revealed to the heathen. If it was, what need of a revelation? Better, that which is known, the universal sense in the New Testament, signifying the universal objective knowledge of God as the Creator, which is, more or less, in all men.

In them

In their heart and conscience. The emphasis should be on in. Thus the apparent tautology - what is known is manifest - disappears.

The attributes which constitute God's nature, afterward defined as "His eternal power and divinity."

From the creation (ἀπό)

From the time of. Rev., since.

Are clearly seen (καθορᾶται)

We have here an oxymoron, literally a pointedly foolish saying; a saying which is impressive or witty through sheer contradiction or paradox. Invisible things are clearly visible. See on Acts 5:41. Illustrations are sometimes furnished by single words, as γλυκύπικρος bittersweet; θρασύδειλος a bold coward. In English compare Shakespeare:

"Dove-feathered raven, fiend angelical;

Beautiful tyrant, wolfish-ravening lamb."

Spenser:

"Glad of such luck, the luckless lucky maid."

Godhead (θειότης)

Rev., better, divinity. Godhead expresses deity (θεότης). θειότης is godhood, not godhead. It signifies the sum-total of the divine attributes.

So that they are (εἰς τὸ εἶναι)

The A.V. expresses result; but the sense is rather purpose. The revelation of God's power and divinity is given, so that, if, after being enlightened, they fall into sin, they may be without defense.

continued...

"I think it may be proved from facts that any given people, down to the lowest savages, has at any period of its life known far more than it has done: known quite enough to have enabled it to have got on comfortably, thriven and developed, if it had only done what no man does, all that it knew it ought to do and could do" (Charles Kingsley, "The Roman and the Teuton").

Became vain (ἐματαιώθησαν)

Vain things (μάταια) was the Jews' name for idols. Compare Acts 4:15. Their ideas and conceptions of God had no intrinsic value corresponding with the truth. "The understanding was reduced to work in vacuo. It rendered itself in a way futile" (Godet).

Imaginations (διαλογισμοῖς)

Rev., better, reasonings. See on Matthew 15:19; see on Mark 7:21; see on James 2:4.

Foolish (ἀσύνετος)

See on συνετός prudent, Matthew 11:25, and the kindred word σύνεσις understanding, see on Mark 12:33; see on Luke 2:47. They did not combine the facts which were patent to their observation.

Heart (καρδία)

The heart is, first, the physical organ, the center of the circulation of the blood. Hence, the seat and center of physical life. In the former sense it does not occur in the New Testament. As denoting the vigor and sense of physical life, see Acts 14:17; James 5:5; Luke 21:34. It is used fifty-two times by Paul.

Never used like ψυχή, soul, to denote the individual subject of personal life, so that it can be exchanged with the personal pronoun (Acts 2:43; Acts 3:23; Romans 13:1); nor like πνεῦμα spirit, to denote the divinely-given principle of life.

It is the central seat and organ of the personal life (ψυχή) of man regarded in and by himself. Hence it is commonly accompanied with the possessive pronouns, my, his, thy, etc.

Like our heart it denotes the seat of feeling as contrasted with intelligence. 2 Corinthians 2:4; Romans 9:2; Romans 10:1; 2 Corinthians 6:11; Philippians 1:7. But it is not limited to this. It is also the seat of mental action, feeling, thinking, willing. It is used -

1. Of intelligence, Romans 1:21; 2 Corinthians 3:15; 2 Corinthians 4:6; Ephesians 1:18.

continued...

The verb is used of unfounded assertion, Acts 24:9; Acts 25:19; Revelation 2:2.

Wise, they became fools

Another oxymoron; see on Romans 1:20. Compare Horace, insaniens sapientia raving wisdom. Plato uses the phrase μάταιον δοξοσοφίαν vain-glorying of wisdom ("Sophist," 231).

Rev., more literally, the likeness of an image. See on Revelation 13:14. Equivalent to what was shaped like an image. Likeness indicates the conformity with the object of comparison in appearance; image, the type in the artist's mind; the typical human form. See, further, on Philippians 2:7.

Birds and beasts and creeping things

Deities of human form prevailed in Greece; those of the bestial form in Egypt; and both methods of worship were practiced in Rome. See on Acts 7:41. Serpent-worship was common in Chaldaea, and also in Egypt. The asp was sacred throughout the latter country. The worship of Isis was domesticated at Rome, and Juvenal relates how the priests of Isis contrived that the silver images of serpents kept in her temple should move their heads to a suppliant ("Satire" vi., 537). Many of the subjects of paintings in the tombs of the kings at Thebes show the importance which the serpent was thought to enjoy in the future state. Dollinger says that the vestal virgins were intrusted with the attendance upon a holy serpent, and were charged with supplying his table with meats on festival days.

Handed them over to the power of sin. See on Matthew 4:12; see on Matthew 11:27; see on Matthew 26:2; see on Mark 4:29; see on Luke 1:2; see on 1 Peter 2:23.

Rev., for that they exchanged. The double relative specifies the class to which they belonged, and thereby includes the reason for their punishment. He gave them up as being those who, etc. Μετήλλαξαν exchanged (so Rev.), is stronger than the simple verb in Romans 1:23. Godet renders travestied. Compare the same word in Romans 1:26.

Truth of God

Equivalent to the true God.

Into a lie (ἐν τῷ ψεύδει)

Better, as Rev., exchanged, etc., for a lie. Lit., the lie; a general abstract expression for the whole body of false gods. Bengel remarks, "the price of mythology."

Worshipped and served (ἐσεβάσθησαν καὶ ἐλάτρευσαν)

The former of worship generally; the latter of worship through special rites or sacrifices. On the latter verb, see on Revelation 22:3.

More than the Creator (παρά)

The preposition indicates passing by the Creator altogether; not merely giving preference to the creature. Hence Rev., rather than. Compare Luke 18:14, where the approved reading is παρ' ἐκεῖνον rather than the other, implying that the Pharisee was in no respect justified.

Blessed (εὐλογητὸς)

See on 1 Peter 1:3.

Lit., passions of dishonor. Rev., passions. As distinguished from ἐπιθυμίαι lusts, in Romans 1:24, πάθη passions, is the narrower and intenser word. Ἐπιθυμία is the larger word, including the whole world of active lusts and desires, while the meaning of πάθος is passive, being the diseased condition out of which the lusts spring. Ἐπιθυμίαι are evil longings; πάθη ungovernable affections. Thus it appears that the divine punishment was the more severe, in that they were given over to a condition, and not merely to an evil desire. The two words occur together, 1 Thessalonians 4:5.

Women (θήλειαι)

Strictly, females. This, and ἄρσενες males, are used because only the distinction of sex is contemplated.

The terms are terrible in their intensity. Lit., burned out. The preposition indicates the rage of the lust.

Lust (ὀρέξει)

Only here in the New Testament. It is a reaching out after something with the purpose of appropriating it. In later classical Greek it is the most general term for every kind of desire, as the appetite for food. The peculiar expressiveness of the word here is sufficiently evident from the context.

That which is unseemly (τὴν ἀσχημοσύνην)

Primarily, want of form, disfigurement. Plato contrasts it with εὐσχημοσύνη gracefulness ("Symposium," 196).

Which was meet (ἔδει)

Rev., was due, which is better, though the word expresses a necessity in the nature of the case - that which must needs be as the consequence of violating the divine law.

The prevalence of this horrible vice is abundantly illustrated in the classics. See Aristophanes, "Lysistrata," 110; Plato, "Symposium," 191; Lucian, "Amores," 18; "Dialogi Meretricii," v., 2; Juvenal, vi., 311; Martial, i., 91; vii., 67. See also Becker's "Charicles;" Forsyth's "Life of Cicero," pp. 289, 336; and Dollinger's "Heathen and Jew," ii., 273 sqq. Dollinger remarks that in the whole of the literature of the ante-Christian period, hardly a writer has decisively condemned it. In the Doric states, Crete and Sparta, the practice was favored as a means of education, and was acknowledged by law. Even Socrates could not forbear feeling like a Greek on this point (see Plato's "Charmides"). In Rome, in the earlier centuries of the republic, it was of rare occurrence; but at the close of the sixth century it had become general. Even the best of the emperors, Antoninus and Trajan, were guilty.

On the Apostle's description Bengel remarks that "in stigmatizing we must often call a spade a spade. The unchaste usually demand from others an absurd modesty." Yet Paul's reserve is in strong contrast with the freedom of pagan writers (see Ephesians 5:12). Meyer notes that Paul delineates the female dishonor in less concrete traits than the male.

Expressing the correlation between the sin and the punishment.

They did not like to have God in their knowledge (οὐκ ἐδοκίμασαν).

Lit., did not approve. Rev., refused. They did not think God worth the knowing. Compare 1 Thessalonians 2:4. Knowledge (ἐπιγνώσει) is, literally, full knowledge. They did not suffer the rudimentary revelation of nature to develop into full knowledge - "a penetrating and living knowledge of God" (Meyer). In Dante's division of Hell, the section assigned to Incontinence, or want of self-control, is succeeded by that of Bestiality, or besotted folly, which comprises infidelity and heresy in all their forms - sin which Dante declares to be the most stupid, vile, and hurtful of follies. Thus the want of self-restraint is linked with the failure to have God in knowledge. Self is truly possessed only in God. The tendency of this is ever downward toward that demoniac animalism which is incarnated in Lucifer at the apex of the infernal cone, and which is so powerfully depicted in this chapter. See "Inferno," ix.

Reprobate mind (ἀδόκιμον νοῦν)

Lit., not standing the test. See on is tried, James 1:12; and see on trial, 1 Peter 1:7. There is a play upon the words. As they did not approve, God gave them up unto a mind disapproved. This form of play upon words of similar sound is perhaps the most frequent of Paul's rhetorical figures, often consisting in the change of preposition in a compound, or in the addition of a preposition to the simple verb. Thus περιτομή circumcision, κατατομή concision, Philippians 3:2, Philippians 3:3. "Our epistle known (γινωσκομένη) and read (ἀναγινωσκομένη)." Compare Romans 2:1; 1 Corinthians 11:29-31; Romans 12:3. The word reprobate is from re-probare, to reject on a second trial, hence, to condemn.

The retribution was in full measure. Compare Proverbs 1:31; Revelation 18:6.

Wickedness (πονηρίᾳ)

See on Mark 7:22.

Covetousness (πλεονεξίᾳ)

Lit., the desire of having more. It is to be distinguished from φιλαργυρία, rendered love of money, 1 Timothy 6:10, and its kindred adjective φιλάργυρος, which A.V. renders covetous Luke 16:14; 2 Timothy 3:2; properly changed by Rev. into lovers of money. The distinction is expressed by covetousness and avarice. The one is the desire of getting, the other of keeping. Covetousness has a wider and deeper sense, as designating the sinful desire which goes out after things of time and sense of every form and kind. Hence it is defined by Paul (Colossians 3:5) as idolatry, the worship of another object than God, and is so often associated with fleshly sins, as 1 Corinthians 5:11; Ephesians 5:3, Ephesians 5:5; Colossians 3:5. Lightfoot says: "Impurity and covetousness may be said to divide between them nearly the whole domain of selfishness and vice." Socrates quotes an anonymous author who compares the region of the desires in the wicked to a vessel full of holes, and says that, of all the souls in Hades, these uninitiated or leaky persons are the most miserable, and that they carry water to a vessel which is full of holes in a similarly holey colander. The colander is the soul of the ignorant (Plato, "Gorgias," 493). Compare, also, the description of covetousness and avarice by Chaucer, "Romaunt of the Rose," 183-246.

"Covetise

That eggeth folk in many a guise

To take and yeve (give) right nought again,

And great treasoures up to laine (lay).

.....

And that is she that maketh treachours,

And she maketh false pleadours.

.....

continued...

Rev., hateful to God. All classical usage is in favor of the passive sense, but all the other items of the list are active. Meyer defends the passive on the ground that the term is a summary of what precedes. The weight of authority is on this side. The simple verb στυγέω to hate, does not occur in the New Testament. Στυγητός hateful, is found Titus 3:3. The verb is stronger than, μισέω I hate, since it means to show as well as to feel hatred.

Proud (ὑπερηφάνους)

Rev., haughty. See on pride, Mark 7:22.

Boasters (ἀλαζόνας). Swaggerers

Not necessarily implying contempt or insult.

Another paronomasia: asynetous, asynthetous. This feature of style is largely due to the pleasure which all people, and especially Orientals, derive from the assonance of a sentence. Archdeacon Farrar gives a number of illustrations: the Arabic Abel and Kabel (Abel and Cain); Dalut and G'ialut (David and Goliath). A Hindoo constantly adds meaningless rhymes, even to English words, as button-bitten; kettley-bittley. Compare the Prayer-book, holy and wholly; giving and forgiving; changes and chances. Shakespeare, sorted and consorted; in every breath a death. He goes on to argue that these alliterations, in the earliest stages of language, are partly due to a vague belief in the inherent affinities of words ("Language and Languages," 227).

Rev., correctly, ordinance.

Commit (πράσσοντες)

Rev., better, practice. See on John 3:21.

Paul would have been familiar with the abominations of the pagan world from the beginning of his life. The belief in paganism was more firmly rooted in the provinces than in Italy, and was especially vigorous in Tarsus; which was counted among the three Kappa Kakista, most villainous K's of antiquity - Kappadokia, Kilikia, and Krete. Religion there was chiefly of an Oriental character, marked by lascivious rites. See Farrar's "Life and Work of Paul," ii., 24-34

General, but still with a general and slightly reproachful reference to the Jew.

Judgest (κρίνων)

With the sense of condemning.

Not the act, but the contents of the judgment.

See on 1 Peter 5:12. Intimating a process of reasoning.

Thou shalt escape

Thou emphatic, opposed to Jewish self-conceit.

The indicative mood unites a declaration with the question: "Do you despise? Aye, you do."

Riches (πλούτου)

A favorite word with Paul to describe the quality of the divine attributes and gifts. See 2 Corinthians 8:9; Ephesians 1:7, Ephesians 1:18; Ephesians 2:4, Ephesians 2:7; Ephesians 3:8, Ephesians 3:16; Philippians 4:19; Colossians 1:27.

Goodness (χρηστότητος)

See on easy, Matthew 11:30.

Forbearance and long-suffering (ἀνοχῆς καὶ μακροθυμίας)

Ἁνοχή forbearance, strictly a holding back. In classical Greek mostly of a truce of arms. It implies something temporary which may pass away under new conditions. Hence used in connection with the passing by of sins before Christ (Romans 3:25). "It is that forbearance or suspense of wrath, that truce with the sinner, which by no means implies that the wrath will not be executed at the last; nay, involves that it certainly will, unless he be found under new conditions of repentance and obedience" (Trench). For μακροθυμία long-suffering, see on James 5:7. This reliance on God's tolerance to suspend the rule of His administration in your case is contempt (despisest). Compare Galatians 6:7.

Not knowing (ἀγνοῶν)

In that thou dost not know. This very ignorance is contempt.

Leadeth (ἄγει)

The continuous present: is leading all the while thou art despising.

Repentance (μετάνοιαν)

See on Matthew 3:2; see on Matthew 21:29.

Accumulatest. Glancing back to riches.

For thyself

Possibly a tinge of irony.

Wrath against the day of wrath (ὀργὴν ἐν ἡμέρᾳ ὀργῆς)

A very striking image - treasuring up wrath for one's self. Rev., better, in the day, etc. The sinner stores it away. Its forthcoming is withheld by the forbearance of God. It will break out in the day when God's righteous judgment shall be revealed.

Supply He will render.