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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Romans 1:28 - 1:28
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Even as
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 1Th 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, Jam 1:12; and see on trial, 1Pe 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, Phi 3:2, Phi 3:3. “Our epistle known (γινωσκομένη) and read (ἀναγινωσκομένη).” Compare Rom 2:1; 1Co 11:29-31; Rom 12:3. The word reprobate is from re-probare, to reject on a second trial, hence, to condemn.