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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJohn Bengel Commentary - Romans 1:23 - 1:23
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Rom 1:23. Ἤλλαξαν, they changed), with the utmost folly, Psa 106:20; Jer 2:11. The impiety being one and the same, and the punishment one and the same, have three successive stages. In the first, these words are the emphatic ones, viz., καρδία, in Rom 1:21; καρδιῶν, in Rom 1:24; ἐδόξασαν, and δόξαν, and ἀτιμάζεσθαι τὰ σώματα, in Rom 1:21; Rom 1:23-24. In the second stage, μετήλλαξαν is emphatic, and the repetition of this verb, not, however, without a difference between the simple and compound forms [ἤλλαξαν τ. δοξαν, Rom 1:23; μετήλλαξαν τ. φυσικὴν χρῆσιν, Rom 1:26, the corresponding sin and punishment], gives the meaning of like for like [talionis, their punishment being like their sin], Rom 1:25-26; as παρὰ changes its meaning, when repeated in the same place [παρὰ τ. κτίσαντα, Rom 1:25; παρὰ φύσιν, Rom 1:26]. In the third, οὐκ ἐδοκίμασαν, and ἀδόκιμον, Rom 1:28, are emphatic. In the several cases, the word παρέδωκε expresses the punishment. If a man worships not God as God, he is so far left to himself, that he casts away his manhood, and departs as far as possible from God, after whose image he was made.-τὴν δόξαν το͂υ ἀφθὰρτου, the glory of the incorruptible) The perfections of God are expressed either in positive or negative terms. The Hebrew language abounds in positive terms, and generally renders negatives by a periphrasis.-ἐν), Hebrew ב, [So, after the verb to change with, or for] the Latin pro, cum; so, ἐν, Rom 1:25 [changed the truth of God into a lie].-ἀνθρώπου-ἑρπετῶν, like to man-to creeping things) A descending climax; corruptible is to be construed also with birds, etc. They often mixed together the form of man, bird, quadruped, and serpent.-ὁμοιώματι εἰκόνος, in the likeness of an image) Image is the concrete; likeness the abstract, opposed to δόξῃ, the glory; the greater the resemblance of the image to the creature, the more manifest is the aberration from the truth.