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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Romans 1:19 - 1:19
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
19. διότι gives the reason for the wrath. For (Blass, p. 274) they knew GOD (19–21 a, expanding τὴν ἀλ. κατ.), but did not act on this knowledge (21 b–23, expanding ἐν ἀδικίᾳ.). There should be a full stop or colon after κατεχόντων: as Rom 1:18 introduces the whole section.
τὸ γνωστὸν τ. θ. = that element in or aspect of GOD which can be known. GOD can be known by man only in part: but that partial knowledge is true and adequate to man’s capacity and sufficient and indispensable for his life. He is revealed partially in nature, including human nature, with relative completeness in the Son. For the construction cf. Blass, p. 155, Winer-M., p. 295. This is not a case of the neuter adjective standing for an abstract substantive; the genitive is partitive.
φανερόν ἐ. ἐν αὐτοῖς = ‘is clear in them.’ They have a clear knowledge of GOD so far as He can be known to man. Cf. Wis 13:1 which S. Paul certainly has in mind; but he defines the situation with a much closer grip.
ὁ θεὸς γὰρ κ.τ.λ. explains the fact of the clearness of this knowledge: it was due to a self-revelation of GOD through creation.