Nielsen’s Nook

A colleague of mine has engaged me in a conversation about the nature of culpability, knowledge, revelation (both general and special) and the idea of suppression (κατεχόντων in Romans 1:18 below).  I am waiting to hear back from him regarding the posting of some thoughts he presented via email, which are as stimulating as they are charitable.  In the interim, I’ll post some thoughts I am working through and hope that you, the reader, would in charity help shape my thoughts along the way.  Today, I’ll begin with a translation that as all translations do, betray something of the mind of the translator.  The next post will seek to work through more concrete thoughts on this dense passage and then we’ll seek to interact with comments and critiques.

The Text and Translation

Romans 1:18-21 (NA27)
¹⁸ Ἀποκαλύπτεται γὰρ ὀργὴ θεοῦ ἀπʼ οὐρανοῦ ἐπὶ πᾶσαν ἀσέβειαν καὶ ἀδικίαν ἀνθρώπων τῶν τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἐν ἀδικίᾳ κατεχόντων, ¹⁹ διότι τὸ γνωστὸν τοῦ θεοῦ φανερόν ἐστιν ἐν αὐτοῖς· ὁ θεὸς γὰρ αὐτοῖς ἐφανέρωσεν. ²⁰ τὰ γὰρ ἀόρατα αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ κτίσεως κόσμου τοῖς ποιήμασιν νοούμενα καθορᾶται, ἥ τε ἀΐδιος αὐτοῦ δύναμις καὶ θειότης, εἰς τὸ εἶναι αὐτοὺς ἀναπολογήτους, ²¹ διότι γνόντες τὸν θεὸν οὐχ ὡς θεὸν ἐδόξασαν ἢ ηὐχαρίστησαν, ἀλλʼ ἐματαιώθησαν ἐν τοῖς διαλογισμοῖς αὐτῶν καὶ ἐσκοτίσθη ἡ ἀσύνετος αὐτῶν καρδία.

Author’s Translation
¹⁸ For God’s wrath is being revealed from heaven upon all godlessness and unrighteousness of humanity, which is suppressing the truth in unrighteousness ¹⁹ because what is known of God is shown in them - for God has shown it to them. ²⁰ For his invisible qualities, which are his eternal power and divinity, are being clearly perceived since the moment of ^a creation of the cosmos by the things made by him ^b with the result that they are without excuse ²¹ because knowing ^c God they neither glorified him as God nor gave him thanks, instead they have become futile by their reasoning ^d and their senseless heart has become darkened.

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^a ἀπὸ here is being used to mark out the beginning point from which God’s invisible qualities began to be perceived. By saying that this began at the moment of creation, Paul is saying that there has never been a time in which creatures had an excuse for not glorifying and giving thanks to God.

^b a simple divine passive, where God is clearly implied as the subject.

^c It is worth noting that γνόντες τὸν θεὸν employs a present active participle which would seem to govern the way we understand the subsequent verbs in the passage.  In other words, the not glorifying and not giving thanks to God and the consequent futility of thought and darkening of the heart are also ongoing and active in their scope. 

^d The curious phrase ἐματαιώθησαν ἐν τοῖς διαλογισμοῖς αὐτῶν employs a dative construction (ἐν τοῖς διαλογισμοῖς) that might be explaining not simply the sphere in which this futility has come but also a means by which it has come in the sense that and in so far as this reasoning (διαλογισμοῖς) has been analogous to the suppression of Romans 1:18 (κατεχόντων).  The result of suppressing the truth in unrighteousness would seem to be both rendering one to be without excuse (ἀναπολογήτους) and bringing about a worse state than before - i.e., the heart and mind are darkened and futile.