Romans 1:26
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
For this cause God gave them up to vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
American King James Version (AKJV)
For this cause God gave them up to vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
American Standard Version (ASV)
For this cause God gave them up unto vile passions: for their women changed the natural use into that which is against nature:
Basic English Translation (BBE)
For this reason God gave them up to evil passions, and their women were changing the natural use into one which is unnatural:
Webster's Revision
For this cause God gave them up to vile affections. For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
World English Bible
For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For their women changed the natural function into that which is against nature.
English Revised Version (ERV)
For this cause God gave them up unto vile passions: for their women changed the natural use into that which is against nature:
Clarke's Romans 1:26 Bible Commentary
For this cause God gave them up, etc. - Their system of idolatry necessarily produced all kinds of impurity. How could it be otherwise, when the highest objects of their worship were adulterers, fornicators, and prostitutes of the most infamous kind, such as Jupiter, Apollo, Mars, Venus, etc.? Of the abominable evils with which the apostle charges the Gentiles in this and the following verse I could produce a multitude of proofs from their own writings; but it is needless to make the subject plainer than the apostle has left it.
Barnes's Romans 1:26 Bible Commentary
For this cause - On account of what had just been specified; to wit, that they did not glorify him as God, that they were unthankful, that they became polytheists and idolaters. In the previous verses he had stated their speculative belief. He now proceeds to show its practical influences on their conduct.
Vile affections - Disgraceful passions or desires. That is, to those which are immediately specified. The great object of the apostle here, it will be remembered, is to shew the state of the pagan world, and to prove that they had need of some other way of justification than the law of nature. For this purpose, it was necessary for him to enter into a detail of their sins. The sins which he proceeds to specify are the most indelicate, vile, and degrading which can be charged on man. But this is not the fault of the apostle. If they existed, it was necessary for him to charge them on the pagan world. His argument would not be complete without it. The shame is not in specifying them, but in their existence; not in the apostle, but in those who practiced them, and imposed on him the necessity of accusing them of these enormous offences. It may be further remarked, that the mere fact of his charging them with these sins is strong presumptive proof of their being practiced. If they did not exist, it would be easy for them to deny it, and put him to the proof of it. No man would venture charges like these without evidence; and the presumption is, that these things were known and practiced without shame. But this is not all. There is still abundant proof on record in the writings of the pagan themselves, that these crimes were known and extensively practiced.
For even their women ... - Evidence of the shameful and disgraceful fact here charged on the women is abundant in the Greek and Roman writers. Proof may be seen, which it would not be proper to specify, in the lexicons, under the words τριζὰς ὄλισβον trizas olisbon, and ἑταιρίστης hetairistēs. See also Seneca, epis. 95; Martial, epis. i. 90. Tholuck on the State of the pagan World, in the Biblical Repository, vol. ii.; Lucian, Dial. Meretric. v.; and Tertullian de Pallio.
Wesley's Romans 1:26 Bible Commentary
1:26 Therefore God gave them up to vile affections - To which the heathen Romans were then abandoned to the last degree; and none more than the emperors themselves.