1:24 Therefore God gave them over 3 in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor 4 their bodies among themselves. 5
1:26 For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged the natural sexual relations for unnatural ones, 6 1:27 and likewise the men also abandoned natural relations with women 7 and were inflamed in their passions 8 for one another. Men 9 committed shameless acts with men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
1 tn Grk “exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God in likeness of an image of corruptible man.” Here there is a wordplay on the Greek terms ἄφθαρτος (afqarto", “immortal, imperishable, incorruptible”) and φθαρτός (fqarto", “mortal, corruptible, subject to decay”).
2 sn Possibly an allusion to Ps 106:19-20.
3 sn Possibly an allusion to Ps 81:12.
4 tn The genitive articular infinitive τοῦ ἀτιμάζεσθαι (tou atimazesqai, “to dishonor”) has been taken as (1) an infinitive of purpose; (2) an infinitive of result; or (3) an epexegetical (i.e., explanatory) infinitive, expanding the previous clause.
5 tn Grk “among them.”
6 tn Grk “for their females exchanged the natural function for that which is contrary to nature.” The term χρῆσις (crhsi") has the force of “sexual relations” here (L&N 23.65).
7 tn Grk “likewise so also the males abandoning the natural function of the female.”
8 tn Grk “burned with intense desire” (L&N 25.16).
9 tn Grk “another, men committing…and receiving,” continuing the description of their deeds. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.