Romans 1:26

26 This is why God has given them up to degrading passions; so that their women exchange natural sexual relations for unnatural;

Romans 1:26 Meaning and Commentary

Romans 1:26

For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections
Because of their idolatrous practices, God left them to very dishonourable actions, sodomitical ones, both among the men and women:

for even the women did change the natural use into that which is
against nature;
either by prostituting themselves to, and complying with the "sodomitical" embraces of men, in a way that is against nature F8; or by making use of such ways and methods with themselves, or other women, to gratify their lusts, which were never designed by nature for such an use: of these vicious women, and their practices, Seneca F9 speaks, when he says,

``libidine veto nec maribus quidem cedunt, pati natae; Dii illas Deoeque, male perdant; adeo perversum commentae, genus impudicitiae, viros ineunt:''

also Clemens Alexandrinus F11 has respect to such, saying,

``(gunaikev andrizontai para fusin, gamou men ai te kai) (gamousai gunaikev) ''

and such there were among the Jews, whom they call (wzb wz twllwomx) (Myvn) F12, and whom the priests were forbidden to marry.


FOOTNOTES:

F8 Vid. R. Sol Jarchi in Gen. xxiv. 16.
F9 Epist. 95.
F11 Paedagog. l. 3. p. 226.
F12 T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 65. 2. Piske Tosaph. ib. artic. 266. Yevamot, fol. 76. 1. & Piske Tosaph. ib. art. 141. Maimonides in Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 7. sect. 4. & Hilchot Issure Bia, c. 21. sect. 8, 9.

Romans 1:26 In-Context

24 This is why God has given them up to the vileness of their hearts' lusts, to the shameful misuse of each other's bodies.
25 They have exchanged the truth of God for falsehood, by worshipping and serving created things, rather than the Creator - praised be he for ever. Amen.
26 This is why God has given them up to degrading passions; so that their women exchange natural sexual relations for unnatural;
27 and likewise the men, giving up natural relations with the opposite sex, burn with passion for one another, men committing shameful acts with other men and receiving in their own persons the penalty appropriate to their perversion.
28 In other words, since they have not considered God worth knowing, God has given them up to worthless ways of thinking; so that they do improper things.
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.