Romans 1:21

For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Paul addresses the Roman congregation by tracing human rebellion back to the moment created people witness God’s invisible qualities in nature (Romans 1:20). He identifies their specific failure to respond to that clear revelation.

The words — The text states they "knew God" (γνόντες, gnontes) but failed to "glorify Him" (ἐδόξασαν, edoxasan) or give thanks. The causal conjunction διότι (dioti) ties this refusal directly to the preceding exposure of divine truth.

The thread — This trajectory of rejecting revealed truth mirrors Jeremiah 2:5, where ancestors strayed from God, and 2 Kings 17:15, which records the dismissal of His statutes. Paul later describes the resulting intellectual decay in Ephesians 4:17 as the futility of Gentile thinking.

Why it lands — The passage declares that suppressed knowledge of God inevitably produces empty reasoning and hardened hearts. It requires readers to confront their own accountability for ignoring clear divine revelation.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Greek words

King James Version

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Cross-references

Ephesians 4:17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.
2 Kings 17:15 They rejected His statutes and the covenant He had made with their fathers, as well as the decrees He had given them. They pursued worthless idols and became worthless themselves, going after the surrounding nations that the LORD had commanded them not to imitate.
Jeremiah 2:5 This is what the LORD says: “What fault did your fathers find in Me that they strayed so far from Me? They followed worthless idols, and became worthless themselves.
2 Timothy 3:2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
Psalms 50:23 He who sacrifices a thank offering honors Me, and to him who rightly orders his way, I will show the salvation of God.”
John 3:19 And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil.
Revelation 14:7 And he said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come. Worship the One who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and the springs of waters.”
Psalms 81:12 So I gave them up to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.
1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Revelation 15:4 Who will not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before You, for Your righteous acts have been revealed.”