Bible Strands
Romans 1:30
slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent new forms of evil; they disobey their parents.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Paul addresses the Roman church while cataloging the moral corruption of those who have turned from God. He places this specific list between the vice catalogs of Romans 1:29 and 1:31.
The words — The text identifies ἐφευρετὰς κακῶν (epheuretas kakōn) as "inventors of evil things" and θεοστυγεῖς (theostugeis) as "God-haters." These Greek terms describe active moral innovation and direct hostility toward the divine.
The thread — The passage connects to the broader New Testament indictment of unregenerate behavior in Jude 1:16 and 2 Peter 2:18. While 2 Timothy 3:2 shares some overlapping terms like arrogance and parental disobedience, it does not replicate this exact vice list.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition of human depravity as an active, inventive force rather than passive failure. It requires the reader to confront the logical outcome of rejecting divine authority.
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
Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
Cross-references
- 2 Timothy 3:2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
- Jude 1:16 These men are discontented grumblers, following after their own lusts; their mouths spew arrogance; they flatter others for their own advantage.
- 2 Peter 2:18 With lofty but empty words, they appeal to the sensual passions of the flesh and entice those who are just escaping from others who live in error.
- Romans 8:7 because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.
- Titus 3:3 For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
- James 3:5 In the same way, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it boasts of great things. Consider how small a spark sets a great forest ablaze.
- James 4:16 As it is, you boast in your proud intentions. All such boasting is evil.
- Numbers 10:35 Whenever the ark set out, Moses would say, “Rise up, O LORD! May Your enemies be scattered; may those who hate You flee before You.”
- Deuteronomy 7:10 But those who hate Him He repays to their faces with destruction; He will not hesitate to repay to his face the one who hates Him.
- Deuteronomy 21:18 If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and does not listen to them when disciplined,