Romans 1:19

Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(19) The Apostle goes on to show how the Gentiles came to have such a knowledge of right, and how they repressed and contravened it.

They had it, because all the knowledge that mankind generally possessed of God they also possessed. So much as could be known without special revelation they knew.

That which may be known.—Rather, that which is (generally and universally) known—the truths of so-called “natural religion.”

Is manifest in them.—Manifest or imprinted upon their consciences, because God had so imprinted it upon them. The marginal rendering, “to them,” is hardly tenable.

Benson Commentary

Romans 1:19-20. Because that which may be known of God — Those great principles which are indispensably necessary to be known, such as his existence, his unity, his power, his wisdom, his goodness, and his righteous government of the world; is manifest in, or rather among, them — As ευ αυτοις should be here rendered: for God hath showed it to them — By the light which lightens every man that cometh into the world, John 1:9. The apostle’s assertion is confirmed by the writings of the Greek and Latin philosophers still remaining. See note on Romans 1:21. For the invisible things of him — His spiritual nature and infinite perfections, called his invisible things, partly in opposition to the heathen deities, who being all corporeal, their being and properties were things invisible; and partly because they cannot be seen, except in their effects, by men’s bodily eyes; from the creation of the world — From the visible creation, from the heavens and the earth, from the sea and dry land, from plants and animals, from men’s own bodies, fearfully and wonderfully made, and especially from their intelligent, free, and immortal minds. Or the meaning may be, Since, or, from the time of the creation of the world; for the apostle does not use the preposition εκ, by, but απο, from, or, ever since, the creation. Thus Dr. Whitby understands the expression, observing, “It seems not to signify the means by which they came to the knowledge of God, for these are afterward expressed, but rather to import, that from the beginning of the world the heathen had the means of knowing the true God from the works of creation; so απ αρχης κοσμου is, from the beginning of the world, Matthew 24:21; and απο καταβολης κοσμου from the foundation of the world, Matthew 13:35.” Are clearly seen — By the eye of the mind, being understood — They are seen by them, and them only, who use their understanding. The present tense, καθοραται, are clearly seen, denotes the continued manifestation of the being and perfections of God, by the works of creation from the beginning; agreeably to Psalm 19:1, The heavens declare the glory of God. By the things that are made — “In this mundane system, every thing is so formed, that to the pious among the vulgar, God himself appears to be the author of all the operations of nature. But they who have obtained a partial knowledge of what is called natural philosophy, have, from the discovery of some second causes, been led to fancy, that the whole system may be accounted for without the intervention of a Deity. This is what the apostle calls, Romans 1:21, becoming vain in their imaginations, or rather, foolish in their reasonings. Those, however, who have made the greatest advances in true philosophy know, that second causes, properly speaking, are no causes, because they have no efficiency in themselves, but are set in motion by God. And thus the most perfect philosophy always ends where the natural sense of mankind begins.” Even his eternal power and Godhead — “The true God, being eternal, is thereby distinguished from the fictitious gods of the heathens, who all had a beginning; the most ancient of them being represented as coming out of chaos, and their birth being sung by the heathen poets. Of the particular attributes of God, the apostle mentions only his power, because the effects of the divine power are what first strike the senses of men, and lead them most directly to the acknowledgment of a Deity. The word Θειοτης, Godhead, denotes every thing comprehended in the idea of God, namely, his unity, incorporeity, immutability, knowledge, wisdom, justice, &c.; all which, together with God’s eternal power, the apostle affirms every intelligent person may understand, by the things which are made.” Macknight. So that they are without excuse — And would be destitute of every just or plausible apology for themselves, if he should enter into judgment with them.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

1:18-25 The apostle begins to show that all mankind need the salvation of the gospel, because none could obtain the favour of God, or escape his wrath by their own works. For no man can plead that he has fulfilled all his obligations to God and to his neighbour; nor can any truly say that he has fully acted up to the light afforded him. The sinfulness of man is described as ungodliness against the laws of the first table, and unrighteousness against those of the second. The cause of that sinfulness is holding the truth in unrighteousness. All, more or less, do what they know to be wrong, and omit what they know to be right, so that the plea of ignorance cannot be allowed from any. Our Creator's invisible power and Godhead are so clearly shown in the works he has made, that even idolaters and wicked Gentiles are left without excuse. They foolishly followed idolatry; and rational creatures changed the worship of the glorious Creator, for that of brutes, reptiles, and senseless images. They wandered from God, till all traces of true religion must have been lost, had not the revelation of the gospel prevented it. For whatever may be pretended, as to the sufficiency of man's reason to discover Divine truth and moral obligation, or to govern the practice aright, facts cannot be denied. And these plainly show that men have dishonoured God by the most absurd idolatries and superstitions; and have degraded themselves by the vilest affections and most abominable deeds.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Because - The apostle proceeds to show how it was that the pagan hindered the truth by their iniquity. This he does by showing that the truth might be known by the works of creation; and that nothing but their iniquity prevented it.

That which may be known of God - That which is "knowable" concerning God. The expression implies that there may be many things concerning God which cannot be known. But there are also many things which may be ascertained. Such are his existence, and many of his attributes, his power, and wisdom, and justice, etc. The object of the apostle was not to say that every thing pertaining to God could be known by them, or that they could have as clear a view of him as if they had possessed a revelation. We must interpret the expression according to the object which he had in view. That was to show that so much might be known of God as to prove that they had no excuse for their crimes; or that God would be just in punishing them for their deeds. For this, it was needful only that his existence and his justice, or his determination to punish sin, should be known; and this, the apostle affirms, was known among them, and had been from the creation of the world. This expression. therefore, is not to be pressed as implying that they knew all that could be known about God, or that they knew as much as they who had a revelation; but that they knew enough to prove that they had no excuse for their sins.

Is manifest - Is known; is understood.

In them - "Among" them. So the preposition "in" is often used. It means that they had this knowledge; or it had been communicated to them. The great mass of the pagan world was indeed ignorant of the true God; but their leaders, or their philosophers, had this knowledge; see the note at Romans 1:21. But this was not true of the mass, or body of the people. Still it was true that this knowledge was in the possession of man, or was "among" the pagan world. and would have spread, had it not been for the love of sin.

God hath showed it to them - Compare John 1:9. He had endowed them with reason and conscience Romans 2:14-15; he had made them capable of seeing and investigating his works; he had spread before them the proofs of his wisdom, and goodness, and power, and had thus given them the means of learning his perfections and will.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

19. Because that which may be—rather, "which is."

known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them—The sense of this pregnant statement the apostle proceeds to unfold in Ro 1:20.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

That which may be known of God; or, that which is knowable of God, viz. by the light of nature. The apostle, by a prolepis, prevents an objection which some might make in excuse of the Gentiles: how could they sufficate or suppress the truth, seeing they wanted the Scripture, and were without the knowledge of it? To this he answers, that they were not wholly without knowledge, for that which might be known of God was manifest in them, and revealed to them.

Is manifest in them, i.e. in their heart and minds; see Romans 2:15: or, to and among them; as appears by many of their learned writers, who have left behind them many clear discourses, and wise essays and sayings, about this matter, though they themselves did act contrary thereunto.

For God hath showed it unto them; i.e. as before, by the light of nature in their consciences, or by the consideration of the creatures, as it follows in the next verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Because that which may be known of God,.... There are some things which could not be known of God by the light of nature; as a trinity of persons in the Godhead; the knowledge of God in Christ as Mediator; the God-man and Mediator Jesus Christ; his incarnation, sufferings, death, and resurrection; the will of God to save sinners by a crucified Jesus; the several peculiar doctrines of the Gospel, particularly the resurrection of the dead, and the manner of worshipping of God with acceptance: but then there are some things which may be known of God, without a revelation. Adam had a perfect knowledge of him; and his sons, though fallen, even the very Heathens have some notion of him, as that there is a God; and by the light of nature it might be known that there is but one God, who is glorious, full of majesty, and possessed of all perfections, as that he is all powerful, wise, good and righteous: and this

is manifest in them, or "to them"; by the light that is given them: it is light by which that which may be known of God is manifest; and this is the light of nature, which every man has that comes into the world; and this is internal, it is in him, in his mind and conscience, and is communicated to him by God, and that by infusion or inspiration; see Job 32:8;

for God hath showed it unto them; what may be known of him by that light; and which is assisted and may be improved by a consideration of the works of creation and Providence.

Geneva Study Bible

{9} Because that which may be known of God is manifest in {c} them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

(9) By their ungodliness he proves that although all men have a most clear and evident mirror in which to behold the everlasting and almighty nature of God, even in his creatures, yet they have fallen away from those principles to most foolish and stupid ideas of their own brains, in their worship of God and of what God requires of them.

(c) In their hearts.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Romans 1:19. Διότι] propterea quod—only to be separated by a comma from the foregoing—specifies more precisely the causal relation, on account of which the wrath of God comes upon such men, etc. (Romans 1:18). They keep down the truth through immorality; if they did so out of ignorance, they would be excusable: but they do not do so out of ignorance, and therefore God’s wrath is manifested against them. This view of the connection is suggested by the literal meaning of διότι itself, and confirmed by εἰς τὸ εἶναι αὐτοὺς ἀναπολογ. Comp Hofmann. So also Fritzsche, who, however, takes ΔΙΌΤΙ as equivalent to ΓΆΡ, as does also Philippi,—a use of it that never occurs, not even in Acts 18:10. This linguistically erroneous interpretation of ΔΙΌΤΙ condemns also the view of Tholuck, Rückert, de Wette, and Reithmayr, who discover here the proof, that the Gentiles keep down the truth by immorality; or (so Th. Schott) that Paul rightly describes them as κατέχοντες Κ.Τ.Λ[438] No; for the very reason that they have the γνωστὸν τοῦ θεοῦ, which renders them inexcusable, does the wrath of God go forth against the κατέχοντες; Romans 1:18.

τὸ γνωστὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ] that which is known concerning God, not: that which is knowable concerning God, a signification which, though adopted by Origen, Theophylact, Oecumenius, Erasmus, Beza, Castalio, Calvin, Piscator, Estius, Grotius, Wolf, Koppe, Rückert, Kollner, Baumgarten-Crusius, Maier, Ewald, Umbreit, Mehring, Hofmann, and others, is never conveyed by γνωστός in the N. T. or in the LXX. and Apocrypha, though it frequently occurs in classic authors (see the passages from Plato quoted by Ast, Lex. I. p. 401; Dorvill. a[439] Charit. p. 502; Hermann, a[440] Soph. Oed. T. 361; comp ἄγνωστος, which in Plato invariably means unknowable). In all the places where it occurs in the Scriptures, as also, though less frequently, in the classics (Xen. Cyr. vi. 3, 4; Arrian. Epict. ii. 20, 4; Aesch. Choeph. 702; Beck, Antiatt. p. 87, 25), it means quod notum est (Vulgate), and is therefore equivalent to γνωτός or γνώριμος, also in Acts 4:16; Sir 21:7. The opposite: ἄγνωστος, Acts 17:23. Comp Luther, 1545: “das (nicht: dass) man weiss, das (nicht: dass) Gott sei.” That which is known of God excludes that which needed a special revelation to make it known, as in particular the contents of the Gospel; the former is derived from the general revelation of nature. If we should take γνωστόν as knowable, the assertion of the Apostle would he incorrect without some limiting qualification; for the positively revealed belonged to that which was knowable, but not to that which was known of God,[443] into which category it was brought only through special revelation, which it would otherwise not have needed.

ἐν αὐτοῖς] i.e. in their consciousness, ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις αὐτῶν, Romans 2:15. Comp Galatians 1:16. The explanation inter ipsos, which Erasmus and Grotius (both referring it arbitrarily to the Gnosis of the philosophers among the Gentiles), Köllner and Baumgarten-Crusius give, is to be rejected for this reason, that αὐτοῖς ἐφανέρωσε, compared with νοούμενα καθορᾶται, points to a manifestation of the γνωστόν τοῦ Θεοῦ which is inward, although conveyed through the revelation of nature.

ἐφανέρωσε] God—and this subject is again named with emphasis—has laid it clearly before them, made it lie openly before their view as an object of knowledge. Comp on the matter itself Acts 14:17; Acts 17:26 f.; 1 Corinthians 1:21.

[438] .τ.λ. καὶ τὰ λοιπά.

[439] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.

[440] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.

[443] Which, however, is not to be transformed, with Fritzsche, Tholuck, Krehl, and others, into the subjective scientia Dei—which has no precedent in usage, is unsuitable to the following φανερόν ἐστι, and is not to be supported even by the LXX. Genesis 2:9; in which passage, if the text be not corrupted, τὸ ξύλον τοῦ εἰδέναι γνωστόν καλοῦ κ. πονηροῦ must be rendered: the tree by which they were to learn what is known of good and evil, i.e. by which they were to become aware of that which they—by the very enjoyment—had known of good and evil.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

19. that which may be known of God] Lit. that which is known; i.e. ideally known; that which, under any circumstances, man has known. The E. V. is thus practically right.

The word “knowable” has of late years become fashionable in philosophic language; and some writers have boldly taught that God is “The Unknown and Unknowable.” This direct contradiction of the Lord and the Apostles seems to be largely due to a confusion of real knowledge with perfect knowledge. Meanwhile Scripture itself teaches that in an inner sense God is “unknowable,” until revealed. (Matthew 11:25-27.)

The “because” points to the “holding down” just before: q. d., “they hold down the truth; and it needs holding down, as a living thing, if it is to be kept out of the way; because it is, as a fact, known to them.”

in them] Or, amongst them. The Gr. bears either meaning; and on the whole the context favours the latter.

for God hath shewed it] Lit. for God did manifest it. The verb is in the aorist, and thus seems to point to a complete past; perhaps to the ideal time of creation, when the “eternal power and Godhead” were manifested. It must be observed in general, however, that in the Greek of the N. T. the aorist sometimes practically covers the ground of the perfect.—The point of this verse thus may be that “God hath [in abiding effect] manifested, &c.”

Bengel's Gnomen

Romans 1:19. Τὸ γνωστόν) the fact that God is known: that principle, that God makes Himself known; that is to say, the existence of an acquaintance with, or knowledge of, God [the fact of God being known; the objective knowledge of God], not merely that He can be known. For, at Romans 1:21, he says, γνόντες, of the Gentiles [asserting thus, that they did know God].—Plato b. 5. Polit. uses γνωστόν in the same way; τὸ μὲν παντελῶς ὂν, παντελῶς γνωστόν· μὴ ὂν δὲ μηδαμῆ, πάντη ἄγνωστον, whatsoever indeed has a positive existence, is positively known: but a thing, which has no existence at all, is utterly unknown.—ἐφανέρωσε) Paul used this word with great propriety, as well as ἀποκαλύπτω above.[12]

[12] Implying it is by revelation and manifestation, not by man’s mere reasonings, the knowledge of God comes.—ED.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 19. - Because that which is known (not, as in the Authorized Version, "may be known;" for, though the force of the word γνωστὸν suggests this sense, it certainly means known, not knowable, in the many passages of the New Testament where it elsewhere occurs) of God is manifest in them; for God manifested it to them; rather than hath manifested, as in the Authorized Version. He manifested it, as appears from the following verse, in creation. In it to them from the first he manifested it; but in them (ἐν αὐτοῖς) also, through the capacity of the human soul to see Divine power in creation. Romans 1:19

Vincent's Word Studies

That which may be known (τὸ γνωστὸν)

So A.V. and Rev., as equivalent to that which is knowable. But that which is knowable was not revealed to the heathen. If it was, what need of a revelation? Better, that which is known, the universal sense in the New Testament, signifying the universal objective knowledge of God as the Creator, which is, more or less, in all men.

In them

In their heart and conscience. The emphasis should be on in. Thus the apparent tautology - what is known is manifest - disappears.