Paragraph 1:24–27

1:24a

God gave them over…to impurity: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as gave…over refers to putting someone under the control of something or someone else. Here it indicates that God put them under the control of impurity, so that they always did impure things. Here are other ways to translate this clause:

God put them under the control of impurity
-or-
God caused them to be ruled by ⌊thoughts of⌋ impurity
-or-
God…gave them the road to do whatever evil

impurity: This word refers to deeds that are immoral to do. Here are other ways to translate this word:

uncleanness (King James Version)
-or-
filthy practices (New Jerusalem Bible)

in the desires of their hearts: Here the word in introduces the situation of those people’s lives when God gave them over to impurity. Here are other ways to translate this phrase:

⌊living⌋ in the lusts of their hearts
-or-
in ⌊their custom of following⌋ the lusts of their hearts

the desires of their hearts: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as desires refers to strong desires of any kind. But it implies bad desires here. Here are other ways to translate this word:

the sinful desires of their hearts (New International Version)
-or-
their inmost cravings (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
the evil-things their minds desire

hearts: In Greek, the word hearts refers figuratively to the inner person, which includes the mind, the emotions, and the will. See how you translated this word in 1:21.

1:24b

for: The word for here introduces the result of God giving them over to impurity, or explains what Paul meant when he wrote the word “impurity.” Here are other ways to translate this word:

of (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
so that (New American Standard Bible)
-or-

to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies (New Revised Standard Version)
-or-
to impurity, that is, the degrading of their bodies

the dishonoring of their bodies: The Greek phrase here is literally “their bodies to be dishonored.” It refers to doing things that damage it, or things that God does not allow, or not showing respect to it. Here it probably refers mostly to shameful sexual actions. Here are other ways to translate this phrase:

dishonouring their own bodies (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
they dishonor their bodies by sexual perversion (God’s Word)
-or-
they shame their bodies
-or-
they cause their bodies to be full of shame

the dishonoring: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as dishonoring is passive. It is the people’s own impurity (1:24a) that dishonors or shames their bodies. The Greek verb is also present tense, indicating that they continue to do this. Translate it with that meaning. See the above examples.

with one another: Paul was talking of all of humanity. So this phrase indicates that the dishonoring happens in all of humanity. It does not focus on doing these things to or with each other, but indicates that the dishonoring happens among people rather than between people and other beings. Here are other ways to translate this phrase:

among them (New American Standard Bible)
-or-
they altogether

© 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.