The first sentence of verse 27 may be rendered in some languages as “in a similar way men give up sleeping with women and want to sleep with other men” or “… want to have men as their wives.” Men do shameful things with each other may be rendered as “men have sexual relations with one another, and this is shameful” or “… this is bad.”

They themselves are punished as they deserve is literally “the payment which is necessary” (see New English Bible “the fitting wage”), but in the present context “payment” refers to God’s punishment upon them. In a number of languages the passive are punished must be changed into an active expression—for example, “as a result God punishes them.”

Wrongdoing is literally “deceit” or “error” (see Revised Standard Version), but the reference is to sexual perversion (see New English Bible, Jerusalem Bible). For their wrongdoing may be rendered as “because of the evil which they have done” or “because of the bad way in which the have acted.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Romans. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1973. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .