This verse is the climax of man’s fall from God: they refuse to keep in mind the true knowledge about God. The verb translated refuse to keep in mind basically means to reject something that one has put to the test. There is evidently a play on words in Greek between the verb refuse to keep in mind and the adjective corrupted, but this is difficult to carry over in translation. In the present context corrupted refers to a mind that no longer functions as it should; this does not imply insanity, but rather the lack of ability to make moral and spiritual distinctions. Phillips renders this phrase as “degenerate minds” and the New English Bible as “depraved reason.”

Refuse to keep in mind may be rendered as “say, We will not think about” or “declare, We will not remember.” The true knowledge about God may be rendered as “what men may know is true about God.”

Has given them over to is not easily rendered in some languages. In fact, it must frequently be broken into two parts—for example, “he has let them go so that they will only think in bad ways” or “he has let them leave him, and now they only think in corrupted ways.”

The concept of corrupted minds must be rendered in some languages by an idiomatic expression—for example, “a mind that is hungry for dirty words,” “a mind that is completely twisted,” or “a mind which has only stinking thoughts.”

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 .