ACC ~ Romans 1 v21

KNOWING GOD THEY WORSHIPED IDOLS. AMBROSIASTER: They were so far from being ignorant that they confessed that there was a single principle from which all things heavenly, earthly and infernal derived their origin, and that there was only one being who decreed what properties and duties would belong to everything by nature. Yet knowing this they did not give thanks. Paul is speaking of the ancients in order to correct his contemporaries and future generations.

Truly this is futility, that knowing the truth they decided to worship something else which they knew was not true, so that hiding from God they might worship idols. A cloud of error covered their hearts. Although they should have honored the Creator all the more from the beautiful things which he made, they clung to what they had, saying that the things which they could see were sufficient for their salvation. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

THE RANGE OF IDOLATRY. EUSEBIUS OF EMESA: It may seem that Paul has simplified his argument against the Greeks, because he condemns idolatry as the only kind of ungodliness. But to those who look more carefully at what he says, things will appear not this way but rather that Paul has broadened his horizons, so as not to overlook any kind of impiety. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

MISTAKING WHAT IS NOT FOR WHAT IS. APOLLINARIS OF LAODICEA: It is futile to conceive of nonbeing as if it were being, as do those who worship vanity as if it were God. For this reason their minds have been rendered senseless and darkness has entered their souls. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

THEY DESTROYED THE LIGHT THAT WAS IN THEM. CHRYSOSTOM: This is the greatest charge against the heathen, and the second is the fact that they worshiped idols. … The heathen tried to get to heaven, but having destroyed the light that was in them, instead entrusted themselves to the darkness of their own reasoning. They looked for the incorporeal in bodies and for the infinite in creaturely shapes, and so lost their congruity with the light. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 3.

APPLIES TO THE PHILOSOPHERS. [PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: This applies to Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Democritus, Epicurus and all the philosophers who considered themselves wise. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

THE DESIRES OF THEIR HEARTS. AUGUSTINE: If they had given thanks to God who gave this wisdom, they would not have claimed any credit for their own ideas. Therefore they were given over by the Lord to the desires of their own hearts, and did improper things. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 4.

THE DARKENING OF THE HEART. AUGUSTINE: Surely that darkening of the heart was already a penalty and punishment, and by that penalty, that is by the blinding of the heart because of the abandonment by the light of wisdom, they fell into more and more serious sins. ON NATURE AND GRACE 22.24.

WORSHIPING CREATURES. PELAGIUS: Imagining that they could grasp God with their minds, they fell away from their natural instinct and worshiped creatures instead of the Creator. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

DIFFERENT GODS. CAESARIUS OF ARLES: In the hearts of the Gentiles, the purest honoring of the one God was changed into the bloody worship of different gods. SERMON 100A.2.

FUTILE IN THEIR THINKING. PROSPER OF AQUITAINE: It is well known how Greek schools and Roman eloquence and the search of the whole world in the quest of the supreme good, with the most penetrating study and outstanding ability, accomplished nothing by their labor except to become “futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened.” GRACE AND FREE WILL 12.4.

NO CONDEMNATION FOR IGNORANCE. GENNADIUS OF CONSTANTINOPLE: The pagans knew that there was a God, and it is clear that they did not receive judgment because of this. For it was not for want of knowledge that they were condemned, but the opposite. For each one glorified God in the sense that whatever he thought God was, that he served. Thus they corrupted the whole matter by their peculiar and mistaken ideas. They abandoned God’s way of knowing him and preferred their own, falling into the deepest imbecility, outdoing themselves in their so-called wisdom by adding to their foolishness, descending to the worship of reptiles and inanimate objects. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

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