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Rom. 1:26-27
_PathE_ as passive emotions may not be significant since all
emotions can be seen as passive (?) - good point - but they may be part
of an overall alternation between passive and active senses in this passage.
The males "set aside" (_aphentes_ participle form) their
characteristic behavior with females. The verb here could be used to
"putting away" one's wife in a divorce. Here is the "active" part of
their sin. Just as the already-believed-in God was set aside and
exchanged for something lesser, created animals; here the
already-practiced sexuality is set aside and exchanged for something
dishonorable.
The verb _eksekauthEsan_ is aorist passive. The -eks- is an
inchoative particle here: they were set on fire, made to start burning
(from a prior state of not being on fire). The subject is unexpressed -
someone or something set them burning, caused them to start burning.
The phrase _tEn askhEmosunEn katergazomenoi_ gives some trouble.
The first word is used in the LXX to render the "nakedness" referring to
sexual behavior. In the NT, though, it usually refers to dishonor,
embarrassment, shame; its etymological sense "incongruity" can I think be
safely set aside. This is especially so since the second term makes
sense not as "producing, creating" but as "earning by labor." Dishonor
is earned by labor.
So this part of the passage I could render:
"...likewise the males set aside their evident enjoyment of
[characetristic sexual activity with] the female and
were made to burn with longing for one another, males among males earning
dishonor..."
The most important difference in my translation of the passage though is
in the last and final part.
Greg Jordan
jordan@chuma.cas.usf.edu
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