For, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.
φασκοντες ειναι σοφοι εμωρανθησαν
12 Church Fathers comment on this verse
Thinking highly of themselves and refusing to walk the path prescribed to them by God, they sank into thoughts of foolishness. Then, indicating and depicting the ruin of the Gentiles, how dreadful and wholly without excuse it was, the Apostle says: Rom 1:23, "and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things."
He gives the reason why they fell into such madness. In everything, he says, they relied on their own reasonings. Wishing to find the Indescribable in images and the Bodiless in bodies, they failed and could not reach the goal through reasonings. He calls their heart foolish because they did not wish to know all things by faith. Why did they reach such error, relying on their reasonings in everything? Because they imagined themselves wise, and for this reason they became foolish. For what is more foolish than worshiping stones and trees?
I also write this, having learned that someone is troubling you. He relies not so much on exactness of doctrine, nor on what is drawn from the Scriptures, as on his own understanding. They pour out words that have no power and no truth. For they have fallen into such evil thoughts that they supposed and conceived of the nature of God, which surpasses all things, as though a human appearance, ḥezwā, belonged to it, that is, the form, dmutā, of a man. Though I cannot believe this, since the very wish to think so is a clear proof of extreme folly, I am amazed. Those who raise such disputes, say this, or can think in this way, have overlooked that idolaters thought the same. Divine Scripture cries out concerning them.
Thus Paul says of them: "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of an image of corruptible man." Therefore those who affirm that human likeness, dmutā, belongs to God are mad together with those idolaters. Since they are seized by the same impiety, they are plainly under the apostle's rebuke. They too change the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of an image of corruptible man. They turn aside from the truth and remain far from the understanding proper to holiness. The phrase ba-dmutā d-ṣalmā corresponds to ἐν ὁμοιώματι εἰκόνος. Thus they will find no defense on the day of Judgment. Having known God, that is, having perceived God's glory through the very greatness of created things, they did not glorify Him as God. Instead, they became vain in their reasonings, and their foolish heart was darkened. For although, as they think, they investigated the nature of things with great care, he says they became vain by following empty reasonings. In their life they proclaimed the error of polytheism. In a most irrational way they changed "the glory of God" into an image like corruptible man, birds, four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Although the highest nature is not subject to quantitative measure and receives neither form nor appearance, they compare it not only with man. They fell into such foolish thoughts that they even liken it to birds, four-footed animals, and venomous reptiles.
It is pride that turns a man away from wisdom, and from this turning away comes foolishness (cf. Prov 11:2; Prov 13:10).
The Gentiles considered themselves wise because they thought they knew the laws of nature, investigating the movement of the stars and the properties of the elements. But they rejected the Lord Who created them, and therefore they are foolish. If all these things are worthy of praise, how much more worthy is their Creator!
By this designation he intensified the accusation. For, calling themselves wise, they showed by their deeds that they were foolish.
This saying, "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools," was spoken, O wise one, for this reason also. They had much grandeur, yet it had lost the truth. In the Scriptures, however, the truth was without any pomp. Therefore much courage and prudence were then required, stripping away every adorned and persuasive word by which falsehood was carefully passed off as truth. Now, however, their error has become perceptible even to simple people. Why is it said, "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools" (Rom 1:22)? Do you not know that, as one may suppose, poets exalted with incredible myths those who could not distinguish themselves by the advantages of noble birth?
From the fact that someone skilled in music used the whole art of sweet song to ensnare a chaste maiden, and, as they say, did not overcome her, it is right to refute them by their own ravings. From this also a notion of music is formed. It entices, that is, according to the derivation of the word, it "leads" the willing person. It does not enslave or compel his reason. It has no such power as to master someone against his will. Since, as you say, they also speak vainly about the being of things, say to them: Why did the one whom you call the most far-seeing of all, and whom you falsely name the sun, not know that the maiden was chaste and would not yield to sensual pleasure? He ought to have known this because he possesses the art of divination, and because he is wise. According to you, he is stronger than all who practice or teach this art. But if, through ignorance of all this, he failed, then cease, most pitiable men, to expose yourselves by the very things you say.
"They became fools." If the worship of the creature instead of God is an insult to the glory of God, it is also degrading to man himself. The higher a people or an individual rises in the understanding and worship of God, the higher that people or man stands on the ladder of intellectual and moral development. Therefore the Apostle rightly calls the Gentiles foolish because they worshiped creatures. In listing the kinds of paganism, the Apostle proceeds from the more refined to the crude.
Here the apostle depicts the error of the Gentiles, but the Stundists apply his words to the children of the Orthodox Church, who honor the sacred images of the Lord, the Theotokos, and the holy servants of God. They say that Orthodox icons are precisely the likeness of an image of corruptible man. They say that veneration of them is a change of the glory of the incorruptible God and an application of God's truth to falsehood. But the depiction of the sacred countenance of Christ is not the likeness of a corruptible man. It is said of Christ that His flesh did not see corruption (Acts 2:31). If Christ cannot be called corruptible, neither can the saints, for they are members of His Body (Eph 5:30).
As for the depiction of God the Father in the form of an elder, or the Ancient of Days, it is based on this. God the Father once appeared in precisely this image to the prophet Daniel (Dan 7:9). The images of the Son of God as a lamb and of the Holy Spirit as a dove are also based on revelation. The Son of God was seen as a lamb by John the Theologian, and the Holy Spirit as a dove by John the Baptist (Rev 5:6; Lk 3:22). Did these divine Persons then change Their glory into the likeness of an image of corruptible man, birds, and four-footed beasts? Did They then apply Their truth to falsehood? To say this would be impious. Their glorious essence remained invisible, according to the word of the Lord Himself: "Man shall not see My face; My face shall not appear" (Ex 33:20-23). Thus, when we depict the Godhead in the image of visible creatures, we do not think that we depict the very face or glorious essence of God, as idolaters thought. We only imitate those manifestations of Him in which God was pleased, in part and as in a mirror dimly (1 Cor 13:12), to reveal Himself to men and enter into communion with them. Idolaters acted willfully. Therefore "God gave them over" to uncleanness. We act in imitation of God Himself, who was manifested in the flesh (1 Tim 3:16). Therefore we are not subject to condemnation.
First section: "The judgment of God upon all Gentiles and Jews, as those who hold the truth in unrighteousness" (Rom 1:18-2:29). This judgment is first upon the Gentiles, for Rom 1:18-25 teaches this. The fundamental and chief truth that can be known about God was manifest to them through contemplation of nature. Yet instead of God, the Creator of the universe, they worshiped lifeless objects and creatures. These are the Apostle's own words: "What may be known of God is manifest to them, because God has shown it to them," by giving them reason.
"For His invisible things, His eternal power and Godhead, have been seen from the creation of the world, being understood through the things that are made, so that they are without excuse." That is, they will not be justified by ignorance at God's judgment. "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image like corruptible man, birds, four-footed beasts, and creeping things. They served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen."
The wrath of God will rest heavily upon men, first, because of their incorrect conception of God. His eternal being, and even His invisible essence itself, were accessible to all men through a proper contemplation of His creations. They were accessible also through God's positive communication about Himself, which was preserved in universal human tradition. Second, the wrath of God will rest heavily upon men because, after acquiring some notion of Him, they did not render Him fitting honor. Instead, they became proud of this knowledge, while giving divine honor to men, birds, animals, and even reptiles. They saw in them images of the Godhead, and even the Godhead itself.
Here there is an obvious indication of every kind of idolatry, beginning with Egyptian idolatry and ending with Greco-Roman idolatry. The essential inner character of all idol-service lay in this: as the Apostle says in verses 18 and 25, the truth, that is, the correct thought about God, was not only replaced by falsehood. It was also suppressed by false representations of it, under the image of heavenly lights, earthly creatures, and man himself. Only after perverting his natural feelings could man reach such idol-service. According to St. John Chrysostom, "God implanted in men the knowledge of Himself at their very birth." Moreover, Scripture assures us that God Himself taught man in Paradise. Later He sent them angels and holy men, who revealed His will and, in general, all that man ought to know about God. Finally, so that everything communicated would not be lost in the course of families and generations, "He opened before all men the book of nature." In it every breath and every living thing praises God. Before all rational beings it clearly bears witness to the ever-living and supramundane power of the Godhead, His wisdom, goodness, omniscience, omnipresence, and many other divine properties. These properties are invisible, yet intelligible to the human mind. One may say that the very first impression from contemplating the world is the irresistible awareness of its Creator and Provider. For this reason the angels praised God even when only the stars had been created (Job 38:7). "Wonderful are Thy works, O Lord; in wisdom hast Thou made them all," King David cried to the Lord, contemplating all earthly beauty (Ps 103). God is great in the heavens and in the blades of grass on earth. There is no man who, being of sound mind and firm memory, would not confess His majesty when seeing all God's wondrous world and imagining all its beauty. Only those who have become vain in their thoughts can fail to see God in His creations. That is, only those who have turned away from God, plunged into empty and base interests of life, and surrendered to pleasing the flesh and to pride. For this they fall to the worship of creatures instead of the Creator. Truly, only darkened minds and corrupt hearts can remain in this pitiful delusion.
The fourth degree of descent is this: bringing this whole perverted order of life under the principles of reason and establishing it as the single proper norm of life, supposedly fitting for man. This is the height of madness, yet in their view it is the height of wisdom. Such people regard themselves in this way, honor their arrangements with this title, and frame their opinions according to them. Self-conceit and self-reliance are the distinctive marks of this wisdom. It expects everything from itself, from its own methods, and from its own skill. Oecumenius writes: "They considered themselves wise, supposing that they themselves were sufficient for everything." St.
Isaac the Syrian depicts the wisdom of these wise men thus: "It is called naked knowledge, because it excludes every divine care, and all its care, that is, of knowledge or reason, is only for this world. This is the notion this knowledge has of itself: it is, beyond all doubt, an intellectual power secretly governing man, watching over him, and caring for him completely. Therefore it does not ascribe the governance of the world to God's providence. Rather, every good thing in man, his deliverance from what harms him, and his natural protection from difficulty and from the many adversities that secretly and openly accompany our nature, seem to it the result of its own diligence and its own methods. Such is the self-conception of scoffing knowledge, that is, reasoning knowledge. It imagines that everything happens by its own providence. In this it agrees with those who maintain that this world has no governance. Yet it cannot remain without ceaseless care and fear for the body. Therefore it is mastered by faintheartedness, sorrow, despair, fear from demons, fear of men, rumors of robbers, reports of deaths, anxiety over illness, concern in poverty and lack of necessities, fear of sufferings, fear of wild beasts, and all else like this. It becomes like the sea, where waves are tossed day and night at every hour and rush upon those who sail." As great as the self-reliance and self-confidence are, so great, or still greater, is the cowardice. In this latter feature lies the most evident exposure of the folly of worldly wisdom. St. Chrysostom completes the portrait of these people thus: "Imagining much about themselves and refusing to walk the way prescribed to them by God, they sank into thoughts of unreason. Whoever sets out on a moonless night by an unknown road, or sails upon the sea, not only fails to reach his goal, but more often destroys himself. So the Gentiles suffered a most dreadful shipwreck when, undertaking to walk the way that leads to heaven, they deprived themselves of the light, seeking the bodiless in bodies and the indescribable in images." In these last words of St. Chrysostom there is a transition to the final degree of descent into idolatry.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 4 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS