What Does Romans 1:21 Mean in the King James?
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The collapse begins when people who know God refuse to give him weight or recognize favor; then their own thinking loses its way.
THE MEANING
Knowing God while withholding his weight and refusing thanks leaves thought without direction and the heart’s perception dimmed. The change is inward: reasonings become futile, and the heart that cannot perceive grows dark.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that knowledge of God can remain neutral, untouched by whether God is honored or gratitude is given.
THE ROOT
ἐδόξασαν
edoxasan
GROWS FROM
δοξάζω (doxazō), from δόξα (doxa)
To honor or glorify; the word family names the weight or esteem accorded.
“glorified” in this verse is edoxasan. The word carries more than spoken praise: its family names the honor or weight someone is given. The verse locates the break in how God is regarded before describing what happens to human thought.
ALSO GROWS
doxa: weight, glory, honor
δόξα
This is the noun behind the verb; the verse’s “as God” centers on according God his proper weight.
endoxos: honored, held in esteem, glorious
ἔνδοξος
This related word makes the family’s concern with honor visible.
doxazō: to glorify, honor, give weight
δοξάζω
The same verb appears in John 17:1, where Jesus speaks of the Son glorifying the Father.
ηὐχαρίστησαν
ēucharistēsan
GROWS FROM
εὐχαριστέω (eucharisteō), from εὖ (eu) and χάρις (charis)
To give thanks; the word is formed around favor and grateful acknowledgment.
“thankful” in this verse is ēucharistēsan. The verb’s family is built around χάρις (charis), meaning favor, so thanks carries the sense of recognizing favor received. Alongside withholding God’s weight, withholding thanks closes off that recognition too.
ALSO GROWS
charis: favor, kindness, gift
χάρις
This is the word-family’s center; thanks recognizes favor rather than naming only a pleasant feeling.
eucharistia: thanksgiving, gratitude
εὐχαριστία
This related noun names the act of thanks that the verse says they withhold.
eucharisteō: to give thanks
εὐχαριστέω
This is the verb used in the verse, linking gratitude directly to recognition of favor.
ἐματαιώθησαν
emataiōthēsan
GROWS FROM
ματαιόω (mataioō), from the family of μάταιος (mataios)
To become or make futile, empty, without effect.
Here “vain” describes their reasonings becoming futile, not merely prideful or whimsical. The same word family names the emptiness of a mind whose thinking has lost its way.
ALSO GROWS
mataios: empty, futile, without effect
μάταιος
This adjective gives the family’s central sense of something that comes to nothing.
mataiotēs: futility, emptiness
ματαιότης
This related noun appears in Ephesians 4:17 as “vanity” of mind, bringing the same idea into the realm of thought.
mataioō: to make futile or empty
ματαιόω
This is the verb in Romans; it describes the reasonings themselves becoming futile.
THE PATTERN
When God’s weight is refused or exchanged, thought turns futile and perception darkens.
Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.Thus saith the LORD, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:THE THREAD
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,Romans says the reasonings become futile; Ephesians uses a related Greek word, ματαιότης (mataiotēs), meaning futility or emptiness, for the mind’s “vanity.” The shared word family shows that the emptiness reaches the way a person thinks.
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