What Does Romans 1:27 Mean?
And in the same way the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their reaching toward one another, men with men working out what has no shape, and receiving in themselves the wage given back for their wandering, which was due.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.THE KEY
The closing word for “error” means wandering, so the verse presents the consequence as the return of a path gone astray.
THE MEANING
This verse names men who leave the natural use of women, burn in desire toward one another, and do what is unseemly. It says they receive within themselves the fitting recompense of their wandering.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that mutual desire is consequence-free: the verse places the fitting recompense within the people who enact it.
THE ROOT
πλάνης
planēs
GROWS FROM
πλαν- (plan-), from πλανάω (planáō)
To wander or lead astray.
The Greek word translated “error” is πλάνη (planē), which can mean wandering or going astray. English can make error sound like only a mistaken thought; this word gives the verse’s closing phrase the shape of a path departed from.
ALSO GROWS
planáō: To wander or lead astray.
πλανάω
This verb makes the wandering within “error” visible.
planētēs: Wanderer; the source of the English word “planet.”
πλανήτης
The shared word-family carries the image of movement away from a fixed course.
ἀφέντες
aphéntes
GROWS FROM
ἀπό + ἵημι (apo + hiēmi)
To send away or let go.
The verb translated “leaving” is a form of ἀφίημι (aphiēmi), formed with ἀπό (apo, away) from ἵημι (hiēmi, send or let go). Its word-family also includes release and forgiveness elsewhere; here it names departure, holding leaving and letting go within one family of words.
ALSO GROWS
aphiēmi: To leave, let go, release, or forgive.
ἀφίημι
It is the verb used here for leaving the natural use of women.
aphesis: Release, remission, or forgiveness.
ἄφεσις
This related noun shows how the same word-family can name release in another setting.
ἀντιμισθίαν
antimisthían
GROWS FROM
μισθ- (misth-), with ἀντί (anti, in return)
Wage, pay, or payment.
“wage given back” in this verse is antimisthían. The word for “recompence” combines ἀντί (anti, in return) with μισθός (misthos, wage or payment). It presents the consequence as a corresponding return bound to the wandering described in the verse.
ALSO GROWS
misthos: Wage, pay, or reward.
μισθός
This is the payment element within the word for recompense.
misthoō: To hire or pay wages.
μισθόω
This related verb keeps the root’s sense of payment active.
THE PATTERN
A chosen path carries a harvest that returns to the person who walks it.
Therefore they eat from the fruit of their way, and they are filled with their own counsel.Do not be led astray. God is not sneered at. For whatever a person sows, that also he reaps.THE THREAD
Leaving behind the straight way, they wander, following the way of Balaam son of Bosor, who loved the wage of the unaligned.Romans uses πλάνη (planē, wandering or going astray) for “error”; 2 Peter uses a form of πλανάω (planáō, wander or lead astray) for “gone astray.” The shared Greek word-family makes Romans’ error sound like a path one wanders from, tying its recompense to that departure.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us