Romans 1:22 kjv

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

Romans 1:22 nkjv

Professing to be wise, they became fools,

Romans 1:22 niv

Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools

Romans 1:22 esv

Claiming to be wise, they became fools,

Romans 1:22 nlt

Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools.

Romans 1 verses

Romans 1 22 Meaning

Romans 1:22 declares that those who strongly asserted their own wisdom and intellect, independently of God, inevitably deteriorated into profound foolishness. This verse highlights a critical spiritual descent: the refusal to acknowledge God and His truth leads to a corruption of the mind and intellect, resulting in absurd and spiritually bankrupt conclusions. It signifies a divine consequence where human pride in wisdom apart from God is exposed as utter folly, culminating in moral and spiritual depravity.

Romans 1 22 Context

Romans 1:22 is a crucial part of Paul's powerful argument in Romans 1:18-32, where he outlines God's righteous wrath against ungodliness and unrighteousness. The preceding verses establish that humanity has an innate, undeniable knowledge of God through creation (Rom 1:19-20). However, instead of honoring God or giving Him thanks (Rom 1:21), people actively suppress this truth. Their hearts became futile and darkened. Verse 22 then details the next step in this tragic decline: self-exaltation of intellect leading directly to spiritual and intellectual degeneration. This verse provides the reason why they devolved into idolatry (Rom 1:23) and subsequent depravity (Rom 1:24-32)—because their proud, human-centric wisdom was fundamentally flawed, a distorted view that cut them off from divine truth. Historically, Paul is implicitly critiquing the Greco-Roman world's pride in its philosophical systems and its widespread pagan idolatry, arguing that despite their claims of intellectual advancement, they were in fact spiritually lost and irrational. Their "wisdom" in philosophy, art, and rhetoric had not led them to the one true God but rather away from Him.

Romans 1 22 Word analysis

• Professing (Greek: φάσκοντες, phaskontes): A present active participle of phaskō, meaning "to declare, affirm, profess, assert strongly." This is not merely a passive belief or thought, but an active, emphatic, and often arrogant assertion of being wise. It suggests a self-confident and perhaps boastful claim of intellectual superiority, setting themselves apart from others who might be deemed less enlightened. The continuous aspect (present participle) indicates this was an ongoing, characteristic attitude.

• themselves to be: This phrase emphasizes the self-originating nature of their wisdom claim. It is an internal conviction, independent of external revelation or divine endorsement. Their wisdom is self-perceived, self-assigned, and self-reliant, contrasting sharply with the humility required for wisdom from God.

• wise (Greek: σοφοὶ, sophoi): The plural form of sophos, referring to these self-professing individuals. In the ancient world, "wise" often denoted philosophers, intellectuals, and those skilled in rhetoric or statecraft. However, in this context, it refers to a humanistic wisdom that is disconnected from divine truth. This worldly wisdom is the antithesis of the "wisdom from above" (Jas 3:17) which is pure, peaceable, gentle, and merciful. Paul directly challenges the Greek ideal of intellectual prowess as a path to truth, revealing its bankruptcy without God.

• they became: This verb indicates a transformative shift, a resultant state. It is a stark before-and-after; their supposed wisdom led to an actual change in their state of being, not just an external perception. This suggests an inevitable outcome stemming from their initial choice to suppress truth.

• fools (Greek: ἐμωράνθησαν, emoranthēsan): This is an aorist passive indicative form of mōrainō, meaning "to make foolish" or "to become foolish/senseless/stupid." From this Greek word comes the English "moron." The aorist tense indicates a decisive event—a becoming. The passive voice ("they were made foolish" or "they became foolish") strongly implies that God allowed, facilitated, or directly caused this outcome as a judgment on their pride. Their self-proclaimed wisdom, therefore, did not lead to enlightenment but to intellectual and moral debasement in God's eyes, and eventually in reality. It is a judgment of spiritual incompetence.

• Words-group Analysis:

  • "Professing themselves to be wise": This phrase underscores human hubris and self-sufficiency. It portrays humanity setting itself up as the ultimate arbiter of truth and wisdom, a form of intellectual idolatry where reason apart from God is worshipped. This claim of self-derived wisdom directly contrasts with the biblical understanding that true wisdom originates from God (Prov 9:10). It highlights an internal mental state that predisposes them to reject God's authority.
  • "they became fools": This phrase reveals the divine verdict and natural consequence of their intellectual arrogance. It is an indictment of the bankruptcy of human wisdom that operates independently of the Creator. Their intellectual prowess, when disconnected from divine revelation, proved not merely inadequate but profoundly foolish. This becoming-foolishness applies not only to their intellect but also profoundly impacts their moral judgments and actions, leading to the perverse behaviors described in the later verses of Romans 1.

Romans 1 22 Bonus section

The transformation from "wise" to "fool" is not presented as an external imposition but as an intrinsic consequence. Their refusal to acknowledge God and their self-exaltation set in motion a spiritual law where intellectual pride naturally leads to intellectual debasement. This can be understood as a divine passive, meaning God "gives them over" (as seen in Rom 1:24, 26, 28) to the natural consequences of their choices, allowing their "wisdom" to reveal its own inherent folly. The "foolishness" mentioned here is not necessarily an inability to reason logically in everyday matters, but rather a fundamental spiritual and moral inability to apprehend and apply truth concerning God, humanity, and salvation. This is particularly poignant because it's active suppression of truth (Rom 1:18, 21), not simple ignorance, that leads to this intellectual demise. It highlights that the most educated minds, without reverence for God, are precisely those most prone to this form of ultimate folly.

Romans 1 22 Commentary

Romans 1:22 encapsulates the spiritual and intellectual downward spiral of humanity that rejects God. It vividly illustrates that cutting off the divine source of truth does not lead to self-reliance and true enlightenment, but rather to an inevitable descent into intellectual and moral absurdity. The "professing themselves to be wise" speaks to the inherent human tendency toward intellectual pride, especially when not submitted to a higher authority. This manifests as believing human reason alone can unlock all truth, even bypassing or actively dismissing divine revelation. Paul's message here is a stark warning that such intellectual arrogance is not merely an error in judgment, but an active, self-imposed blindness that results in profound "foolishness." This "foolishness" is not simply ignorance, but a perversion of knowledge that distorts reality, leading people to worship creation rather than the Creator (Rom 1:23) and embrace immorality (Rom 1:24ff). True wisdom, therefore, is rooted in acknowledging and honoring God, while any humanistic philosophy that elevates human intellect above divine truth ultimately unravels into unreason. Practically, this verse challenges any modern intellectualism or secularism that, while perhaps boasting of scientific or philosophical advancement, fundamentally rejects God. Such systems, divorced from the light of divine truth, ultimately prove inadequate to address humanity's deepest spiritual needs and moral dilemmas, often leading to ethically questionable conclusions and a profound misunderstanding of ultimate reality. For example, relativistic worldviews that assert every truth claim is equally valid, or scientific reductionism that denies the transcendent, demonstrate this "becoming foolish."