διοτι 1360 CONJ γνοντες 1097 5631 V-2AAP-NPM τον 3588 T-ASM θεον 2316 N-ASM ουχ 3756 PRT-N ως 5613 ADV θεον 2316 N-ASM εδοξασαν 1392 5656 V-AAI-3P η 2228 PRT ευχαριστησαν 2168 5656 V-AAI-3P αλλ 235 CONJ εματαιωθησαν 3154 5681 V-API-3P εν 1722 PREP τοις 3588 T-DPM διαλογισμοις 1261 N-DPM αυτων 846 P-GPM και 2532 CONJ εσκοτισθη 4654 5681 V-API-3S η 3588 T-NSF ασυνετος 801 A-NSF αυτων 846 P-GPM καρδια 2588 N-NSF
Vincent's NT Word Studies
21. Knowing - glorified not. "I think it may be proved from facts that any given people, down to the lowest savages, has at any period of its life known far more than it has done: known quite enough to have enabled it to have got on comfortably, thriven and developed, if it had only done what no man does, all that it knew it ought to do and could do" (Charles Kingsley, "The Roman and the Teuton").Became vain (emataiwqhsan). Vain things (mataia) was the Jews' name for idols. Compare Acts iv. 15. Their ideas and conceptions of God had no intrinsic value corresponding with the truth. "The understanding was reduced to work in vacuo. It rendered itself in a way futile" (Godet). Imaginations (dialogismoiv). Rev., better, reasonings. See on Matthew xv. 19; Mark vii. 21; Jas. ii. 4.
Foolish (asunetov). See on sunetov prudent, Matt. xi. 67, and the kindred word sunesiv understanding, Mark xii. 33; Luke ii. 47. They did not combine the facts which were patent to their observation.
Heart (kardia). The heart is, first, the physical organ, the center of the circulation of the blood. Hence, the seat and center of physical life. In the former sense it does not occur in the New Testament. As denoting the vigor and sense of physical life, see Acts. xiv. 17; Jas. v. 5; Luke xxi. 34. It is used fifty-two times by Paul.
Never used like yuch, soul, to denote the individual subject of personal life, so that it can be exchanged with the personal pronoun (Acts ii. 43; iii. 23; Rom. xiii. 1); nor like pneuma spirit, to denote the divinely-given principle of life.
It is the central seat and organ of the personal life (yuch) of man regarded in and by himself. Hence it is commonly accompanied with the possessive pronouns, my, his, thy, etc.
Robertson's NT Word Studies
1:21 {Because that} (dioti). As in verse #19. {Knowing God} (gnontes ton qeon). Second aorist active participle of ginwskw, to know by personal experience. Definite statement that originally men had some knowledge of God. No people, however degraded, have yet been found without some yearning after a god, a seeking to find the true God and get back to him as Paul said in Athens (#Ac 17:27). {Glorified not as God} (ouch h"s qeon edoxasan). They knew more than they did. this is the reason for the condemnation of the heathen (#2:12-16), the failure to do what they know. {Their senseless heart} (h asunetos autwn kardia). kardia is the most comprehensive term for all our faculties whether feeling (#Ro 9:2), will (#1Co 4:5), intellect (#Ro 10:6). It may be the home of the Holy Spirit (#Ro 5:5) or of evil desires (#1:24). See #Mr 7:21f. for list of vices that come "out of the heart." Asunetos is a verbal adjective from suniemi, to put together, and a privative, unintelligent, not able to put together the manifest evidence about God (verse #20). So darkness settled down on their hearts (eskotisth, first aorist ingressive passive of skotiz", to darken).
