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Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
Romans 1:30 · King James Version
Parallel translations
  • WEB backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
  • BSB slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent new forms of evil; they disobey their parents.
  • NKJV backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
  • NASB slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
  • NLT They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

The list continues with slander, hatred of God, arrogance, boasting, inventing evil, and disobedience to parents. Sin includes both open hostility to God and the breakdown of basic relationships.

Overview

Paul's catalog continues, mixing attitudes (insolence, pride, boasting) with actions. 'Hateful to God' and 'inventors of evil things' show the active, creative wickedness of the human heart. 'Disobedient to parents' indicates sin's corrosion of even the most foundational, God-ordained relationships, reflecting a comprehensive breakdown of order.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 38

  • 2 Tim 3:2For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
  • Jude 1:16These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.
  • 2 Pet 2:18For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.
  • Titus 3:3For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
  • Rom 8:7–8Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
  • Jas 4:16But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
  • Jas 3:5Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!
  • John 15:23–24He that hateth me hateth my Father also.
  • 2 Th 2:4Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
  • Prov 25:23The north wind driveth away rain: so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue.
  • Ps 97:7Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all ye gods.
  • Eccl 7:29Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.
  • Ps 106:39Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions.
  • Rom 3:27Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.
  • 2 Chr 25:19Thou sayest, Lo, thou hast smitten the Edomites; and thine heart lifteth thee up to boast: abide now at home; why shouldest thou meddle to thine hurt, that thou shouldest fall, even thou, and Judah with thee?
  • Ps 49:6They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;
  • 2 Chr 19:2And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD.
  • Ps 52:1Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? the goodness of God endureth continually.
  • Rom 2:17Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God,
  • 1 Kgs 20:11And the king of Israel answered and said, Tell him, Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off.
  • Ezek 22:7In thee have they set light by father and mother: in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the stranger: in thee have they vexed the fatherless and the widow.
  • Num 10:35And it came to pass, when the ark set forward, that Moses said, Rise up, LORD, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee.
  • Rom 2:23Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God?
  • Deut 27:16Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen.
  • Ps 99:8Thou answeredst them, O LORD our God: thou wast a God that forgavest them, though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions.
  • Acts 5:36For before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody; to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered, and brought to nought.
  • Matt 16:21From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.
  • Ps 94:4How long shall they utter and speak hard things? and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?
  • Prov 8:36But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.
  • Ps 81:15The haters of the LORD should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever.
  • Deut 21:18–21If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them:
  • Matt 15:4For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.
  • Luke 21:16And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death.
  • 2 Cor 10:15Not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of other men’s labours; but having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly,
  • Deut 7:10And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face.
  • Ps 10:3For the wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth.
  • John 7:7The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.
  • Prov 30:17The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (9)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Romans videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Romans 1:30YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on RomansMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.

How Romans 1:30 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.