Romans 1:22
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
Professing themselves to be wise,.... The learned men among the Gentiles first called themselves sofoi, "Sophi", wise men: and afterwards, to cover their wretched pride and vanity, filosofoi, "Philosophers", lovers of wisdom; but notwithstanding all their arrogance, their large pretensions to wisdom, and boast of it
they became fools; they appeared to be so; they showed themselves to be such in those very things they prided themselves with the knowledge of: as, for instance, Socrates, after he had asserted the unity of God, and is said to die a martyr for the truth; yet one of the last actions of his life was sacrificing a cock to Aesculapius, at least he desired his friend Crito to do it.