NOTES for Rom 1:28
In the rabbinic tradition the path of the knowledge of God and of righteousness was connected first of all with the question of understanding and becoming aware of one's own words, thoughts, and intentions connected with spiritual life, and above all with one's relations with God. Paul calls such understanding and awareness rational knowledge of God, or, as in the Synodal translation, "to have God in the mind." By "mind" he means not intellect as such, but the Greek word that ancient philosophers had already used for the spiritual center of the person, called the heart in the language of the Bible.
Without meaningful and conscious knowledge of God, this "mind" is corrupted, and with it a person's whole life is corrupted, in the same sense in which the ancient sages spoke of a corrupted heart and of the depraved life of a fool who does not know God and does not possess wisdom.