In
fact, it is precisely in the creation narrative of Genesis 1:26-28
rather than the fall narrative of Genesis 3 that the echo of “Adam,” aka
“humanity” in Romans 1:23 exists (see esp. Gen 5:2 LXX; καὶ ἐπωνόμασεν τὸ ὄνομα
αὐτῶν Αδαμ; אדם in Gen 1:26 without distinction of male and female). . . .Textually,
the allusion to Adam as humanity in Genesis 1:26-28 is difficult to miss, at
least on the grounds for determining intertextuality laid out by Richard Hays
and William Tooman:
1.
Volume. With its associated elements of distinctiveness and
multiplicity, volume is represented in both Romans 1:23 and Genesis 1:26, 28. Πετεινον and ερπετον occur in both Romans 1:23 and
Genesis 1:26, 28, and while Paul uses τετραπους in Romans 1:23 rather than κτηνος, which is found in Genesis 1:26, 28, τετραπους is found immediately before it,
in Genesis 1:24. Moreover, lexical correspondence is demonstratable in three
other words: εικων and ανθρωπος
in Romans 1:23 and Genesis 1:26, 27, and at least a strong possibility of
correspondence between ομοιωσις
in Genesis 1:26 and ομοιωμα
in Romans 1:23. The volume of shared lexemes then, between Romans 1:23 and
Genesis 1:26-28 is weighty: five words correspond between Romans 1:23 and
Genesis 1:26-28, with an additional word (τετραπους) bearing extremely close
proximity.
2. Thematic correspondence.
Genesis 1 implies no wickedness in humanity, in contrast to Paul’s description
of humanity’s sinful state in Romans 1. Nevertheless, the two texts where the
same theme of a creation context: “since the creation of the world [κεισεως κοσμου],” Paul writes in Romans 1:20.
Given the lexical overlap noted above, it is difficult to assigning this
contextual/thematic correspondence to coincidence.
3.
Recurrence. Paul later refers to the “first man,” Adam, explicitly
in Romans 5:12, 17. Moreover, he refers in Romans 8:19-22 to the impact on
creation of humanity’s rejection of its created purpose, thus picking up
(albeit implicitly) the theme of the curse placed on the ground in Genesis 3:17
as a result of the sin of the “first man” and, theologically, as a result of
his rejection of his created purpose to be the image (Gen 1) and glory (Ps 8)
of God. . . . there is an antagonism between the image of God and the images
and/or forms of idols throughout the Old Testament as well as in other Jewish
literature. This lack of distinction is illustrated by Sibylline Oracles 3:8:
“Men, who have the form which God molded in his image” (ἄνθρωποι θεόπλαστον
ἔχοντες ἐν εἰκόνι μορφήν)..... The textual evidence for an allusion to Genesis
1:26-28 in Romans 1:23 is unmistakable . . . once the textual link is
identified, the theological link between Romans 1:23 and Genesis 1:26-28 is
also made clear. . . . Paul’s point in [Rom 1:23 and 3:23] is not to
emphasize the fall of humanity (though humanity’s sin is nonetheless implied,
as is made clear in 3:23) but rather to emphasize the fact that, in its
rejection of God, humanity failed to be the image of God in its created
purpose as those who are meant to rule over the created order. . . . The point
of Romans 1:23 is not the fall into sin of the primal pair from Genesis 3,
particularly through idolatry, which thus affected either Gentiles specifically
or humanity more generally, but humanity’s (אדם) “exchange of the glory of the immortal
God” in terms of its failure to fulfill its created purpose or identity as
creatures made in the image of God, having dominion over creation as vicegerents
of the Creator God—hence Paul’s obvious allusion to Genesis 1:26-28 and not
Genesis 3. . . . Paul’s reference here is not to God’s own glory, which
then implies an “exchange of worship,” but that “it is probably human glory
(the divine image) that is in view.” Humanity’s rejection of its created
purpose throughout history took the form of idolatry—a form found in both
Gentile and Jewish history—and resulted in a humanity that existed in their
actions and desires as shadows of their created selves (Rom 1:24-32). . .
.Genesis 1:26-28 is present in Romans 1:23, and Romans 3:23 is a restatement of
Romans 1:23 in summarized form: παντες γαρ ημαρτον και υστερουνται την δοξης του θεου.
The thematic connection between Romans 1:23 and Romans 3:23 is unmistakable,
with the only difference being that in Romans 3:23 Paul replaces αλλασσω with υστερεω and the reference to humanity’s rejection of its created
purpose as “sin.” As in Romans 1:23, Paul does not mention Adam specifically,
but the textual and thematic correspondences between the two verses warrant
reading them as referring to the same rejection of humanity’s created identity:
God’s glory. Moreover, given the previously demonstrated correlation between
image and glory in Genesis 1:26-28 and Psalm 8:6-9 LXX, and the thematic
relationship between humanity being crowned with glory in Psalm 8:6 and
“lacking” the glory of God in Romans 3:23, it is also within the scope of
possibility that not only to humanity in Adam from Genesis 1:26-28 behind the
text but so also is the humanity crowned with glory and honor from Psalm 8. The
glory that humanity lacks (because of
their sin) is the glory of God. It is the glory that forms the identity and
purpose of humanity—to have all things under their feet (Ps 8:7 LXX). The links
between the motif of human glory in the LXX< as illustrated in Psalm 8, the
image, as in Genesis 1;26-28, warrant the strong possibility that here in
Romans 3:23 it is the Adamic glory (honor associated with their status as
vicegerents over creation) that humanity now lacks. (Haley Goranson Jacob, Conformed
to the Image of His Son: Reconsidering Paul’s Theology of Glory in Romans [Downers
Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2018], 90, 91-93, 94-95)
Adam/humanity/forsake the glory of God. What, then, is the glory of God that
humanity exchanged and thus lacked? . . . Two cautionary points must be made
here. First, given the multiple denotative variations of δοξα as it pertains to
God and the entire lack of denotative variants of δοξα when applied to humanity in the LXX . . .one
should not assume that the glory of God in Romans, and especially in Romans
1:23 and Romans 3:23, refers to the visible, manifest presence of God, with
which humanity was originally endowed and thus lost. Second, given the
dubiousness of Paul’s articulating the motif of the loss of an Adamic glory
only found in later Jewish texts . . . the rationale for understanding “the
glory of God” in Romans 3:23 as Adam’s prefall visible splendor is thus
entirely speculative. Though the paradigmatic representative of male and female
(אדם in Gen 1:26) stands behind παντες in Romans 3:23, as it did in the third-person plural
of αλλασσω in Romans 1:23, Adam’s loss of an outer
garment of glory does not. Humanity in Adam abdicated their throne and the
glory with which they were crowned, the glory of God in which they shared.
“Falling short of” or “lacking” the glory of God meant for the apostle
exceedingly more than Adam losing his luster. It was Adam/humanity losing
his/their crown.
Rather
than these two commonly held assumptions, I suggest this: because Genesis
1:26-28 is echoed in Romans 1:23, and because Genesis 1:26-28 is textually and
thematically parallel to Psalm 8:5-9 LXX, and because Romans 1:23 and Romans
3:23 refer to the same event, all of which I have demonstrated above, we can therefore
argue that Genesis 1:26-28 and Psalm 8:5-9 LXX together form the textual
and thematic backdrop to the narrative echoed in Romans 1:23 and Romans 3:23:
the creation of humanity in God’s image and with the endowment of God’s glory
as God’s representatives within his kingly realm. Romans 1:23 and Romans 3:23
both describe humanity’s intended identity and purpose as God’s
vicegerents by describing its exchange of and thus loss of God’s glory—the
glory that the son of man in Psalm 8 is intended to possess.
Romans
1:23 fits within the larger discourse framed by Romans 1:18-25. Here Paul sets
the stage for humanity’s rebellion against God and rejection of its created
purpose and consequently the need for the redemptive work of death and
resurrection on the part of the Messiah. Romans 1:18-25 is the part of the
story in which mankind rejects its created purpose, namely to worship and serve
the Creator, by instead worshiping and serving the creation (Rom 1:25). Man
“exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the likeness of the image of
mortal man and animals and reptiles” in Romans 1:23, thereby abdicating the
throne of dominion originally established for him at the time of creation (Gen
1:26-28; Ps 8:7 LXX). As Ortlund writes, “We stopped resembling the Creator and
started resembling the creation. We became sub-human” (Orlund [“Inaugurated Glorification:
Revisiting Romans 8:30,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 57]
2014: 117). From creation onwards, every person could know God and honor him as
such (Rom 1:19-21) but chose instead to disregard their created duty and gave
glory where the least glory was due (Rom 1:21-25).
This
abdication of the throne is again expressed in Romans 3:23, in which the “they”
of Romans 1 is explicitly “all (humanity)” (and “all humanity” will be viewed
as “in Adam” in Rom 5). Everyone sinned (παντες γαρ ημαρτον), which is to say that everyone “exchanged the
glory of the immortal God for images of corruptible animals” (Rom 1:23), and
everyone now bears the consequences of this sin by lacking the glory of God (και υστερουνται την δοξης του θεου).
The
narrative substructure of glory, and particularly Adam/humanity’s rejection of
glory, which Paul begins in Romans 1:23 and continues in Romans 3:23,
resurfaces again in Romans 5:12-21. Δοξα
and δοξαζω are both absent from Romans 5:12-21, but
that Adam’s disobedience was his abdication of his throne is not. Rather than δοξα and δοξαζω, Paul uses βασιλευω
(Rom 5:14, 17 [2x], 21 [2x]; also Rom 6:12), a word with implicit significance here
due to the fact that it occurs only here in Romans and occurs in this passage
with notable frequency. . . . In this text, Paul uses βασιλευω to
describe death’s dominion, which existed in place of Adam’s (and all humanity
in Adam’s) intended dominion over creation. In Romans 5:12-21 it is not Adam who reigns but ο θανατος (Rom 5:14, 17), οι την περισσειαν της χαριτος
και την δωρεας της δικαιοσυνης λαμβανοντες (Rom 5:17), η
αμαρτια (Rom 5:21), and η χαρις (Rom 5:21). Nevertheless, Adam’s intended reign is
implied in Romans 5:12 by the link between the presence of sin to Adam and the
presence of death to sin. Had humanity in Adam not “exchanged the glory of the
immortal God” (Rom 1:23) and come to “lack the glory of God” (Rom 3:23),
humanity would reign, and sin and death would be nonexistent.
Though
the subjects of the narrative are identified rather cryptically as “they” in Romans
1:23 and “all [humanity]” in Romans 3:23, in Romans 5:12 those subjects become
explicit: “all who sinned,” that is, all humanity in Adam. It was no longer
merely “man” (ανθρωπος) in Psalm 8;5 LXX who was crowned with glory
and honor and given dominion over creation, but the Adam (ανθρωπος) of Genesis 1:26. And it was under Adam’s
feet that God had put all things (πάντα ὑπέταξας ὑποκάτω τῶν ποδῶν αὐτου) in
Psalm 8:7 LXX. In Romans 1:23 and Romans 3:23 we see that, though this was the
case at creation. Adam/humankind grievously rebelled. By exchanging the glory
of God for that of the created world, Adam/humankind ultimately abdicated his God-given
throne and invited sin and death to reign in his stead (explicit in Rom 5:12,
17, 21). He rejected his created role as God’s vicegerent over creation.
What
then does this say about Paul’s use of glory in Romans 1:23; 3:23? First,
it is not a visible shining light that Adam loses in Romans 3:23, or “the
awesome radiance of deity which becomes the visible manifestation of God in the
theophany and vision,” as Dunn describes it (Dunn [Romans 1-8] 1988a:59).
Second, rather it is the glory with which mankind is crowned—the glory man has
as mediator between God and his creation, as God’s keeper of creation, as his
vicegerent on his royal throne. This is the glory, the honor, that man rejects
and forsakes for another (Rom 1:23, 25), and the glory of God in which all
humans were created to participate but have chosen instead to forsake by rejecting
their created purpose. (Ibid., 100-4)
