. . . as a result of their
foolishness, Paul says, these humans ‘exchanged’ the glory of the
‘incorruptible’ God for the corruptible likeness of images of humanity and
birds and four-footed creatures and other ground creatures such as reptiles and
snakes (note paratactic conjunction) (Rom. 1.23). Paul says that they exchanged
actual glory for the incorruptible God for the ‘likeness’ of an ‘image’ (Rom.
8.29; 13.4; and elsewhere), that is, they exchanged something substantial for
something insubstantial and several times removed from reality (it is only a
likeness). The exchange was for images of ‘corrupt’ humans (the lexeme
‘corrupt’ is the unprefixed form of ‘incorrupt’), ‘birds’ (only time used in
Paul), ‘four-footed creatures’ (only time used in Paul; cf. Acts 10.12; 11.6),
and ‘reptiles’. These animal images draw upon the kinds of images typical in
pagan worship that were created to capture the characteristics of the divine,
with the last set perhaps drawing upon the use of animals in Egyptian religion
that may have been imported to Rome (see Pearson 2001: 161-81). Regardless of
their origins or widespread use, the positive image of God is contrasted with
the benighted response of humanity that has fallen victim to substituting for
the grandeur of God the ridiculous and laughable images of slithering snakes
and other earth-bound creatures. This theological inversion sets the stage for
human behavior in the second set of images [in Rom 1:24-27]. (Stanley E.
Porter, The Letter to the Romans: A Linguistic and Literary Commentary [New
Testament Monographs 37; Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2015], 66)
