Alec J. Lucas Evocations of the Calf?

Annotation

This study proposes that both constitutively and rhetorically (through ironic, inferential, and indirect application), Ps 106(105) serves as the substructure for Pauls argumentation in Rom 1:182:11. Constitutively, Rom 1:1832 hinges on the triadic interplay between they (ex)changed and God gave them over, an interplay that creates a sinretribution sequence with an a-ba-ba-b pattern. Both elements of this pattern derive from Ps 106(105):20, 41a respectively. Rhetorically, Paul ironically applies the psalmic language of idolatrous (ex)change and Gods subsequent giving-over to Gentiles. Aiding this ironic application is that Paul has cast his argument in the mold of Hellenistic Jewish polemic against Gentile idolatry and immorality, similar to Wis 1315. In Rom 2:14, however, Paul inferentially incorporates a hypocritical Jewish interlocutor into the preceding sequence through the charge of doing the same, a charge that recalls Israels sins recounted in Ps 106(105). This incorporation then gives way to an indirect application of Ps 106(105):23, by means of an allusion to Deut 910 in Rom 2:511. Secondarily, this study suggests that Pauls argumentation exploits an intra-Jewish debate in which evocations of the golden calf figured prominently.