Idol and animal worship (Rom 1:23): Greco-Roman images and Egyptian cults

Says Claiming to be wise, people "exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles" (Rom 1:22–23 BSB): ἤλλαξαν τὴν δόξαν … ἐν ὁμοιώματι εἰκόνος (ēllaxan tēn doxan … en homoiōmati eikonos, "exchanged the glory … for a likeness of an image").

Implies The wording echoes Israel's sin. Ps 106:20 (LXX 105:20) says Israel at Horeb ἠλλάξαντο τὴν δόξαν αὐτῶν ἐν ὁμοιώματι μόσχου (ēllaxanto tēn doxan autōn en homoiōmati moschou, "exchanged their glory for the likeness of a calf"), and Jer 2:11 has God's people exchanging their glory. Deut 4:16–18 forbids any likeness of male or female, beast, bird, or creeping thing. By using Israel's golden-calf language for Gentile idolatry, Paul prepares for the charge that Jews stand under the same verdict (2:1–3:20).

Greek and Roman gods were pictured in human form (Cicero, Nat. d. 1.81). Egypt was the classic case of animal worship. Herodotus describes its sacred animals, including cats, crocodiles, and ibises, tended by hereditary keepers (Hist. 2.65–76). Cicero's speaker says no Egyptian was ever heard to harm a crocodile, ibis, or cat, and that Egyptians held the bull Apis a god (Nat. d. 1.82), and that they deified animals for their usefulness (1.101). Juvenal mocks "demented Egypt" for adoring the crocodile, the ibis, the ape, the cat, and the dog (Sat. 15.1–13).

Implies Paul's list covers both: human images, as in Greco-Roman cult, and animal forms, as in Egypt.