'Nature' (physis) and Stoic natural law

Says Paul writes that women exchanged τὴν φυσικὴν χρῆσιν (tēn physikēn chrēsin, "the natural use") for τὴν παρὰ φύσιν (tēn para physin, "that which is contrary to nature"), and that men likewise abandoned "the natural use of the woman" (Rom 1:26–27). Elsewhere φύσις (physis) is what one is by birth (Gal 2:15), φύσει is used of Gentiles without the law (Rom 2:14; construal discussed at Rom 2), and nature "itself" teaches about hair (1 Cor 11:14).

Stoic ethics made "life in agreement with nature" the goal: refraining from whatever the law common to all, right reason, forbids (Diogenes Laertius 7.87–88). Seneca calls "Live according to Nature" the Stoic motto (Ep. 5.4). Cicero describes "a true law, right reason, agreeing with nature," whose author is God (Rep. 3.33, preserved in Lactantius, Inst. 6.8). Musonius Rufus held sex between men to be against nature (Lecture 12); Epictetus said nature distinguished man from woman, even in body hair (Diatr. 3.1.27–30). Plato had already called same-sex intercourse παρὰ φύσιν (Leg. 636c).

Implies Paul shares the moralists' vocabulary, not their foundation. Romans 1 is framed by the Creator and his works (1:20, 25), and Paul's θήλειαι and ἄρσενες (thēleiai, arsenes, "females," "males") recall ἄρσεν καὶ θῆλυ (arsen kai thēly, "male and female") in Gen 1:27 LXX. "Contrary to nature" therefore means contrary to the Creator's design, not merely to custom or Stoic reason.

Uncertain In 1 Cor 11:14 φύσις may mean created order or settled custom; that does not change its sense in Romans 1.