The vice list of Rom 1:29–31: form and rhetoric

Says After God gives people over to "a depraved mind" (Rom 1:28), Paul lists some twenty-one vices. Four nouns follow πεπληρωμένους (peplērōmenous, "filled with"), five follow μεστούς (mestous, "full of"), and a series of descriptive terms follows, ending with "senseless, faithless, heartless, merciless" (1:29–31 BSB).

Catalogs of vices were a common moral form. The Stoics classified the passions and listed their species, such as envy, rivalry, and anger (Diogenes Laertius 7.110–114). Hellenistic Jewish writers used catalogs against idolatry (Wis 14:25–26, non-canonical). Philo piles up about 150 terms for the lover of pleasure (Sacr. 32). The Qumran Community Rule lists the ways of the spirit of falsehood, including greed, lies, pride, deceit, cruelty, folly, and lust (1QS 4.9–11).

Says Paul's list is crafted for the ear. φθόνου φόνου (phthonou phonou, "envy, murder," 1:29) is a wordplay, and the list closes with four words beginning with the negative prefix ἀ-: ἀσυνέτους, ἀσυνθέτους, ἀστόργους, ἀνελεήμονας (asynetous, asynthetous, astorgous, aneleēmonas, 1:31).

Byz and TR add πορνείᾳ (porneia, "sexual immorality") in 1:29 and ἀσπόνδους (aspondous, "implacable") in 1:31.

Implies The list is not random. Its items damage neighbors, families (γονεῦσιν ἀπειθεῖς, goneusin apeitheis, "disobedient to parents," 1:30), and the relationship with God (θεοστυγεῖς, theostygeis, "God-haters"). They show what follows when people "did not see fit to acknowledge God" (1:28). The sound patterns suit a letter meant to be read aloud.

Uncertain Whether Paul drew on a particular catalog tradition, whether Stoic, Jewish, or early Christian teaching, cannot be determined. The parallels show a shared form.