Creator and creature: Gen 1:20–27 behind Rom 1:20–27

Says Gen 1:20–25 names the creatures by kind: וְעוֹף (ve'of, "and birds," 1:20) and בְּהֵמָה וָרֶמֶשׂ (behemah varemes, "livestock and creeping things," 1:24). In Swete's LXX these appear as ἑρπετὰ ψυχῶν ζωσῶν καὶ πετεινὰ (1:20) and τετράποδα καὶ ἑρπετὰ καὶ θηρία (1:24, partly bracketed as gaps in Codex A). Then God makes humanity בְּצַלְמֵנוּ כִּדְמוּתֵנוּ (betsalmenu kidmutenu, "in our image, after our likeness"; LXX κατ’ εἰκόνα ἡμετέραν καὶ καθ’ ὁμοίωσιν) to rule over fish, birds, livestock, and creeping things. 1:27 adds זָכָר וּנְקֵבָה (zakhar uneqevah, "male and female"; LXX ἄρσεν καὶ θῆλυ).

Says Gen 1 sets one Creator over all creatures and sets humanity, God's image, over the animals.

Implies Rom 1 reverses this order. The image-bearer bows to images of "man and birds and animals and reptiles" (1:23: πετεινῶν, τετραπόδων, ἑρπετῶν, the Gen 1 LXX words) and serves τῇ κτίσει παρὰ τὸν κτίσαντα ("the creature rather than the Creator," 1:25). ἀπὸ κτίσεως κόσμου ("since the creation of the world," 1:20) also points back to Gen 1. In 1:26–27 Paul uses θήλειαι and ἄρσενες, the Gen 1:27 LXX pair, rather than the usual words for women and men, so the created male–female design frames the passage.

Uncertain It is uncertain whether Rom 1:23 also alludes to Adam's fall (Gen 3). The vocabulary points mainly to Gen 1, Ps 106, and Deut 4. An Adam allusion is possible but cannot be shown from the wording.