ACC ~ Romans 1 v23

WHETHER THE BODILY IMAGE OF MAN IS THE IMAGE OF GOD. ORIGEN: We ought not to overlook this passage. The apostle is not merely complaining about those who worship idols, but he should also be understood to be refuting the Anthropomorphites, who are found inside the church, who say that the bodily image of man is as such the image of God, ignoring the fact that it is written in Genesis that the whole person is created in the image of God, which must be understood as it is interpreted by the apostle, when he said: “You have put off the old man with his behavior and you have put on the new man, which is created according to God.” … Elsewhere Paul calls this the “inner man” and regards the corrupt bodily image as the “outer man.”… The mistake of those who think that it is this outer man which is the image of God is therefore obvious. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

BODY WITHOUT SOUL. ORIGEN: These people have lowered to a body without soul or sense the identity of the One who gives to all sentient and rational beings not only the power of sentience but also of sensing rationally, and to some even the power of sensing and thinking perfectly and virtuously. ON PRAYER 29.15.

EXCHANGING THE IMMORTAL GOD FOR IMAGES. AMBROSIASTER: So blinded were their hearts that they altered the majesty of the invisible God, which they knew from the things which he had made, not into men but, what is worse and is an inexcusable offense, into the image of men, so that the form of a corruptible man was called a god by them, i.e., a depiction of a man. Moreover, they did not dare honor living people with this name but elevated the images of dead men to the glory of God! What great idiocy, what great stupidity, in that they knew they were calling them to their damnation, among whom an image was more powerful than the truth, and the dead were mightier than the living! Turning away from the living God they preferred dead men, among whose number they found themselves.

They so diminished the majesty and glory of God that they gave the title of “god” to the images of things which were small and tiny. For the Babylonians were the first to deify a notion of Bel, who was portrayed as a dead man, who supposedly had once been one of their kings. They also worshiped the dragon serpent, which Daniel the man of God killed and of which they had an image. The Egyptians also worshiped a quadruped which they called Apis and which was in the form of a bull. Jeroboam copied this evil by setting up calves in Samaria, to which the Jews were expected to offer sacrifices…. By doing this, those who knew the invisible God did not honor him. They were unable to be wise in the things which are visible. For one who has problems with the big things will not be wise in the little things either. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

IDOLATERS INFERIOR TO THEIR IDOLS. GREGORY NAZIANZEN: People like this make it hard to tell which was the more contemptible, the worshipers or the worshiped. Perhaps the worshipers by far, since as rational beings and recipients of God’s grace, they chose their inferior for patron and better. ORATION 28: ON GOD 28.15.

HOLDING THEIR WISDOM UP TO RIDICULE. CHRYSOSTOM: Paul’s first charge against the heathen was that they failed to find God. His second was that, although they had great and clear means of doing it they did not; the third is that they nevertheless claimed to be wise; the fourth was that not only did they not find the supreme being, they lowered him to the level of devils, stones and wood. Paul also pulls down their pride in 1 Corinthians but not in the same way as here. There it is from the cross that he deals them the blow, saying that the foolishness of God is wiser than men. But here he does not make any comparison, merely holding their wisdom up to ridicule by itself, showing it to be no more than folly and a display of vain boasting.

The heathen ought to have known that God is Lord of all, that he made them out of nothing, that he works by his providence and that he cares about them. For these things are the glory of God. To whom then did they ascribe it? Not even to men, but to an image made like corruptible man! Nor did they stop there but sank to the level of beasts, or rather to the images of beasts. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 3.

BOASTFUL OF WISDOM. AUGUSTINE: Here the apostle has in mind the Romans, Greeks and Egyptians, all boastful of their renown for wisdom. THE CITY OF GOD 8.10.

NO SIMILARITY BETWEEN THE MORTAL AND IMMORTAL. PELAGIUS: They did not understand that there is no similarity between the mortal and the immortal, the corruptible and the eternal. … Here Paul addresses the worshipers of Jupiter, who maintain that he was transformed into the likeness of animals and therefore dedicate to him images of the kind in which he satisfied his sexual desire. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

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