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Origin of Idolatry: A Fall of 70 Nations in Romans 1:18–32

Origin of Idolatry: A Fall of 70 Nations in Romans 1:18–32

Last updated on: November 9, 2026 at 10:08 pm by B. J. Oropeza

Origin of Idolatry: A Fall of 70 Nations in Romans 1:18–32 2026-11-09T22:08:21-07:00 B. J. Oropeza

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The descent into idolatry depicted in Romans 1:18–32 does not really rehearse Adam and Eve’s fall. The origin of idolatry more centrally describes the fall of the 70 nations after the Flood of Noah.* These are the nations based on Genesis 10–11 and afterward that are counted from the sons of Noah—Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Reading the slide into idolatry in Romans 1 this way aids our understanding of this text and the letter.

Romans 1:18-32 Fall of the nations into idolatry

The origin of idolatry in Romans 1 goes back to the nations in Genesis 10-11. (“Anubis, Egypt Ancient Royalty” via pixabay.com)

Re-Reading Romans 1:18–32

The text of Rom 1:18–32 is normally identified by scholars as a distinct unit. Up to Rom 3:20, Paul is presenting the case that both Jew and Greek (i.e., gentiles) are under sin, susceptible to divine judgment, and need to be righteous before God.

The text begins with the claim that the wrath of God is presently being revealed from heaven against all impiety and unrighteousness of those who are suppressing the truth in their unrighteousness (1:18).

The reasons for this wrath that results in judgement is because these humans can acknowledge God through the created things. And although they knew God, they failed to honor him and be thankful (1:19–21). They turned instead to idols and worshipped the things created, including animals, rather than the Creator. God then surrendered them over to their desires and things devolved from there into sexual perversion, a debased mind, and then an entourage of many other vices (1:22–31). For Paul, death is the destination for those who know divine regulation and punishment but still proceed to commit wrongful acts and approve of others who do so (1:32).

There remain these questions—when did the who being described by this fall into idolatry and subsequent vices?

The Origin of the Fall in 1:18–32: Adam & Eve or the children of Noah?

Certain scholars argue that the fall depicted in our text points to Adam and Eve as it relates to Genesis 1–3. There are surely word parallels that help recall creation and the fall of Adam. The fact that Paul mentions God as Creator distinct from his creation assumes the creation text. Also, the phrase, “since the creation of the world” assumes this. Likewise, the type of animals created in Gen 1 are now wrongly worshipped. And Paul’s use of genders as “male” and “female” echoes Genesis 1:26-27.

But there are also some problems with thinking that this narrative provides the only backdrop to Romans 1:18-32.

First, Paul mentions Adam explicitly in Rom 5:12–20 but not here.

Second, “they” in Rom 1:18–32 refers to a group of people larger than Adam and Eve.

Third, and most pointedly, Adam and Eve did not commit idolatry.

This is not to deny that the creation and fall story in Genesis 1–3 is echoed in Rom 1:18–32. It’s just that this passage does not appear to be central to the sins mentioned, especially idolatry.

The Origin of the Fall in 1:18–32 as post-Flood

The most relevant time for the origin and spread of idolatry relates not to the primordial times of Adam and his pre-Diluvian children, but to Noah’s posterity of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Their genealogies shaped the table of 70 nations described in Genesis 10. They are said to populate the earth after attempting to build the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. In ancient Jewish thinking, Paul included, these nations, “gentiles,” represented the entire known world from their perspective.

Here are some good reasons to suggest that this era is what Paul has in mind.

The Children of Noah Knew God

This resembles what Paul affirms about those he mentions in Rom 1:19–21b—they recognized God through his creation and knew him, which makes them without excuse.

Noah’s sons recognized God through his creation and its order, produce, animals, seasons, and the rainbow of promise (Gen 8:20–9:3, 12–13). God’s covenant was with both Noah, his children, and their seed after them (Gen 9:1, 7–8).

Righteous obligations for Noah’s posterity, the nations, included filling the earth, fruitfulness and multiplicity, abstaining from blood, and giving a reckoning for shedding human blood (Gen 9:1–7). Such requirements would seem to be enough for Paul to suggest that they knew God’s righteous decree (Rom 1:32).

We also suspect that Paul was probably influenced by Jewish traditions like Jubilees 7.20 that included further Noachide commands (for the commands in Noah’s covenant click here).

Moreover, it is evident from Genesis that the seed of Shem, Ham, and Japheth knew God, too.

Although Nimrod was often portrayed negatively in later Jewish traditions, the Genesis text itself claims Nimrod as a mighty man and a great hunter “before the Lord God (Yahweh).” This suggests that Nimrod is not only a great hunter and strong man, but he is, as John Goldingay affirms, “God’s hero and a hero for God,” receiving divine blessing and also “someone who stands before Yahweh.”**

Based on ancient Jewish traditions, and despite the Tower of Babel incident, there is still an assumption for these people that God exists. Such is evident not only with Nimrod but also Melchizedek, Lot, the sons of Heth, and the two Abimelech’s in Genesis 14–26. Such individuals suggest that the posterity of Noah and his children still recognized God, even a number of generations later.

They Failed to Worship God

When, then, did the nations fall into idolatry? The Tower of Babel incident in Genesis 11 shows that the nations had turned their backs on God. Or at least they did not honor him and give thanks, as Paul affirms (Rom 1:21).

For Josephus (Antiquities 1.109–47), the children of Noah and their posterity first populate in Shinar. They know God, and God commands them to go out and fill the earth, but they remain in Shinar, disobeying God.

They started to trust in their own abilities rather than in God’s favor, losing their fear of God. Also, they build a tower assuming its height would make it impossible for God to drown them by flood again before God disperses them to their proper settlements.

They Worshipped Created Things rather than Creator and Fell into Idolatry

Although the first mention of idols in Genesis are the household deities Laban possessed and Rachel stole (Gen 31:19, 34-35), the narrative of Genesis provides no background about their origin. However, certain ancient Jewish traditions, some of them Paul may have known (whether written or oral), provide some useful background.

The Book of Jubilees (2nd c. BCE)

This book is a Jewish tradition old enough for Paul to know it. It traces the origin of idolatry more specifically to the time of Serug, son of Reu, son of Peleg when the earth was divided (apparently due to the Babel incident) in Gen 10–11. Reu married the daughter of Ur, who built the city after his name, the city of the Chaldeans. At that time, the people made molten images, and graven images (Jub. 11:1–6 cf. 10.6–11).

Serug begat Nahor who begat Terah who begat Abraham. And Abraham as a boy understood that the land had went astray to graven images and pollution. He refused to worship his father’s idols but prayed instead that the Creator would deliver him from the other humans who went astray (Jub. 11:16–17).

Philo and Josephus

In Pseudo-Philo (c. 50–150 CE), the same general period likewise discloses primitive idolatry with Abraham against it (Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum 4).

The real Philo (c. 50 CE) charges Egypt with its animal worship, and Chaldeans, for early idolatry (Suppliants 8–9; Special Laws II.146; Decalogue 76–81; On Abraham 68–69).

Josephus likewise seems to suggest idolatry in this timeframe was introduced to the land of Shinar where a certain priest took “sacred vessels of Jupiter Enyalius” and brought them to Shinar (Josephus, Ant. 1:119). Abraham left Chaldea and went to Canaan, and he promotes (as the first in his era) one Creator of the world (Ant. 1:155).

The Apocalypse of Abraham (c. 100 CE)

In this book, Abraham is himself originally an idolator assisting his father who makes and sells idols. After some of the idol gods fall down, get smashed, and can’t save themselves from destruction, he thinks about how these gods could not save themselves and how his father created them instead of vice/versa (Apoc .Abr. 1–6).

He then reasons that if fire that can destroy these idols (gods), it must be greater than these gods, and from the elements and earth, he thinks of the sun as greater than the elements. Finally, he concludes that a God must have created the sun and all things. He tells his father about this God. After reasoning this, and wishing that God would reveal himself, God calls him (Apoc.Abr. 7–8).

This last reading suggests Abraham himself started out as an idolater given his family upbringing. It is probably the way Paul understood the patriarch’s early days, perhaps based on similar tradition (oral?). He makes the point in relation to Abraham that God “righteouses” the impious by trust (Rom 4:5).

Wisdom of Solomon (c. 25 BCE to 50 CE)

Many scholars suggest that Paul seems influenced by the Wisdom of Solomon in Rom 1:18–32. It speaks of the idolatrous and wicked cultus of both the Canaanites and Egyptians (Wis 11:15–12:27). Both happen to be among the 70 nations of Genesis 10, and Genesis famously has these nations engaging with Abraham and the patriarchs after the dispersion.

Wisdom repetitively speaks of the atrocity of animal worship by the Egyptians (Wis 12:24; 13:10; 15:8), a point emphasized by Paul (Rom 1:23).

The polemical excursus on idolatry in Wisdom 13:1–15:13 may epitomize “all the idols of the nations” (15:15). The point the author stresses though, is that Egypt as Israel’s opponent considered these idols as gods and they worship animals in addition to other idols of the nations (15:15–19).***

Wisdom of Solomon’s narrative also devolves from idolatry to sexual vice to a vice list. Such people from the nations failed to keep God’s righteous decrees, here probably foremost Noahic covenant commands. Paul knows this text and in Rom 1:19-31 seems to follow its pattern of idolatry of the nations, then sexual misconduct (Wis 14:12), and then a number of other vices (14:22–29).

Back to Paul

We see in these ancient and diverse traditions a common theme. The children of Noah knew God, but then the nations fell away into idolatry. By the time Abraham is called, the worship of other deities is already well established among the nations.

It also seems clear enough that this theme informs Paul in Rom 1:18–32. He presents the fall of the nations of Gen 10–11 and their era foremost. This reading also complements the continuation of the revelation of divine wrath up to the present time in Rom 1:18. Idolatry and defection from God started with the ancestors of the nations that still remain dispersed, idolatrous, and vice-doers as Paul writes this very letter.

Even so, both divine righteousness (1:17) and wrath (1:18), though presently being revealed, do not reach their culmination until final judgment takes place (Rom 2:1–16; cf. 12:19; 14:10–12). Betwixt and between present and culminating eras, the apostle sees himself as having an opportunity to restore these nations back to knowing God. They will honor and worship God through the gospel of Messiah Jesus.

Even though the form of 1:18–32 resembles a Jewish polemic against the nations, the text is not entirely void of warning that, whenever Jews are influenced by the nations instead of influencing them, they, too, can fall into idolatry and vice. This is precisely the hard lesson learned from the past.

The echo of Psalm 106:20 in Rom 1:23 points to Israel’s own idolatry when setting up the image of a golden calf, influenced by Egypt. During the times of the kings, idolatry eventually results in Israel’s exile and own dispersion among the nations.

Reading of 1:18–32 through the lens of the Fall of the Nations

Why is this reading important for the letter? I could think of at least three reasons.

First, this interpretation underscores the significance of Abraham in the letter. He comes from the relatively same era as the table of nations. Gen 10–11 is followed up in Gen 12 with Abraham’s call. The answer to the fall of the nations in Rom 1–3 comes by way of their restoration to God through Abraham in Rom 4. He is the one who stood out among nations of his day to trust in the Creator. And he shunned the idolatry of his forefathers. God reckoned Abraham as righteous, prior to his circumcision. Abraham thus becomes exemplary for those who trust in his seed, Jesus, for righteousness. It is through this trust that all nations will be blessed.

Second, this reading also seems to inform the restoration of the nations later on in the letter. The end game for our apostle is that the “fullness” of the nations will come into Zion, and then all Israel will be saved (11:25–27).

Finally, this reading underscores Paul’s own calling as apostle to the nations. His next mission is to reach those in Spain. Paul perhaps understands the territory as belonging to one of the seventy nations. It is one of the “barbarian” nations who speak a different dialect due to the Tower of Babel incident. There remains a formidable possibility that Spain (Tartessos) is considered Tarshish among the 70 nations. A counter voice to this, however, is Josephus who claims that Tarshish is Tarsus (Ant. 1.127). Either way, this doesn’t nullify that Paul may consider Spain to be among the original dispersion of the table of nations in Gen 10–11. As such, the region appears to be from the lineages of the children of Japheth.

Conclusion

Paul appears to be informed in Romans 1:18–32 by the fall of the 70 nations described in Genesis 10–11. With this reading, he teaches that all the nations once knew the Creator God in the post-Diluvian era. The children of Shem, Ham, and Japheth then went astray from God and worshipped other creatures rather than the Creator. This led to divine wrath and further vices that still plague the nations. But through Abraham and his seed, Jesus Messiah, the nations’ restoration to honoring God is now made possible.

Notes

* I made a more thorough argument of this thesis in my paper presented at Princeton Theological Seminary. The conference was entitled “Paul’s Letter to the Romans and Christian Theology Conference,” Oct 23–25, 2026. For the full paper, see “The Fall of the Seventy Nations: A Re-reading of Romans 1:18–32,” posted on Academia.

** John Goldingay, Genesis. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic 2020: 183.

*** Wisdom’s structure highlights the Egyptians and animal worship as the larger framework for its excursus in 13:1–15:6. (This excursus is on the idols of the nations). On the structure of the book, see David Winston, The Wisdom of Solomon, AYBC 43 (Garden City: Doubleday, 1979), 9–12. For the other Jewish writings consulted in this post, see James H. Charlesworth, The Pseudepigrapha.

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About B. J. Oropeza

B. J. Oropeza, Ph.D., Durham University (England), is Professor Emeritus of Biblical and Religious Studies at Azusa Pacific University and Seminary. Among his many publications include Perspectives on Paul: Five Views (Baker Academic), The Gospel of Paul (Eerdmans, forthcoming), Practicing Intertextuality (Cascade), and editor and contributor to the Scripture, Texts, and Tracings series (Fortress Academic): 1 Corinthians (vol. 1), Romans (vol. 2), 2 Corinthians & Philippians (vol. 3); and Galatians & 1 Thessalonians (vol. 4). He participated on Bible translation teams for the NRSV (updated edition), Common English Bible (CEB), and Lexham English Septuagint (LES). He also has commentaries on 1 Corinthians (New Covenant commentary series: Cascade) and 2 Corinthians (longer work—Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity: SBL Press; shorter work—Wesley One-Volume Commentary). His current specialties include Romans, intertextuality, and perspectives on Paul. He can be followed on X-Twitter (@bjoropeza1) and Instagram (@bjoropeza1). You can read more about the author here.

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