A Community of Misfits on a Mission

Paul’s Rhetorical Trap

In Romans 1.18–32, Paul employs language that echoes common Jewish stereotypes of Gentiles as particularly depraved and deserving of God’s wrath. Examples of this rhetoric can be found in Wisdom of Solomon. But Paul uses this rhetoric not to reinforce division between the Jewish and Gentile disciples in Rome. No! Paul uses it as a rhetorical trap to expose prejudice and teach against judgment.