Long ago Scripture taught beforehand about these and similar forms of the madness of idolatry when it said: “The devising of idols is the beginning of sexual immorality, and their invention is the corruption of life. For they did not exist from the beginning, nor will they remain forever. They entered the world through human vanity, and therefore a swift end was appointed for them.
“For a father worn down by untimely grief made an image of his child who had been quickly taken away, and now honored as living the one who had then died. He handed down mysteries and rites to those under his authority. Then, as time passed, the ungodly custom grew strong and was kept as law.
“Carved images were also worshiped at the commands of rulers. Since people living far away could not honor them face to face, they reproduced the distant appearance and made a visible image of the honored king, so that through their devotion they might flatter the absent ruler as though he were present. The artist’s ambition then encouraged even those who did not know him to intensify their worship. For the artist, perhaps wishing to please the ruler, used his skill to make the likeness more beautiful. The crowd, drawn by the charm of the workmanship, came to regard as an object of worship the man whom shortly before they had merely honored. This became a snare in life, because human beings, enslaved either by misfortune or by tyranny, gave to stones and wood the Name that cannot be shared.”
Since, then, according to the witness of Scripture, the invention of idols began and took shape among human beings in this way, it is now time to show you the refutation of it, taking our evidence not so much from outside as from what these people themselves think about the idols.
Suppose someone takes the deeds of those whom they call gods, to begin with these lower matters. He will find not only that they are no gods, but that they became the most shameful of human beings. What a spectacle it is to see in the poets the lusts of Zeus and his licentious acts! What a thing it is to hear of him carrying off Ganymede and committing secret adulteries, yet fearing and shrinking lest the walls of the Trojans be destroyed against his will! What a thing it is to see him distressed at the death of his son Sarpedon, wishing to help him but unable; plotted against by the other so-called gods—I mean Athena, Hera, and Poseidon—yet helped by a woman, Thetis, and by the hundred-handed Aigaion; overcome by pleasures and enslaved to women, and for their sake venturing into disguises as irrational creatures, both four-footed animals and birds; then again hiding because of his father’s plot against him, while Cronus is bound by him and Cronus in turn mutilates his own father. Is it then right to suppose such a being a god, when he has done and been accused of so many things that even the common laws of the Romans do not allow ordinary human beings to do?
Long ago Scripture taught beforehand about these and similar forms of the madness of idolatry when it said: “The devising of idols is the beginning of sexual immorality, and their invention is the corruption of life. For they did not exist from the beginning, nor will they remain forever. They entered the world through human vanity, and therefore a swift end was appointed for them.
“For a father worn down by untimely grief made an image of his child who had been quickly taken away, and now honored as living the one who had then died. He handed down mysteries and rites to those under his authority. Then, as time passed, the ungodly custom grew strong and was kept as law.
“Carved images were also worshiped at the commands of rulers. Since people living far away could not honor them face to face, they reproduced the distant appearance and made a visible image of the honored king, so that through their devotion they might flatter the absent ruler as though he were present. The artist’s ambition then encouraged even those who did not know him to intensify their worship. For the artist, perhaps wishing to please the ruler, used his skill to make the likeness more beautiful. The crowd, drawn by the charm of the workmanship, came to regard as an object of worship the man whom shortly before they had merely honored. This became a snare in life, because human beings, enslaved either by misfortune or by tyranny, gave to stones and wood the Name that cannot be shared.”
Since, then, according to the witness of Scripture, the invention of idols began and took shape among human beings in this way, it is now time to show you the refutation of it, taking our evidence not so much from outside as from what these people themselves think about the idols.
Suppose someone takes the deeds of those whom they call gods, to begin with these lower matters. He will find not only that they are no gods, but that they became the most shameful of human beings. What a spectacle it is to see in the poets the lusts of Zeus and his licentious acts! What a thing it is to hear of him carrying off Ganymede and committing secret adulteries, yet fearing and shrinking lest the walls of the Trojans be destroyed against his will! What a thing it is to see him distressed at the death of his son Sarpedon, wishing to help him but unable; plotted against by the other so-called gods—I mean Athena, Hera, and Poseidon—yet helped by a woman, Thetis, and by the hundred-handed Aigaion; overcome by pleasures and enslaved to women, and for their sake venturing into disguises as irrational creatures, both four-footed animals and birds; then again hiding because of his father’s plot against him, while Cronus is bound by him and Cronus in turn mutilates his own father. Is it then right to suppose such a being a god, when he has done and been accused of so many things that even the common laws of the Romans do not allow ordinary human beings to do?