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The Origin and Evils of Idolatry

¹² For the idea of making idols was the beginning of fornication,
and the invention of them was the corruption of life;
¹³ for they did not exist from the beginning,
nor will they last for ever.
¹⁴ For through human vanity they entered the world,
and therefore their speedy end has been planned.

¹⁵ For a father, consumed with grief at an untimely bereavement,
made an image of his child, who had been suddenly taken from him;
he now honoured as a god what was once a dead human being,
and handed on to his dependants secret rites and initiations.
¹⁶ Then the ungodly custom, grown strong with time, was kept as a law,
and at the command of monarchs carved images were worshipped.
¹⁷ When people could not honour monarchs^* in their presence, since they lived at a distance,
they imagined their appearance far away,
and made a visible image of the king whom they honoured,
so that by their zeal they might flatter the absent one as though present.

¹⁸ Then the ambition of the artisan impelled
even those who did not know the king to intensify their worship.
¹⁹ For he, perhaps wishing to please his ruler,
skilfully forced the likeness to take more beautiful form,
²⁰ and the multitude, attracted by the charm of his work,
now regarded as an object of worship the one whom shortly before they had honoured as a human being.
²¹ And this became a hidden trap for humankind,
because people, in bondage to misfortune or to royal authority,
bestowed on objects of stone or wood the name that ought not to be shared.

²² Then it was not enough for them to err about the knowledge of God,
but though living in great strife due to ignorance,
they call such great evils peace.
²³ For whether they kill children in their initiations, or celebrate secret mysteries,
or hold frenzied revels with strange customs,
²⁴ they no longer keep either their lives or their marriages pure,
but they either treacherously kill one another, or grieve one another by adultery,
²⁵ and all is a raging riot of blood and murder, theft and deceit, corruption, faithlessness, tumult, perjury,
²⁶ confusion over what is good, forgetfulness of favours,
defiling of souls, sexual perversion,
disorder in marriages, adultery, and debauchery.
²⁷ For the worship of idols not to be named
is the beginning and cause and end of every evil.
²⁸ For their worshippers^* either rave in exultation,
or prophesy lies, or live unrighteously, or readily commit perjury;
²⁹ for because they trust in lifeless idols
they swear wicked oaths and expect to suffer no harm.
³⁰ But just penalties will overtake them on two counts:
because they thought wrongly about God in devoting themselves to idols,
and because in deceit they swore unrighteously through contempt for holiness.
³¹ For it is not the power of the things by which people swear,^*
but the just penalty for those who sin,
that always pursues the transgression of the unrighteous.