Bible Browser

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.