Early Christian Views on Art and Images
Early Christian writers mostly rejected worshiping statues, pictures, and carved images. Clement, Theophilus, Origen, Athenagoras, Lactantius, Arnobius, and Tertullian all treated idols as human-made things, not gods. Bible passages like Exodus 20:4 and Romans 1:23 were key texts behind this view. The evidence is strong for rejecting idol worship, but thinner for claims about every kind of religious image.
127 early-church witnesses · 209 source quotations · compared with Scripture
What did early Christians believe about art and Images?
Early Christian writers mostly spoke against worshiping statues, pictures, and carved images, not against all art in general. Clement of Alexandria, Theophilus, Origen, Athenagoras, Lactantius, Arnobius, Tertullian, and others repeatedly said that idols are only wood, stone, gold, or art made by human hands and should not be treated as gods. They also leaned on Bible passages like Exodus 20:4, Deuteronomy 5:8, Romans 1:23, and the idol warnings in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Psalms, and Wisdom.
The witness is broad and consistent on rejecting idol worship, but it is more indirect on later questions about Christian use of sacred images in church life. The strongest early Christian teaching here is anti-idol and anti-image worship, while evidence for a full ban on every kind of religious image is thinner and more mixed. Many more early Christian quotations, Bible passages, and source links are gathered below so you can study the evidence for yourself.
Key Takeaways
- Early Christian writers strongly opposed worshiping images as gods.
- They often described idols as wood, stone, gold, or dead matter made by human hands.
- Bible passages against graven images were the main texts they used.
- The sources are clear about idol worship, but less direct about every use of art or image.
Questions Answered by the Sources
Did early Christians say images and statues should not be worshiped?
These sources say images and statues are made by human skill, have no life, and should not be treated as gods. They repeatedly contrast the true God with dead matter, crafted likenesses, and the worship of idols.
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Origen, Against Celsus Direct teaching
...nd this other command: "You shall have no other gods before Me: you shall not make for yourself any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: you shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them"; and again: "You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve." Because of these and many other commands like them, they not only avoid temples, altars, and images, but are also ready to suffer death when necessary, rather than disgrace by such impiety the understanding they have of the Most High God.
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Tertullian, On Idolatry Direct teaching
But when the devil introduced into the world artificers of statues and of images, and of every kind of likenesses, that former rude business of human disaster attained from idols both a name and a development.
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Tertullian, On Idolatry Direct teaching
The images of those things are idols; the consecration of the images is idolatry.
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Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho Direct teaching
I am the Lord God; this is my name: my glory will I not give to another, nor my virtues to graven images.
What Bible verses did early Christians use against graven images?
The Bible cards here directly forbid graven images, condemn idol-making, and describe worshipers of images as put to shame. Early Christian writers in this set quote or echo these verses when arguing against images and idol worship.
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Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Direct teaching
... nothing among created things can be a likeness of God. They should also be taught that none of the images they worship can be true likenesses. For the family of souls is not shaped the way the Greeks make their idols. Souls are invisible, not only rational souls, but also the souls of other animals. And their bodies never become parts of the souls themselves, but are organs—partly as seats, partly as vehicles, and in other cases as possessions in various ways. But it is not possible to copy even the likenesses of the organs exactly. If it were possible, then someone could model the sun as it appears, and capture the likeness of the rainbow in colors.
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Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen Supporting witness
...ut it is not yet Poseidon. Ivory is beautiful, but it is not yet Olympian Zeus. Matter always needs art to shape it, but deity needs nothing. Art steps forward to do its work, and the material is clothed with a form. While the value of the material makes it useful, it is only because of its form that it comes to be thought worthy of worship. If your image is considered by its origin, it is gold, wood, stone, or earth that has received shape from the artist's hand. But I have been used to walking on the earth, not worshiping it. For I believe it is wrong to trust the hopes of my spirit to things that do not have the breath of life. Therefore, we must come as close as possible to the images. How deeply deceit belongs to them is clear from their very appearance. For the forms of the images plainly bear the distinctive nature of demons. If someone goes around and examines the paintings and images, he will recognize your gods at a glance by their shameful forms: Dionysus by his robe; Hephaestus by his craft; Demeter by her calamity; Ino by her head-dress; Poseidon by his trident; Zeus by the swan; the funeral pyre points to Heracles; and if someone sees a statue of a naked woman with
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Isaiah 44:9 Supporting witness
They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed.
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Letter of Jeremiah 1:51 Supporting witness
and it shall manifestly appear to all nations and kings that they are no gods, but the works of men’s hands, and that there is no work of God in them.
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Wisdom of Solomon 2:23 Background
For God created man to be immortal, And made him to be an image of his own eternity.
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Wisdom of Solomon 14:8 Supporting witness
But that which is made with hands is cursed, as well it, as he that made it: He, because he made it: and it, because, being corruptible, it was called God.
Why did early Christians think images could not be gods?
The writers argue that images are just wood, stone, gold, clay, or other material shaped by human art, so they cannot be living gods. Some also say that honoring an image really means honoring something dead, absent, or imagined rather than the true divine reality.
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Exodus 20:4 Direct teaching
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
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Deuteronomy 5:8 Direct teaching
Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth:
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Deuteronomy 27:15 Direct teaching
Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, an abomination unto the LORD, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and putteth it in a secret place. And all the people shall answer and say, Amen.
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Leviticus 26:1 Direct teaching
Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the LORD your God.
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Deuteronomy 7:25 Direct teaching
The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therin: for it is an abomination to the LORD thy God.
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Psalms 115:4 Direct teaching
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.
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Isaiah 42:17 Direct teaching
They are turned back and utterly put to shame, who trust in carved idols, who say to metal images, “You are our gods.”
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Isaiah 41:29 Direct teaching
Indeed they are all worthless; Their works are nothing; Their molded images are wind and confusion.
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Jeremiah 10:14 Direct teaching
Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
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Jeremiah 51:17 Direct teaching
Every man is brutish by his knowledge; every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
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Romans 1:23 Direct teaching
and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
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Psalms 135:15 Supporting witness
The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands.
More related quotations from this section 2 shown
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Isaiah 2:8 Supporting witness
Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made.
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Isaiah 40:19 Supporting witness
An idol! A craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains.
Did early Christians describe images as made by human hands?
Yes. Many of them said idols are made by craftsmen, formed from wood, stone, gold, clay, or other materials, and therefore cannot be gods. This is one of the most repeated ideas in the early Christian writings here, especially in Clement, Theophilus, Lactantius, Arnobius, Athenagoras, and Origen.
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Theophilus of Antioch, To Autolycus Direct teaching
... "Every man has foolishly gone astray from the knowledge of Him; every founder is confounded by his graven images; in vain the silversmith makes his molten images; there is no breath in them: in the day of their visitation they shall perish." Jeremiah 51:17-18 The same too says David, "They are corrupt, they have done abominable works; there is none that does good, no, not one; they have all gone aside, they have together become profitless." So also Habakkuk: "What profits the graven image that he has graven it, a lying image? Woe to him that says to the stone, Awake; and to the wood, Arise." Habakkuk 2:18 Likewise the other prophets spoke of the truth. And why should I recount the multitude of prophets, who are numerous, and said ten thousand things consistently and harmoniously? For those who desire it can, by reading what they spoke, accurately understand the truth, and no longer be carried away by opinion and profitless labor. These, then, whom we have already mentioned, were prophets among the Hebrews: illiterate, and shepherds, and uneducated.
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Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Direct teaching
Therefore, man must be regarded as the maker of these images. For they were produced by his skill, and through him they first received shape, form, and beauty. Therefore, the one who made them is greater than the things that were made. And yet no one looks up to the Maker Himself or honors Him. Instead, he fears the things he has made, as though there could be more power in the work than in the workman. Therefore Seneca rightly says in his moral writings: "They worship the images of the gods, they pray to them with bent knee, they adore them, they sit or stand beside them the whole day, they offer gifts to them, they kill sacrifices; and while they value these images so highly, they despise the craftsmen who made them." What is so inconsistent as to despise the sculptor and adore the statue, and not even admit into your company the man who makes your gods? What force, what power, can they have, when the one who made them has none? But he was unable to give these images even the powers that he himself had: the power of sight, hearing, speech, and movement. Is anyone so foolish as to suppose that there is anything in the image of a god when there is nothing in it even of a man except
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Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Direct teaching
...ess is this? People make these objects, and then later fear them. But they say, “We do not fear the images themselves, but the beings in whose likeness they were made, and to whose names they are dedicated.” No doubt you fear them for this reason: you think they are in heaven. For if they are gods, it cannot be otherwise. Why, then, do you not lift up your eyes to heaven and, calling on their names, offer sacrifices in the open air? Why do you look to walls, and wood, and stone, rather than to the place where you believe they are? What is the purpose of temples and altars? And, in short, what is the purpose of the images themselves, which are memorials either of the dead or of the absent? For the practice of making likenesses was invented by men for this reason: so that it might be possible to keep the memory of those who had either been taken away by death or separated by absence. Into which of these groups, then, shall we place the gods? If among the dead, who is so foolish as to worship them? If among the absent, then they should not be worshipped, if they neither see our actions nor hear our prayers. But if the gods cannot be absent—for since they are divine, they see and he
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Arnobius, Against the Heathen Direct teaching
10. And finally, how do you know whether all these images that you make and set in the place of the immortal gods actually copy them and resemble the gods? For it may be that in heaven one has a beard, while you show him with smooth cheeks; that another is rather old, though you give him the appearance of a young man; that one is fair and has blue eyes here, while he really has gray ones; that one has wide nostrils, though you make and shape him with a high nose. For it is not right to call something an image if it is not taken from the face of the original and does not resemble its features. This can clearly and certainly be understood from things that are plain to see. All of us men see with our own eyes, beyond doubt, that the sun is perfectly round. Yet you have given it the features of a man, and of mortal bodies. The moon is always moving, and in its renewal each month it puts on thirty faces. But with you, as its makers and designers, it is shown as a woman and has one face, though it passes through a thousand different states, changing each day. We understand that all the winds are only currents of air, driven and pushed in earthly ways. But in your hands they take the form
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Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen Direct teaching
...ss, and senseless, are bound, nailed, glued, melted, filed, sawed, polished, and carved. Senseless earth is dishonored by the makers of images, who change it by their skill from its proper nature and lead men to worship it. And the makers of gods worship, not gods and demons, but, in my view, earth and art, which together make up images. For in truth, an image is only dead matter shaped by the craftsman's hand. But we do not have a visible image of visible matter. Instead, we have an image perceived by the mind alone — God, who alone is truly God.
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Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians Direct teaching
...vented by Crato, who painted in oil on a whitened tablet the outlines of a man and a woman. And the art of making figures in relief was invented by the girl. Because she was in love with a man, she traced his shadow on a wall while he slept. Her father, who was a potter, was pleased by how exact the likeness was. So he carved out the sketch and filled it in with clay. This figure is still kept at Corinth. After these people, Daedalus and Theodorus the Milesian further developed sculpture and statuary. You see, then, that the time since people began making representations of bodily form and creating images is so short that we can name the artist of each individual god. For example, the image of Artemis at Ephesus, and that of Athena, or rather Athela, for that is what she is called by those who speak more in the style of the mysteries, since that was the name of the ancient image made from the olive tree, and also the seated figure of the same goddess, were made by Endoeus, a pupil of Daedalus. The Pythian god was the work of Theodorus and Telecles. The Delian god and Artemis were made by Tectaeus and Angelio. Hera in Samos and in Argos came from the hands of Smilis, and the othe
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Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians Supporting witness
... from what is perceived by the senses, and who give each its proper name—should we come and worship images? If matter and God are really the same, just two names for one thing, then certainly we are guilty of impiety because we do not treat wood and stone, gold and silver, as gods. But if they are as far apart from each other as possible—as far apart as the artist is from the materials of his art—why are we called to account? For the relation is like that of the potter and the clay. Matter is the clay, and the artist is the potter. In the same way, God is the Maker of the world, and matter serves Him for the purposes of His art. But just as clay cannot become vessels by itself without art, so matter, though it can receive all forms, did not receive distinction, shape, and order apart from God the Maker. And just as we do not value pottery more than the one who made it, or vessels of glass and gold more than the one who made them, but if there is anything elegant in their workmanship, we praise the craftsman, and he receives the credit for the vessels, so also with matter and God. The glory and honor for the orderly arrangement of the world rightly belongs not to matter, but to G
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Origen, Against Celsus Supporting witness
And as among statuaries there are some who are marvellously perfect in their art, as for example Pheidias and Polycleitus, and among painters, Zeuxis and Apelles, while others make inferior statues, and others, again, are inferior to the second-rate artists — so that, taking all together, there is a wide difference in the execution of statues and pictures — in the same way there are some who form images of the Most High in a better manner and with a more perfect skill;
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Arnobius, Against the Heathen Supporting witness
Those images which fill you with terror, and which you adore prostrate upon the ground in all the temples, are bones, stones, brass, silver, gold, clay, wood taken from a tree, or glue mixed with gypsum.
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Theophilus of Antioch, To Autolycus Supporting witness
And to this day their images are daily fashioned, idols, the works of men's hands.
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Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness
Therefore men formed images of them, that they might derive some consolation from the contemplation of their likenesses;
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Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness
What, in short, of the images themselves, which are memorials either of the dead or absent?
More related quotations from this section 3 shown
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Origen, Against Celsus Supporting witness
that there might be no pretext for the construction of images — an art which attracts the attention of foolish men, and which drags down the eyes of the soul from God to earth.
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Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians Supporting witness
You perceive, then, that the time since representations of form and the making of images began is so short, that we can name the artist of each particular god.
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Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies Background
These images, therefore, are the forms of the different sorts of animals.
Common Questions
Did early Christians allow religious images?
They clearly rejected worshiping images as gods. The texts here are much clearer about idol worship than about every possible use of art or pictures.
What Bible verses did early Christians use against idols?
They often used Exodus 20:4, Deuteronomy 5:8, Romans 1:23, Psalms 115:4, Isaiah 44:9, and similar passages against graven images.
Did early Christian writers think statues were just made objects?
Yes. Many of them called idols wood, stone, gold, clay, or other materials shaped by human hands.
Source Index for Art and Images
The guided sections above show the strongest quotations. This compact index highlights 160 ranked source links from 209 compiled sources for deeper study.
Source index 160 ranked links shown
Early Christian Writings 80 shown of 127
Primary-source quotations from early Christian writers and church documents.
Bible Passages 80 shown of 82
Related Bible passages saved for comparison with the early Christian quotations.