Early Christian Views on Icons

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.

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:

Acts 17:29 Direct teaching

Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.

1 John 5:21 Direct teaching

Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

1 Corinthians 10:14 Direct teaching

Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen Direct teaching

... 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 without an inscription, he understands that it is the golden Aphrodite. So that Cyprian Pygmalion fell in love with an ivory image. The image was Aphrodite, and it was naked. The Cyprian is conquered by the mere form and embraces the image. Philostephanus tells this story. A different Aphrodite in Cnidus was made of stone, and it was beautiful. Another man fell in love with it and shamefully embraced the stone. Posidippus tells this. The first of these authors does so in his book on Cyprus, and the second in his book on Cnidus. So great is the power of art to deceive, luring lustful men i

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

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.

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.

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.

Isaiah 44:9 Direct teaching

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.

Habakkuk 2:18 Direct teaching

What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols?

Isaiah 44:17 Direct teaching

And the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image: he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me; for thou art my god.

Psalms 97:7 Supporting witness

Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all ye gods.

Micah 5:13 Supporting witness

Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands.

Romans 1:23 Supporting witness

and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Origen, Against Celsus Supporting witness

... comes next. “Let us move on,” he says, “to another point. They cannot tolerate temples, altars, or images. In this they are like the Scythians, the nomadic tribes of Libya, the Seres, who worship no god, and some other of the most barbarous and impious nations in the world.” That the Persians hold the same views is shown by Herodotus in these words: “I know that among the Persians it is considered unlawful to set up images, altars, or temples. But they accuse those who do so of folly because, as I suppose, they do not, like the Greeks, think that the gods are of the nature of men.” Heraclitus also says in one place: “People who offer prayers to these images act like those who speak to walls, not knowing who the gods or the heroes are.” And what wiser teaching do they have to give us than Heraclitus? He clearly means that it is foolish for a man to offer prayers to images when he does not know who the gods and heroes are. This is the view of Heraclitus. But they go further and despise all images without exception. If they only mean that the stone, wood, bronze, or gold worked by one craftsman or another cannot be a god, then they are ridiculous in their wisdom. For who, unless h

Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen Supporting witness

... the prophetess, then at least listen to your own philosopher, Heraclitus of Ephesus, as he rebukes images for having no sense: "People pray to these images, with the same result as if someone were talking to the walls of his house. Is it not astonishing that they worship stones and set them before their doors, as if they could act? They worship Hermes as a god, and they set up Aguieus as a doorkeeper. If people criticize these images for having no sensation, why worship them as gods? And if they are thought to have sensation, why put them at the door?" The Romans, who credited their greatest successes to Fortune and regarded her as a very great goddess, took her statue into the latrine and set it up there, giving the goddess what they thought was a fitting temple — the necessary place. But senseless wood and stone, and precious gold, do not care at all about pleasant smells, or blood, or smoke. Though people honor them and smoke them with incense, they are only blackened by it. They do not respond either to honor or to insult. And these images are more worthless than any animal. I do not know how things without sense came to be made into gods, and I am forced to pity as miserab

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness

...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

Tertullian, Apology Supporting witness

...an obstinate refusal to offer sacrifices, he found in their religious services nothing but meetings early in the morning for singing hymns to Christ and God, and sealing their way of life by a united pledge to remain faithful to their religion, forbidding murder, adultery, dishonesty, and other crimes. In reply, Trajan wrote back that Christians were by no means to be sought out. But if they were brought before him, they should be punished. O miserable deliverance. Under the necessities of the case, it is a self-contradiction. It forbids them to be sought out, as innocent, and it commands them to be punished, as guilty. It is at once merciful and cruel. It passes by, and it punishes. Why do you play this game of evasion with yourself, O Judgment? If you condemn, why do you not also inquire? If you do not inquire, why do you not also absolve? Military stations are set throughout all the provinces for tracking robbers. Against traitors and public enemies every man is a soldier. Search is made even for their confederates and accessories. The Christian alone must not be sought, though he may be brought and accused before the judge, as if a search had any other end than that! And so

Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Supporting witness

... 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.

Lactantius, The Epitome of the Divine Institutes Supporting witness

... taught that the memory of dead kings should be made sacred, that temples should be built, and that images should be made. They did this, not to lessen the honor of God, or to increase their own honor, which they had lost by sinning, but to take life away from people and rob them of the hope of true light, so that people might not reach that heavenly reward of immortality from which they had fallen. They also brought forward astrology, augury, and divination. Although these things are false in themselves, they, being the authors of evils, manage and direct them in such a way that people believe they are true. They also invented the tricks of magic to deceive the eyes. By their help, it happens that what is seems not to be, and what is not seems to be. They themselves invented necromancies, responses, and oracles, to mislead the minds of people with false divination through ambiguous outcomes. They are present in temples and at all sacrifices. By showing certain deceptive wonders, to the amazement of those who are present, they deceive people so completely that they believe a divine power is present in images and statues. They even secretly enter into bodies, since they are sligh

Arnobius, Against the Heathen Supporting witness

...lling it seriousness and pretending to be grave, to tell something so tasteless and so foolish—that images were made by the ancients to restrain wrongdoing and to stir up fear in the wicked and impious? Were the men of that age and time so empty of reason and good sense in their understanding that they were kept from wicked acts, like little boys, by the unnatural savagery of masks, by grimaces, and by bugbears? And how has this changed so completely, that although there are so many temples in your states filled with images of all the gods, the crowds of criminals cannot be restrained even by so many laws and such terrible punishments, and their audacity cannot be overcome by any means? Wicked deeds, done again and again, increase all the more, even though laws and severe judgments try to reduce the number of cruel acts and suppress them by the restraint of punishments. But if images caused men any fear, then the making of laws would stop, and so many kinds of torture would not be established against the boldness of the guilty. But now, because it has been proved and established that the supposed fear said to come from the images is actually empty, people have turned to the ordi

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness

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

Theophilus of Antioch, To Autolycus Supporting witness

... "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.

Aristides, The Apology Supporting witness

...e elements and began to worship created things instead of their Creator. For this purpose they made images and shut them up in shrines, and look, they worship them while guarding them very carefully, so that robbers will not steal their gods. And the Barbarians did not see that what acts as a guard is greater than what is being guarded, and that everyone who creates is greater than what is created. If, then, their gods are too weak to protect their own safety, how will they care for the safety of men? Great, then, is the error into which the Barbarians wandered by worshipping lifeless images that can do nothing to help them. And I am led to wonder, O King, at their philosophers, how even they went astray and gave the name of gods to images that were made in honor of the elements, and how their wise men did not see that the elements also can be dissolved and perish. For if a small part of an element is dissolved or destroyed, the whole of it can be dissolved and destroyed. If then the elements themselves are dissolved and destroyed, and are forced to be subject to another thing more stubborn than they are, and if they are not gods by nature, why then do they call the images made

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness

...n consists in divine things, and there is nothing divine except in heavenly things, it follows that images have no religion in them, because there can be nothing heavenly in what is made from the earth. And this, indeed, may be clear to a wise man from the very name itself. For whatever is an imitation must necessarily be false. Nor can anything be called true if it copies the truth by deception and imitation. But if all imitation is not especially a serious matter, but is like a sport and a joke, then there is no religion in images, but only a mimicry of religion. Therefore, what is true must be preferred above all things that are false. Earthly things must be trampled underfoot so that we may gain heavenly things. For this is how it is: whoever throws down his soul, which has its origin from heaven, to the shadows below and to the lowest things, must fall to the place to which he has thrown himself. Therefore, he ought to remember his nature and condition, and always strive and aim at the things above. And whoever does this will rightly be judged wise, just, and truly a man. In short, he will be judged worthy of heaven, whom his Parent will recognize not as low and cast down t

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness

For if the worshippers of gods adore senseless images, and bestow upon them whatever they have which is precious, though they can neither make use of them nor give thanks because they have received them, how much more just and true is it to reverence the living images of God, that you may gain the favour of the living God!