Early Christian Beliefs About Idols
Early Christians taught that idols are not real gods and that believers should turn away from idol worship. Writers like Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen, and Cyprian repeat this theme, and the Didache gives an early warning about food offered to idols. The Bible passages most often tied to this teaching are 1 Corinthians 8–10 and Acts 15:29. Some writers discuss meat from idol sacrifice in more detail, but the main Christian line is clear: do not worship idols.
138 early-church witnesses · 218 source quotations · compared with Scripture
What did early Christians believe about idols?
Early Christian writers taught that idols are not real gods and that Christians should stay away from idol worship and meat tied to idol sacrifice. Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen, and Cyprian all speak this way, and the Didache gives a very early warning to be on guard against food sacrificed to idols. The main theme is broad and steady: idols are empty, linked to demons or false worship, and not fit for Christian honor.
A few writers also discuss whether food from idol sacrifice could ever be treated as ordinary food, so the evidence is strongest for rejecting idol worship and strongest on caution for idol meat. The Bible passages most often used are 1 Corinthians 8–10, Acts 15:29, and other anti-idol texts. 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 taught that idols are empty and should not be worshiped.
- Christians were warned to avoid food offered to idols, especially when it would link them to idol worship.
- Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen, Cyprian, and the Didache all speak against idols.
Questions Answered by the Sources
What did early Christians think idols were?
The sources say idols are nothing, lifeless, made by human hands, and not worthy of worship. Several writers explicitly contrast idols with the living God and deny that idols are gods at all.
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Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Direct teaching
...h him, says, "My house has become a hyena's den," he uses a wise allegory to condemn the worship of idols, rejecting the food that consisted of dead bodies. For truly the house of the living God ought to be pure from idols. Again, Moses also forbids eating the hare. For the hare mates at all times, and leaps, with the female sitting there, attacking her from behind. For it is one of the animals that leap on from behind. It conceives every month, and it conceives again while already pregnant. It mates and gives birth. And after it has given birth, it is at once mounted by any hare whatever, for it is not content with one mating, and it conceives again while still nursing. For it has a womb with two chambers, and not only one empty chamber of the womb. It has enough room to receive intercourse, for whatever is empty desires to be filled. But it happens that while they are carrying young, one part of the womb is seized by desire and rages with lust. Therefore they have repeated conceptions. So this prohibition urges us to abstain from violent desires, and mutual sexual encounters, and intercourse with pregnant women, and relations in turn one after another, and the corruption of bo
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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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Cyprian, Treatises Direct teaching
1. That idols are not gods, and that the elements are not to be worshipped in the place of gods.
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Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Direct teaching
First of all, idols are to be rejected.
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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
More related quotations from this section 9 shown
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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
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Arnobius, Against the Heathen Supporting witness
...nd make small the power believed to be in their hands. Next we must say something about statues and images, which you make with great skill and care for with religious devotion. If there is any sense in this, we cannot decide, no matter how much we think about it, whether you do this seriously and with a real purpose, or whether you amuse yourselves with childish fantasies by mocking these very things. For if you are sure that the gods you believe in really exist, and that they live in the highest regions of heaven, what cause or reason is there for you to make those images, when you have real beings to whom you may pour out prayers, and from whom you may ask help in times of trouble? But if, on the other hand, you do not believe, or, to speak more moderately, if you are in doubt, then what reason is there, I ask, to make and set up images of doubtful beings, and with empty imitation to shape what you do not believe exists? Do you perhaps say that under these images of the gods, their presence is shown to you, so to speak, and that because you have not been given the ability to see the gods, they are worshiped in this way and the duties owed to them are paid? The person who says
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Arnobius, Against the Heathen Supporting witness
Here too, those who defend images usually say this: the people of old knew well that images have no divine nature and no sense in them. But they made them in a useful and wise way for the sake of the hard-to-control and ignorant mob, which is the majority among nations and in states. Their purpose was that, when a kind of appearance of the gods was set before them, fear might make them cast off their rough ways. Thinking they were acting in the presence of the gods, they might put away their wicked deeds and, changing their behavior, learn to act like human beings. They also say that majestic forms of gold and silver were provided for them for no other reason than this: people believed that some power was present in their brightness, a power able not only to dazzle the eyes, but even to strike terror into the mind itself by its grand shining splendor. Now this might perhaps seem to be said with some reason, if, after the temples of the gods were built and their images were set up, there were no wicked person in the world and no crime at all; if justice, peace, and good faith possessed the hearts of men; and if no one on earth were called guilty or guiltless, because all were ignora
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Arnobius, Against the Heathen Supporting witness
...ving there. More than that, they believe that, driven by the rite of dedication, they are joined to images. Do your gods, then, live in gypsum and in clay figures? No rather, are the gods the minds, spirits, and souls of clay figures and of gypsum? And so that the lowliest things may be able to become more important, do they allow themselves to be shut up, hidden, and confined in a dark dwelling? Here, then, first of all, we want and ask to be told this by you: do they do this against their will? That is, do they enter the images as homes, dragged into them by the rite of dedication? Or are they willing and ready? And do you summon them without any force of necessity? Do they do this unwillingly? Then how can it be possible for them to be compelled to submit to any necessity without their dignity being diminished? With willing consent? Then what do the gods seek in clay figures, that they should prefer these prisons to their starry seats? Why, after being almost nailed to them, should they give honor to clay and the other materials from which images are made?
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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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Arnobius, Against the Heathen Supporting witness
Having been heaped together, it may be, from a harlot's gauds or from a woman's ornaments, from camels' bones or from the tooth of the Indian beast, from cooking-pots and little jars, from candlesticks and lamps, or from other less cleanly vessels, and having been melted down, they were cast into these shapes and came out into the forms which you see, baked in potters' furnaces, produced by anvils and hammers, scraped with the silversmith's, and filed down with ordinary, files, cleft and hewn with saws, with augers, with axes, dug and hollowed out by the turning of borers, and smoothed with planes.
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Origen, Against Celsus Supporting witness
for although a perverted view of things, with the aid of much instruction to the same effect, has been able to implant in the minds of the multitude the belief that images are gods, and that things made of gold, and silver, and ivory, and stone are deserving of worship, yet common sense forbids the supposition that God is at all a piece of corruptible matter, or is honoured when made to assume by men a form embodied in dead matter, fashioned according to some image or symbol of His appearance.
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Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book III Supporting witness
And again, the apostles taught the Gentiles that they should leave vain stocks and stones, which they imagined to be gods, and worship the true God, who had created and made all the human family, and, by means of His creation, did nourish, increase, strengthen, and preserve them in being;
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Arnobius, Against the Heathen Supporting witness
But do not seek to point out to us pictures instead of gods in your temples, and the images which you set up, for you too know, but are unwilling and refuse to admit, that these are formed of most worthless clay, and are childish figures made by mechanics.
Did early Christians connect idols with demons?
Some of the strongest witnesses go beyond saying idols are false and instead describe idol sacrifice as tied to demons and unclean spirits. This theme appears in both apostolic-era texts and later early Christian writers.
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Didache, The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles Supporting witness
but against that which is sacrificed to idols be exceedingly on your guard;
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Didache, Connection to Acts 15:29 Supporting witness
concerning food, bear what you are able; but against that which is sacrificed to idols be exceedingly on your guard; for it is the service of dead gods.
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Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book III Direct teaching
that ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from fornication;
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Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Direct teaching
...among the things he allowed them to touch, he forbade those that had died on their own, or had been offered to idols, or had been strangled. To touch these was unlawful. For since it is impossible for those who use delicacies to keep from partaking of them, he appointed the opposite way of life until he might break the tendency toward indulgence that comes from habit. Pleasure has often brought men harm and pain. And full feeding produces in the soul uneasiness, forgetfulness, and foolishness. They also say that when the bodies of children are growing up to full height, they grow properly through lack of nourishment. For then the spirit, which moves through the body for its growth, is not hindered by abundance of food blocking the freedom of its course. From there that truth-seeking philosopher Plato, stirring up the spark of Hebrew philosophy when he condemned a life of luxury, says: "When I came here, the life here called happy, full of Italian and Syracusan tables, did not please me at all, consisting in being filled twice a day, and never spending the night alone, and whatever other accompaniments attend that way of life. For not one man under heaven, if brought up from yout
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Novatian, On the Jewish Meats Direct teaching
But it must be very greatly guarded against in the use of food, and we must be warned lest any should think that liberty is permitted to that degree that even he may approach to what has been offered to idols.
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Direct teaching
that you abstain from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which things if you keep yourselves, you shall do well.
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Victorinus, On the Creation of the World Supporting witness
But it must be very greatly guarded against in the use of food, and we must be warned lest any should think that liberty is permitted to that degree that even he may approach to what has been offered to idols.
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Tertullian, Against Marcion Supporting witness
He introduces his discussion about meats offered to idols with a statement concerning idols (themselves): We know that an idol is nothing in the world.
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Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Supporting witness
Sirach 18:32 At this point, too, we have to advert to what are called things sacrificed to idols, in order to show how we are enjoined to abstain from them.
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness
XXI. But abstain from things offered to idols;
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Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho Supporting witness
...ow God through Jesus refuse to do, enduring torture and death rather than worship idols or eat food offered to them.
More related quotations from this section 5 shown
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Didache, Connection to 1 Corinthians 8:4 Supporting witness
And concerning food, bear what thou art able; but against that which is sacrificed to idols be exceedingly on thy guard; for it is the service of dead gods.
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness
That We Ought to Avoid the Eating of Things Offered to Idols.
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Tertullian, De Corona Background
...For the dead too have the privilege of being crowned in this way, since they too immediately become idols, both by their dress and by the service of deification, which for us is a second idolatry. Since they lack sense, it will be theirs to use the thing for which sense is lacking, just as if, with full possession of sense, they wished to abuse it. When there ceases to be any reality in the use, there is no distinction between using and abusing. For who can abuse a thing, when the faculty of perception by which he wishes to carry out his purpose is not his to use? Moreover, the apostle forbids us to abuse, though he would more naturally have taught us not to use, unless it is because, where there is no sense for things, there is no wrong use of them. But the whole affair is meaningless, and in fact a dead work as far as the idols are concerned, though without doubt a living one with respect to the demons to whom the religious rite belongs. David says, "The idols of the heathen are silver and gold. They have eyes, and see not; a nose, and smell not; hands, and they will not handle." By these organs, indeed, we are to enjoy flowers. But if he declares that those who make idols wil
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Background
If any Christian is condemned by ungodly people to the games, to the beasts, or to the mines because of the name of Christ, and because of love and faith toward God, do not neglect him. Instead, send him support from your own labor and sweat, for his food and to give a reward to the soldiers, so that he may be relieved and cared for. Do this so that, as far as it is in your power, your blessed brother may not be afflicted. For anyone who is condemned for the name of the Lord God is a holy martyr, a brother of the Lord, a son of the Most High, and a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. Through that Spirit every one of the faithful has received the light of the glory of the holy Gospel, and has been counted worthy of the incorruptible crown, the testimony of Christ's sufferings, and fellowship in His blood, so as to be made like Christ in His death for the adoption of children. For this reason, all you who are faithful must, through your bishop, minister to the saints from your possessions and from your labor. But if anyone has nothing, let him fast for a day, set that amount aside, and arrange it for the saints. But if anyone has extra, let him minister more to them according to his a
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Minucius Felix, Octavius Background
Chapter 38. Argument: Christians Abstain from Things Connected with Idol Sacrifices, Lest Any One Should Think Either that They Yield to Demons, or that They are Ashamed of Their Religion.
Did early Christians avoid meat offered to idols?
The evidence strongly shows that early Christians were taught to abstain from food offered to idols, or at least to avoid it carefully. This is one of the clearest and most repeated themes across the sources.
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Tertullian, On Idolatry Direct teaching
...hing that has the flavor of opposition to God belongs to demons and unclean spirits, whose property idols are, then without doubt whoever commits a sin is chargeable with idolatry. For he does what belongs to the owners of idols.
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Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book III Direct teaching
When the Scripture refers to them as [gods] that are not real gods, it does not, as I have already mentioned, describe them as gods in every sense, but with a certain additional meaning that shows they are not gods at all. For example, with David: "The gods of the heathen are idols of demons;" and, "You shall not follow other gods." By saying "the gods of the heathen"—while the heathen do not know the true God—and calling them "other gods," he denies their claim to be regarded as gods entirely. But regarding their true nature, he speaks of them, "for they are," he says, "the idols of demons." And Isaiah: "Let all who blaspheme God and carve useless things be ashamed; even I am witness, says God.” He removes them from the category of gods, but uses the word alone for the purpose that we may understand whom he speaks of. Jeremiah also says the same: "The gods that have not made the heavens and earth, let them perish from the earth which is under the heaven." By noting their destruction, he shows them to be no gods at all. Elijah, too, when all Israel was gathered at Mount Carmel, wishing to turn them from idolatry, says to them, "How long will you waver between two opinions? If the L
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Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book III Direct teaching
As with David: “The gods of the heathen are idols of demons;” and, “Ye shall not follow other gods.” For in that he says “the gods of the heathen”—but the heathen are ignorant of the true God—and calls them “other gods,” he bars their claim [to be looked upon] as gods at all.
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Cyprian, Epistles Direct teaching
...utting off fornication, uncleanness, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which are the service of idols; for which things' sake the wrath of God comes.” Colossians 3:5-6. For since our bodies are members of Christ, and each of us is a temple of God, whoever violates the temple of God by adultery violates God. And he who, in committing sins, does the will of the devil, serves demons and idols. For evil deeds do not come from the Holy Spirit, but from the prompting of the adversary. And lusts born of the unclean spirit constrain men to act against God and to obey the devil. Thus it happens that if they say that one is polluted by another's sin, and if they contend, by their own assertion, that the idolatry of the offender passes over to one who is not guilty according to their own word, they cannot be excused from the crime of idolatry, since from the apostolic proof it is clear that the adulterers and defrauders with whom they communicate are idolaters. But with us, according to our faith and the given rule of divine preaching, the principle of truth agrees: that each one is himself held fast in his own sin. Nor can one become guilty for another, since the Lord warns us beforeh
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Victorinus, On the Creation of the World Direct teaching
...nyone should think that liberty is allowed to such a degree that he may even approach what has been offered to idols. For, as far as it concerns God's creation, every creature is clean. But when it has been offered to demons, it is polluted as long as it is offered to the idols. And as soon as this is done, it no longer belongs to God, but to the idol. And when this creature is taken as food, it nourishes the person who takes it for the demon, not for God, by making him a fellow with the idol, not with Christ, as the Jews also rightly do. And when the meaning of these foods is understood, and the counsel of the law is considered, and the kindness of the Gospel's grace is known, and the rigor of temperance is observed, and the pollution of things offered to idols is rejected, we who keep the rule of truth in all things ought to give thanks to God through Jesus Christ, His Son, our Lord, to whom be praise, and honor, and glory, forever and ever. Amen. A letter written to Cyprian by Novatian the Roman presbyter, in the name of the Roman clergy, will be found translated as Epistle 30 in this volume.
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Origen, Against Celsus Direct teaching
... an idol is nothing in the world, the apostle draws the conclusion that it is harmful to use things offered to idols. He shows, to those who have ears to hear on such matters, that whoever takes part in things offered to idols is worse than a murderer, for he destroys his own brothers, for whom Christ died. Further, he maintains that the sacrifices are made to demons. From that he goes on to show that those who join the table of demons become associated with the demons. And he concludes that a man cannot both be a partaker of the table of the Lord and of the table of demons. But since it would take a whole treatise to explain fully all that is contained on this subject in the Epistle to the Corinthians, we will be content with this brief statement of the argument. For it will be clear to anyone who carefully considers what has been said that even if idols are nothing, it is nevertheless an awful thing to join in idol festivals. And even if there are such beings as demons to whom the sacrifices are offered, it has been clearly shown that we are forbidden to take part in these festivals when we know the difference between the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Knowing this
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Novatian, On the Jewish Meats Supporting witness
But when it has been offered to demons, it is polluted so long as it is offered to the idols;
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Origen, Against Celsus Supporting witness
For that which is offered to idols is sacrificed to demons, and a man of God must not join the table of demons.
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness
to give no heed to idols, or any other beings, as being lifeless gods, or irrational beings or dæmons.
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Cyprian, Treatises Supporting witness
5. That God is so angry against idolatry, that He has even enjoined those to be slain who persuade others to sacrifice and serve idols
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Tertullian, Scorpiace Supporting witness
...shall overturn and break in pieces their pillars, and cut down their groves, and burn with fire the graven images of the gods themselves, and destroy the names of them out of that place." Deuteronomy 12:2-3. He further urges, when they, the Israelites, had entered the land of promise and driven out its nations: "Take heed to yourself, that you do not follow them after they are driven out from before you, that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, 'As the nations serve their gods, so let me do likewise.'" Deuteronomy 12:30. But also He says: "If there arise among you a prophet himself, or a dreamer of dreams, and gives you a sign or a wonder, and it comes to pass, and he says, 'Let us go and serve other gods, whom you do not know,' do not hearken to the words of that prophet or dreamer, for the Lord your God proves you, to know whether you fear God with all your heart and with all your soul. After the Lord your God you shall go, and fear Him, and keep His commandments, and obey His voice, and serve Him, and cleave to Him. But that prophet or dreamer shall die; for he has spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God." Deuteronomy 13:1. Also in another section: "If, howeve
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1 Corinthians 10:19 Background
What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing?
More related quotations from this section 4 shown
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1 Corinthians 12:2 Background
You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led.
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Wisdom of Solomon 14:27 Background
For the worshiping of idols not to be named Is the beginning, the cause, and the end, of all evil.
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Wisdom of Solomon 14:29 Background
For insomuch as their trust is in idols which have no life, Though they swear falsely, yet they look not to be hurt.
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1 Enoch 99:7 Background
And again I swear to you, ye sinners, that sin is prepared for a day of unceasing bloodshed. And they who worship stones, and grave images of gold and silver and wood (and stone) and clay, and those who worship impure spirits and demons, and all kinds of idols not according to knowledge, shall get no manner of help from them.
Common Questions
Did early Christians think idols were real gods?
No. They usually said idols were nothing, false gods, or linked to demons, not true gods.
Did early Christians avoid food offered to idols?
Yes. Many early Christian writings warn believers to abstain from it or be very careful with it.
Which early Christian writer talks about idols most clearly?
Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, Clement of Alexandria, Cyprian, and the Didache all speak clearly against idols.
Source Index for Idols
The guided sections above show the strongest quotations. This compact index highlights 160 ranked source links from 218 compiled sources for deeper study.
Source index 160 ranked links shown
Early Christian Writings 80 shown of 138
Primary-source quotations from early Christian writers and church documents.
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Didache, Connection to 1 Corinthians 8:4
Bible Passages 80 included
Related Bible passages saved for comparison with the early Christian quotations.
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Book 80 1:5
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Book 80 1:3
