Early Christian Beliefs About Images
Early Christian writers usually rejected worship of images and called them man-made, lifeless, and unfit for divine honor. Clement, Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Tertullian, Origen, Arnobius, and Lactantius all speak strongly against idols. Bible passages used by these writers also warn against graven images and worship of the work of human hands. A few image texts are about Christ or human likeness, so they are not direct support for image devotion.
119 early-church witnesses · 184 source quotations · compared with Scripture
What did early Christians believe about images?
Early Christian writers commonly rejected worship of images and treated them as man-made things that could not be gods. Writers like Clement of Alexandria, Theophilus of Antioch, Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Tertullian, Origen, Arnobius, and Lactantius all spoke this way, and they often backed their point with Bible passages against idols. The evidence is broad and consistent on idolatry: images were not to be trusted, honored as gods, or used as replacements for the living God.
A few texts use image language in other ways, like Christ as God’s image or human likeness in a moral sense, so those are not direct statements about religious images. There is little support here for image veneration, and the strongest early witness leans clearly against it. 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 teaching is strongly against worshiping images or treating them as gods.
- Clement, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Origen, Arnobius, and Lactantius are major early witnesses.
- Bible passages against graven images are often used as the main support.
- Some image language in the sources is about Christ or human likeness, not religious images.
Questions Answered by the Sources
Did early Christians reject worshipping images as gods?
The strongest sources consistently say that images are lifeless or man-made and should not receive divine honor. Early Christian writers argue that worship belongs to the living God, not to wood, stone, gold, silver, or statues.
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Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen Direct teaching
... 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
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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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Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians Direct teaching
...e idols show power, if those to whom we set up the statues are not gods?" For it is not likely that images without life and motion can do anything by themselves unless something moves them. We are very far from denying that, in various places, cities, and nations, certain effects are brought about in the name of idols. Even so, if some have received benefit, and others, on the contrary, have suffered harm, we will not consider those to be gods who have produced the effects in either case. But I have made careful inquiry into both why you think the idols have this power, and who they are that, taking their names, produce these effects. However, in trying to show who they are that produce the effects ascribed to the idols, and that they are not gods, I must call on some witnesses from among the philosophers. First, Thales, as those who have carefully examined his opinions report, divides superior beings into God, demons, and heroes. He recognizes God as the Intelligence of the world. By demons he means beings possessed of soul. By heroes he means the separated souls of men, the good being the good souls, and the bad the worthless ones. Plato again, while withholding his agreement
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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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Origen, Against Celsus Direct teaching
Another reason also why we abstain from doing honour to images, is that we may give no support to the notion that the images are gods.
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Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness
But, they say, we do not fear the images themselves, but those beings after whose likeness they were formed, and to whose names they are dedicated.
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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.
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Julius Africanus, Extant Writings Direct teaching
...wanted to dedicate it with that wicked ceremony, he began to seek answers by offering sacrifices to idols and to the demons that dwell in idols. They replied and said, "The widow Symphorosa, with her seven sons, wounds us day by day by calling on her God. Therefore, if she and her sons offer sacrifice, we promise to do all that you ask." Then Adrian ordered her to be seized, along with her sons, and urged them in courteous words to agree to offer sacrifice to the idols. But the blessed Symphorosa answered him, "My husband Getulius, together with his brother Amantius, when they were tribunes in your service, suffered different punishments for the name of Christ rather than agree to sacrifice to idols. And, like good athletes, they overcame your demons in death. For rather than be forced to yield, they chose to be beheaded and suffered death. That death, because it was endured for the name of Christ, did bring them temporary disgrace among the people of this earth, but everlasting honor and glory among the angels. And now, moving among them and displaying the trophies of their sufferings, they enjoy eternal life with the eternal King in heaven."
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Justin Martyr, The First Apology Supporting witness
...ayer to the gods of my country. But, as they did not respond, I called upon those among us known as Christians. Upon investigation, I found a great number and multitude of them and initially acted against them, which was quite inappropriate, as I later understood their power. They began the battle, not with weapons, armor, or bugles, as such preparations are detestable to them because of the God they carry in their conscience. Therefore, it appears that those we think are atheists have God as their guiding force entrenched in their conscience. Throwing themselves on the ground, they prayed not only for me but for the entire army, that we might be saved from the current thirst and hunger. We had been without water for five days because there was none, being deep in Germany, in enemy territory. Simultaneously as they threw themselves on the ground and prayed to God (a God unknown to me), water poured from the sky, refreshingly cool upon us but as withering hail upon Rome's enemies. Immediately we acknowledged the presence of God following their prayer—a God unconquerable and indestructible. Based on this, let us pardon such individuals who are Christians, lest they pray for and ac
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Deuteronomy 7:25 Background
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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Exodus 34:13 Background
Ye shall destroy their altars, and break in pieces their pillars, and ye shall cut down their groves, and the graven images of their gods ye shall burn with fire.
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Psalms 97:7 Supporting witness
All worshipers of images are put to shame, who make their boast in worthless idols; worship him, all you gods!
More related quotations from this section 24 shown of 30
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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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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
...ve we destroyed them in a worse way than the nation of the Egyptians, who worship the most shameful images of beasts and cattle, and adore as gods some things that it is shameful even to speak of? Have we done worse than those same people who, while they say that they worship the gods, still publicly and shamefully mock them? For they even allow pantomime performances about them to be acted out with laughter and pleasure. What kind of religion is this? Or how great should that majesty be thought to be, which is worshipped in temples and mocked in theaters? And those who have done these things do not suffer the vengeance of the offended deity. Instead, they even leave with honor and praise. Do we destroy them in a worse way than certain philosophers, who say that there are no gods at all, but that all things are produced by themselves, and that everything that happens takes place by chance? Do we destroy them in a worse way than the Epicureans, who admit that gods exist, but deny that they pay attention to anything, and say that they are neither angry nor moved by favor? By these words they plainly persuade men that the gods are not to be worshipped at all, since they neither pay
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Arnobius, Against the Heathen Direct teaching
...tant matters? Or do they have freedom to go wherever they please, and to leave their own places and images? If they are forced to remain, what could be more miserable than they are? What could be more unfortunate than for hooks and lead bonds to hold them fast like this on their pedestals? But if we say that they prefer these images to heaven and the starry seats, then they have lost their divine power. But if, on the other hand, whenever they choose they fly out and are completely free to leave the statues empty, then the images will at times stop being gods. And it will be uncertain when sacrifices should be offered, and when it is right and proper to withhold them. We often see that artists sometimes make these images small, reduced to the size of a hand, and at other times raise them to an enormous height and build them to a marvelous size. If so, then it follows that we must understand either that the gods shrink themselves into little statuettes and are compressed until they become like some odd body, or again that they stretch themselves out to great length and spread into vast size in huge images. If this is so, then in seated statues the gods should also be said to be s
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Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Direct teaching
...s. First, they put the elements, that is, the works of God, above God Himself. Second, they worship images of those same elements in human form. For they make images of the sun and moon in the likeness of men. They also do this for fire, earth, and sea, which they call Vulcan, Vesta, and Neptune. Nor do they openly sacrifice to the elements themselves. Men are filled with such a great love for images that the things which are true are now valued less. In fact, they delight in gold, jewels, and ivory. The beauty and brightness of these things blind their eyes, and they think there is no religion where these things do not shine. And so, under the excuse of worshipping the gods, they are really worshipping greed and desire. For they believe that the gods love whatever they themselves desire, whatever it may be. Because of these things, thefts and robberies and murders rage every day. Because of these things, wars overthrow nations and cities throughout the whole world. Therefore they dedicate their spoils and plunder to the gods, who certainly must be weak and lacking in the highest excellence if they are subject to desires. For why should we think they are heavenly if they long fo
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1 John 5:21 Direct teaching
Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
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Psalms 115:4 Direct teaching
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.
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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
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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
If all these images are likenesses of the gods above, there must then be said to dwell in heaven also a god such as the image which has been made to represent his form and appearance;
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Arnobius, Against the Heathen Supporting witness
24. Here also the advocates of images are wont to say this also, that the ancients knew well that images have no divine nature, and that there is no sense in them, but that they formed them profitably and wisely, for the sake of the unmanageable and ignorant mob, which is the majority in nations and in states, in order that a kind of appearance, as it were, of deities being presented to them, from fear they might shake off their rude natures, and, supposing that they were acting in the presence of the gods, put away their impious deeds, and, changing their manners, learn to act as men;
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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!
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Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians Supporting witness
For it is not likely that images destitute of life and motion can of themselves do anything without a mover.
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Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness
it follows that images are without religion, because there can be nothing heavenly in that which is made from the earth.
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Isaiah 42:17 Supporting witness
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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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.
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Exodus 20:4 Background
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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1 Samuel 6:5 Background
So you must make images of your tumors and images of your mice that ravage the land, and give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will lighten his hand from off you and your gods and your land.
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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.
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Ecclesiastes 2:2 Background
and how that the prophet, having given them the law, charged them not to forget the commandments of the Lord, and that they should not err in their minds, when they see images of silver and gold, with their ornaments.
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Leviticus 26:1 Background
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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Micah 5:13 Background
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.
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Deuteronomy 5:8 Background
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:
How did early Christians describe man-made images and idols?
These sources stress that images are fashioned by human skill and made from earthly materials. The point is not just that they are representations, but that they are powerless, lifeless, and not to be treated as divine.
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Origen, De Principiis (On First Principles) Background
Let us now see how we are to understand the expression "invisible image," so that in this way we may perceive how God is rightly called the Father of His Son. And let us, first of all, draw our conclusions from what are commonly called images among men. Sometimes that is called an image which is painted or sculptured on some material substance, such as wood or stone. And sometimes a child is called the image of his parent, when the features of the child in no respect fail to show their resemblance to the father. I think, therefore, that the man who was formed after the image and likeness of God may fittingly be compared to the first illustration. Respecting him, however, we shall see more precisely, God willing, when we come to explain the passage in Genesis. But the image of the Son of God, of whom we are now speaking, may be compared to the second of the above examples, even in this respect: that He is the invisible image of the invisible God, in the same manner as we say, according to the sacred history, that the image of Adam is his son Seth. The words are, "And Adam begot Seth in his own likeness, and after his own image." Now this image contains the unity of nature and substa
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Origen, Commentary on Matthew Background
...gain, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was cast into the sea, Matthew 13:47. In the case of images and statues, a likeness does not match the thing in every respect. For example, an image painted with wax on a flat piece of wood matches the surface and the color, but it does not keep the hollows and raised parts, only their outward look. In making statues, an effort is made to keep the likeness of the hollows and the raised parts, but not the color. And if a cast is made of wax, it tries to keep both the color and the hollows and raised parts, but it is still not an image of the thing in regard to depth. In the same way, understand with me that in the similitudes in the Gospel, when the kingdom of heaven is compared to something, the comparison does not extend to every feature of the thing to which the kingdom is compared. It extends only to those features that are needed for the argument at hand. So here, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was cast into the sea, but not in the way some suppose. They claim that this word speaks of the different natures of those who came into the net, namely, the evil and the righteous, as though, because of the phrase "which gather
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Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Background
...use of death. About this God, he makes these allusions when writing in these words: "As much as the image is inferior to the living face, so much is the world inferior to the living Æon. What, then, is the cause of the image? The majesty of the face, which shows the figure to the painter, to be honored by his name. For the form is not found exactly true to life, but the name supplies what is lacking in the image. The invisibility of God also cooperates toward the faith of what has been fashioned." For the Creator, called God and Father, he designated as Painter, and Wisdom, whose image that which is formed is, to the glory of the invisible One. Since the things that proceed from a pair are complements, and those that proceed from one are images. But since what is seen is no part of Him, the soul comes from what is intermediate, which is different. And this is the inspiration of the different spirit, and generally what is breathed into the soul, which is the image of the spirit. And in general, they say that the statements about the Creator as made according to an image were foretold by a visible image in the book of Genesis concerning the origin of man. And they transfer the lik
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Origen, Commentary on Matthew Background
Matthew 13:47 As in the case of images and statues, the likenesses are not likenesses in every respect of those things in relation to which they are made;
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Origen, Against Celsus Background
Celsus does not notice the difference between what is "after the image of God" and what is "God's image." So he goes on to claim that the first-born of every creature is the image of God—the very Word and truth, and also wisdom itself, being the image of His goodness—while man has been created after the image of God. Moreover, every man whose head is Christ is the image and glory of God. But Celsus also does not notice which part of human nature the phrase "after the image of God" refers to. It belongs to a nature that never had, or no longer has, the old man with his deeds, and is called after the image of Him who created it because it does not possess these qualities. Yet he says, "Neither did He make man His image; for God is not such an one, nor like any other kind of visible being." Is it possible to suppose that what is after the image of God exists in the inferior part of a compound being like man—I mean the body—because Celsus has explained being made after the image of God in that way? For if what is after the image of God is in the body only, then the better part, the soul, has been deprived of what is after His image, and this distinction exists in the corruptible body.
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Methodius, From the Discourse on the Resurrection Background
... thing that is mortal and subject to corruption is the flesh. This is so that, as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly, 1 Corinthians 15:49. For the image of the earthly that we have borne is this: “Dust you are, and to dust shall you return,” Genesis 3:19. But the image of the heavenly is the resurrection from the dead and incorruption, so that, as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life, Romans 6:4. But if anyone thinks that the earthly image is the flesh itself, while the heavenly image is some other spiritual body besides the flesh, let him first consider that Christ, the heavenly man, when He appeared, bore the same form of limbs and the same image of flesh as ours. Through this also, He who was not man became man, so that as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive, 1 Corinthians 15:22. For if He bore flesh for any other reason than to set the flesh free and raise it up, why did He bear flesh needlessly, since He intended neither to save it nor to raise it up? But the Son of God does nothing needlessly. He did not take the form of a servant for no
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Archelaus, Disputation with Manes Background
...u to understand, and if you do not agree with these statements, I can at least try to prove them by using illustrations. Think of man as a kind of temple, according to the likeness of Scripture. Then the spirit that is in man may be compared to the image that dwells in the temple. Now, a temple cannot be established unless an occupant for the temple is first recognized. On the other hand, an occupant cannot be settled in the temple unless the structure has first been built. Since these two things, the occupant and the structure, are both consecrated together, how can any opposition or conflict be found between them? Should it not instead appear that both have come from sources that are friendly and of one mind? And so that you may know this is the case, and that these sources are truly one both in fellowship and in lineage, He who knows and hears all made this reply: "Let us make man," and so on. For the one who builds the temple questions the one who fashions the image. He carefully asks about the measurements of magnitude, breadth, and bulk, so that he may mark out the space for the foundations according to those dimensions. No one begins the useless task of building a temple
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Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Background
For conformity with the image and likeness is not meant of the body (for it were wrong for what is mortal to be made like what is immortal), but in mind and reason, on which fitly the Lord impresses the seal of likeness, both in respect of doing good and of exercising rule.
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Genesis 1:26 Background
And God said, Let us make man according to our image and likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the flying creatures of heaven, and over the cattle and all the earth, and over all the reptiles that creep on the earth.
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1 Corinthians 15:49 Background
And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
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Wisdom of Sirach 17:3 Background
He endued them with strength by themselves, And made them according to his image,
Common Questions
Did the early Christians worship images?
No. The main early Christian writers here reject honoring images as gods and treat them as lifeless things made by human hands.
Which early Christian writers spoke against idols?
Clement of Alexandria, Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Tertullian, Origen, Arnobius, and Lactantius all speak against idol worship in these excerpts.
Do any early Christian texts here defend image veneration?
No direct defense appears in these cards. The strongest statements oppose worshiping images or giving them divine honor.
Source Index for Images
The guided sections above show the strongest quotations. This compact index highlights 145 ranked source links from 184 compiled sources for deeper study.
Source index 145 ranked links shown
Early Christian Writings 80 shown of 119
Primary-source quotations from early Christian writers and church documents.
Bible Passages 65 included
Related Bible passages saved for comparison with the early Christian quotations.
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Images and Prayers to Saints
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Idolatry and Images
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