Early Christian Beliefs About Pagan Temples
Early Christians said pagan temples belonged to false worship, not to the true God. Writers like Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen, Arnobius, and Lactantius rejected entering them for worship or joining their sacrifices. They also tied pagan temple worship to idols, demons, and dead gods. Bible passages such as 1 Corinthians 10:20 and 2 Corinthians 6:16 were often used to explain why Christians stayed away.
142 early-church witnesses · 240 source quotations · compared with Scripture
What did early Christians believe about pagan Temples?
Early Christian writers treated pagan temples as places tied to false worship, idols, demons, and dead men, and they urged believers to stay away from them. Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen, Arnobius, Lactantius, Minucius Felix, and Commodianus all speak against temple worship in clear terms. The strongest shared theme is not a neutral view of pagan shrines, but a firm rejection of honoring them, entering them for worship, or joining their sacrifices.
Some writers also use the Bible to explain this, especially passages about idols being man-made and the temple of God not being joined to idols. A few texts are only indirect or use temple language in other ways, so they are left out of the main curated view. 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 mostly saw pagan temples as places of false worship, idols, and demons.
- They taught that Christians should not join pagan sacrifice, incense, libations, or temple rites.
- Some writers also mocked temples as tombs, shrines of dead men, or buildings made for empty gods.
Questions Answered by the Sources
How did early Christians describe pagan temples?
The sources describe pagan temples as places connected to idols, dead gods, demons, sacrifices, and false worship. Several writers say these temples are not worthy of true reverence and should not be treated as holy.
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Tertullian, Apology Direct teaching
It is certainly among the votaries of your religion that the perpetrators of sacrilege are always found, for Christians do not enter your temples even in the day-time.
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Direct teaching
Stay away from all pagan books. What do you have to do with such foreign teachings, laws, or false prophets that overthrow the faith of unstable people? What lack do you find in the law of God, that you should turn to those pagan fables? If you want to read history, you have the books of the Kings. If you want books of wisdom or poetry, you have the books of the Prophets, Job, and Proverbs. In them you will find greater depth of understanding than in all the pagan poets and sophists, because these are the words of the Lord, the only wise God. If you want something to sing, you have the Psalms. If you want the origin of things, you have Genesis. If you want laws and statutes, you have the glorious law of the Lord God. Therefore, completely stay away from all strange and diabolical books. No, when you read the law, do not think that you are required to keep the added precepts, if not all of them, then even some of them. Read those only for the sake of history, so that you may know them and glorify God that He has delivered you from so great and so many bonds. Aim to distinguish which rules came from the law of nature, and which were added afterward, or were additional rules introduce
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Commodianus, Writings Direct teaching
But if you think that in them there is hope, you are altogether in error if you worship God and heathen temples.
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Commodianus, Writings Supporting witness
Avoid the worship of temples, the oracles of demons;
Did early Christians enter or participate in pagan temples?
These sources show Christians distancing themselves from pagan temple worship, offerings, and festival participation. They emphasize refusal to sacrifice, to enter idol temples in the same way as pagans, or to support temple rites.
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Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen Direct teaching
...owed itself in sacrificing hecatombs, appointing solemn assemblies, setting up images, and building temples that were really tombs. I will not pass over these in silence, but will fully expose them, though they are called by the majestic name of temples. They are tombs that came to be called temples. But now, at last, completely give up your superstition. Be ashamed to treat graves with religious honor. In the temple of Athene in Larissa, on the Acropolis, is the grave of Acrisius. And at Athens, on the Acropolis, is the grave of Cecrops, as Antiochus says in the ninth book of his Histories. What about Erichthonius? Was he not buried in the temple of Polias? And Immarus, the son of Eumolpus and Daira, were they not buried in the precincts of the Elusinium, which is under the Acropolis? And were the daughters of Celeus not buried in Eleusis? Why should I list for you the wives of the Hyperboreans? They were called Hyperoche and Laodice. They were buried in the Artemisium in Delos, which is in the temple of the Delian Apollo. Leandrius says that Clearchus was buried in Miletus, in the Didymaeum. Following Zeno of Myndus, it would not be suitable in this connection to pass over the
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Arnobius, Against the Heathen Direct teaching
What can you say to this? The writings of authors testify that many of these temples, built with golden domes and lofty roofs, cover bones and ashes and are tombs of the dead. Is it not plain and obvious either that you worship dead men as immortal gods, or that an unforgivable insult is thrown upon the deities, whose shrines and temples have been built over the tombs of the dead? Antiochus, in the ninth book of his Histories, says that Cecrops was buried in the temple of Minerva at Athens. Again, it is reported and declared that Acrisius was laid in the temple of the same goddess in the citadel of Larissa, and Erichthonius in the sanctuary of Polias, while the brothers Dairas and Immarnachus were buried in the enclosure of Eleusin, which lies near the city. What do you say about the virgin daughters of Coleus? Are they not said to be buried in the temple of Ceres at Eleusin? And in the shrine of Diana, which was set up in the temple of the Delian Apollo, are not Hyperoche and Laodice buried, who are said to have been brought there from the land of the Hyperboreans? In the Milesian Didymae, Leandrius says that the last honors of burial were paid to Cleochus. Zeno of Myndus openly s
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Lactantius, The Epitome of the Divine Institutes Direct teaching
...ttach themselves to individuals and take up residence in houses under the name of Genii or Penates. Temples are built to them. Daily drink offerings are made to them, as to the Lares. Honor is paid to them as to those who turn away evils. From the beginning, in order to turn people away from the knowledge of the true God, they introduced new superstitions and the worship of gods. They 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
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Lactantius, The Epitome of the Divine Institutes Supporting witness
...ds. But Euhemerus, in his Sacred History, says that Jupiter himself, after he received power, built temples in honor of himself in many places. As he traveled around the world and came to each place, he joined the chiefs of the people to himself by friendship and the right of hospitality. So that the memory of this might be kept, he ordered temples to be built for him, and yearly festivals to be celebrated by those joined to him in a league of hospitality. In this way he spread the worship of himself through all lands. But the time when they lived can be understood easily. For Thallus writes in his history that Belus, the king of the Assyrians, whom the Babylonians worship, and who was the contemporary and friend of Saturnus, lived three hundred and twenty-two years before the Trojan War, and it has been one thousand four hundred and seventy years since the fall of Troy. From this it is clear that no more than eighteen hundred years have passed since mankind fell into error through the establishment of new forms of divine worship.
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Minucius Felix, Octavius Supporting witness
...by observing auguries, or by consulting entrails, or by establishing sacred rites, or by dedicating temples. Consider what the records of books say. You will at once discover that they introduced the rites of every kind of religion either so that divine indulgence might be repaid, or so that threatening anger might be turned away, or so that wrath, already swelling and raging, might be appeased. Witness the Idaean Mother, who at her arrival both approved the chastity of the matron and delivered the city from fear of the enemy. Witness the statues of the equestrian brothers, dedicated just as they had shown themselves at the lake, who, with horses out of breath, foaming, and smoking, announced victory over the Persian on the same day on which they had won it. Witness the renewal of the games of offended Jupiter, because of the dream of a man of the people. And the devotion of the Decii is an acknowledged witness. Witness also Curtius, who filled the opening of the deep chasm either with the mass, or with the glory of his knighthood. Moreover, more often than we wished, when the auguries were despised, they bore witness to the presence of the gods. Thus Allia is an unlucky name. T
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Arnobius, Against the Heathen Supporting witness
But, we are told, we build no temples for them and do not worship their images. We do not kill sacrificial victims, and we do not offer incense and wine offerings. But what greater honor or dignity can we give them than this: that we place them in the same position as the Head and Lord of the universe, to whom the gods, along with us, owe the fact that they know they exist and have living being? For do we honor Him with shrines and by building temples? Do we even kill sacrificial victims for Him? Do we give Him those other things, when taking them and pouring them out as offerings shows not careful regard for reason, but attention to a practice kept up only by custom? For it is complete folly to measure greater powers by your own needs, and to give to the gods, who give all things, the things useful to yourself, and then think this is an honor rather than an insult. Therefore we ask: for what service to the gods, or to meet what need, do you say temples have been built, and think they should be built again? Do they feel the cold of winter, or are they burned by the summer sun? Do rains pour over them, or do whirlwinds shake them? Are they in danger of attack by enemies, or by the f
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Psalms 115:4 Supporting witness
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.
Did early Christians say God does not live in temples made by hands?
Several early writers say God does not dwell in temples made by human hands and that Christians should not build lifeless temples for God. This section also includes the related related Bible passages used by those writers.
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Arnobius, Against the Heathen Direct teaching
...s and shameful the opinions are that you have formed about your gods, we must now speak about their temples, their images, and sacrifices, and the other things that are attached to them and closely related to them. For here you are accustomed to bring a very serious charge of impiety against us because we do not build temples for acts of worship, do not set up statues and images of any god, do not build altars, do not offer the blood of slaughtered animals in sacrifices, incense, or sacrificial meal, and finally, do not pour out wine in libations from sacred bowls. We do indeed neglect to build and do these things, but not because we hold impious and wicked attitudes, or have formed some wildly desperate feeling of contempt for the gods. Rather, it is because we think and believe that they, if they truly are gods and are called by this exalted name, either look down on such honors, if they are capable of scorn, or endure them with anger, if they are stirred up by feelings of rage.
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Tertullian, On Idolatry Direct teaching
... of the faith itself. With what mouth will a Christian seller of frankincense, if he passes through temples, spit down on and blow out the smoking altars for which he himself has made provision? With what consistency will he exorcise his own foster-children, to whom he gives his own house as a storeroom? Indeed, if he has cast out a demon, let him not congratulate himself on his faith, for he has not cast out an enemy. He ought to have had his prayer easily granted by one whom he is feeding every day. No art, then, no profession, no trade, which serves either to equip idols or to form them, can be free from the charge of idolatry, unless we interpret idolatry to be something altogether different from the service of attending idols.
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Minucius Felix, Octavius Supporting witness
...idence of crime? To drive their neighbors from the land, to overthrow the nearest cities with their temples and altars, to drive them into captivity, to grow by the losses of others and by their own crimes, this is the course of training common to the rest of the kings and the latest leaders with Romulus. Thus, whatever the Romans hold, cultivate, and possess is the spoil of their audacity. All their temples are built from the spoils of violence, that is, from the ruins of cities, from the spoils of the gods, and from the murders of priests. This is to insult and scorn, to yield to conquered religions, to adore them when captive, after having vanquished them. For to adore what you have taken by force is to consecrate sacrilege, not divinities. Therefore, as often as the Romans triumphed, so often they were polluted. And as many trophies as they gained from the nations, so many spoils they took from the gods. Therefore, the Romans were not so great because they were religious, but because they were sacrilegious with impunity. For in the wars themselves, the gods against whom they took up arms were not able to help them. And they began to worship those, when they had triumphed ove
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Cyprian, Treatises Supporting witness
The ashes of victims and the piles of cattle everywhere smoke in your temples, and God's altars are either nowhere or are hidden.
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Origen, Against Celsus Supporting witness
...make use of the idol offerings and the public sacrifices at public feasts. His words are: "If these idols are nothing, what harm will there be in taking part in the feast? On the other hand, if they are demons, it is certain that they too are God's creatures, and that we must believe in them, sacrifice to them according to the laws, and pray to them that they may be gracious." In response to this statement, it would be useful for us to take up and clearly explain the whole passage of the first Epistle to the Corinthians in which Paul deals with offerings to idols. From the fact that 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
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1 Corinthians 10:20 Supporting witness
No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.
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1 Corinthians 12:2 Supporting witness
You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led.
Did early Christians call pagan temples tombs or graves?
A few writers argue that some pagan temples were actually tombs, graves, or memorial places for the dead. They use this to criticize the honor given to such shrines.
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2 Corinthians 6:16 Supporting witness
What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
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1 Kings 12:31 Supporting witness
He also made temples on high places and appointed priests from among all the people, who were not of the Levites.
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Deuteronomy 12:3 Supporting witness
And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place.
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Psalms 135:15 Supporting witness
The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands.
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1 Corinthians 3:17 Supporting witness
If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
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Acts 17:22 Supporting witness
Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.
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Acts 17:16 Supporting witness
Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols.
Common Questions
Did early Christians go into pagan temples for worship?
No. Writers like Tertullian say Christians did not enter pagan temples, and others urge believers to avoid pagan rites, sacrifices, and temple worship.
What did early Christians think pagan temples were?
They often saw them as places tied to idols, demons, dead men, or empty gods, not as holy places for true worship.
Did early Christians use Bible verses against pagan temples?
Yes. They often used 1 Corinthians 10:20, 2 Corinthians 6:16, Acts 17:24, and Old Testament warnings against idols and false worship.
Source Index for Pagan Temples
The guided sections above show the strongest quotations. This compact index highlights 160 ranked source links from 240 compiled sources for deeper study.
Source index 160 ranked links shown
Early Christian Writings 80 shown of 142
Primary-source quotations from early Christian writers and church documents.
Bible Passages 80 shown of 98
Related Bible passages saved for comparison with the early Christian quotations.