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Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol III:
Tertullian: Part I: Idolatry: Origin and Meaning of the Name.

Early Church Fathers  Index     

Chapter III.—Idolatry: Origin and Meaning of the Name.

Idol in ancient times there was none. Before the artificers of this monstrosity had bubbled into being, 173 temples stood solitary and shrines empty, just as to the present day in some places traces of the ancient practice remain permanently. Yet idolatry used to be practised, not under that name, but in that function; for even at this day it can be practised outside a temple, and without an idol.  But when the devil introduced into the world artificers of statues and of images, and of every kind of likenesses, that former rude business of human disaster attained from idols both a name and a development. Thenceforward every art which in any way produces an idol instantly became a fount of idolatry. For it makes no difference whether a moulder cast, or a carver grave, or an embroiderer weave the idol; because neither is it a question of material, whether an idol be formed of gypsum, or of colors, or of stone, or of bronze, 174 or of silver, or of thread. For since even without an idol idolatry is committed, when the idol is there it makes no difference of what kind it be, of what material, or what shape; lest any should think that only to be held an idol which is consecrated in human shape. To establish this point, the interpretation of the word is requisite. Eidos, in Greek, signifies form; eidolon, derived diminutively from that, by an equivalent process in our language, makes formling175 Every form or formling, therefore, claims to be called an idol. Hence idolatry is “all attendance and service about every idol.” Hence also, every artificer of an idol is guilty of one and the same crime, 176 unless, the People 177 which consecrated for itself the likeness of a calf, and not of a man, fell short of incurring the guilt of idolatry. 178


Footnotes

62:173

“Boiled out,” “bubbled out.”

62:174

Or, brass.

62:175

i.e., a little form.

62:176

Idolatry, namely.

62:177

[Capitalized to mark its emphatic sense, i.e., the People of God = the Jews.]

62:178

See Ex. xxxii.; and compare 1 Cor. x. 7, where the latter part of Ex. xxxii. 6 is quoted.


Next: Idols Not to Be Made, Much Less Worshipped. Idols and Idol-Makers in the Same Category.

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