Folly of a Navigator Praying to an Idol

¹ Again, one preparing to sail and about to voyage over raging waves calls upon a piece of wood more fragile than the ship that carries him.

² For it was desire for gain that planned that vessel, and wisdom was the artisan who built it;

³ but it is your providence, O Father, that steers its course, because you have given it a path in the sea and a safe way through the waves,

⁴ showing that you can save from every danger, so that even if someone lacks skill, he may put to sea.

⁵ It is your will that works of your wisdom should not be without effect; therefore men trust their lives even to the smallest piece of wood, and passing through the billows on a raft they come safely to land.

⁶ For even in the beginning, when arrogant giants were perishing, the hope of the world took refuge on a raft and guided by your hand left to the world the seed of a new generation.

⁷ For blessed is the wood by which righteousness comes.

⁸ But the idol made with hands is accursed, and so is the one who made it; he because he made it, and the perishable thing because it was named a god.

⁹ For equally hateful to God are the ungodly man and his ungodliness,

¹⁰ for what was done will be punished together with him who did it.

¹¹ Therefore there will be a visitation also upon the idols of the nations, because, though part of what God created, they became an abomination and became traps for human souls and a snare to the feet of the foolish.

Origin and Evils of Idolatry

¹² For the beginning of fornication was the conception of idols, and the invention of them was the corruption of life,

¹³ for neither have they existed from the beginning nor will they exist for ever.

¹⁴ For through human vanity they entered the world, and therefore their speedy end has been planned.

¹⁵ For a father, consumed with grief at an untimely bereavement, made an image of his child, who had been suddenly taken from him; and he now honoured as a god what was once a dead human being and handed on to his dependants secret rites and initiations.

¹⁶ Then the ungodly custom, grown strong with time, was kept as a law, and at the command of monarchs carved images were worshipped.

¹⁷ When people could not honour monarchs in their presence, since they lived at a distance, they imagined their appearance from far away and made a visible image of the king whom they honoured, so that by their zeal they might flatter the absent one as though present.

¹⁸ Then the ambition of the artisan impelled even those who did not know the king to intensify their worship.

¹⁹ For he, perhaps wishing to please his ruler, skilfully forced the likeness to take more beautiful form,

²⁰ and the multitude, attracted by the charm of his work, now regarded as an object of worship the one whom shortly before they had honoured as a human being.

²¹ And this became a hidden trap for mankind, because people, in bondage to misfortune or to royal authority, bestowed on objects of stone or wood the name that ought not to be shared.

²² Then it was not enough for them to err about the knowledge of God, but even though they live in great strife due to ignorance, they call such great evils peace.

²³ For whether they kill children in their initiations or celebrate secret mysteries or hold frenzied revels with strange customs,

²⁴ they no longer keep either their lives or their marriages pure, but they either treacherously kill one another or grieve one another by adultery,

²⁵ and all is a raging riot of blood and murder, theft and deceit, corruption, faithlessness, tumult, perjury,

²⁶ confusion over what is good, forgetfulness of favour, pollution of souls, sexual perversion, disorder in marriage, adultery, and debauchery.

²⁷ For the worship of idols not to be named is the beginning and cause and end of every evil.

²⁸ For their worshippers either rave in exultation or prophesy lies or live unrighteously or readily commit perjury;

²⁹ for because they trust in lifeless idols they swear wicked oaths and expect to suffer no harm. ³⁰ But just penalties will overtake them on two counts: because they thought wickedly of God in devoting themselves to idols and because in deceit they swore unrighteously through contempt for holiness.

³¹ For it is not the power of the things by which men swear, but the just penalty for those who sin, that always pursues the transgression of the unrighteous.