{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/003/0030062.htm","path":"chr/ecf/003/0030062.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/003/0030062.htm","text":"Chapter IV.\u2014Idols Not to Be Made, Much Less Worshipped. Idols and Idol-Makers in the Same Category.\nGod prohibits an idol as much to be made as to be worshipped. In so far as the making what may be worshipped is the prior act, so far is the prohibition to make (if the worship is unlawful) the prior prohibition. For this cause\u2014the eradicating, namely, of the material of idolatry\u2014the divine law proclaims, \u201cThou shalt make no idol;\u201d 179 and by conjoining, \u201cNor a similitude of the things which are in the heaven, and which are in the earth, and which are in the sea,\u201d has interdicted the servants of God from acts of that kind all the universe over. Enoch had preceded, predicting that \u201cthe demons, and the spirits of the angelic apostates, 180 would turn into idolap. 63 try all the elements, all the garniture of the universe, all things contained in the heaven, in the sea, in the earth, that they might be consecrated as God, in opposition to God.\u201d All things, therefore, does human error worship, except the Founder of all Himself. The images of those things are idols; the consecration of the images is idolatry. Whatever guilt idolatry incurs, must necessarily be imputed to every artificer of every idol. In short, the same Enoch fore-condemns in general menace both idol-worshippers and idol-makers together. And again: \u201cI swear to you, sinners, that against the day of perdition of blood 181 repentance is being prepared. Ye who serve stones, and ye who make images of gold, and silver, and wood, and stones and clay, and serve phantoms, and demons, and spirits in fanes, 182 and all errors not according to knowledge, shall find no help from them.\u201d But Isaiah 183 says, \u201cYe are witnesses whether there is a God except Me.\u201d \u201cAnd they who mould and carve out at that time were not: all vain! who do that which liketh them, which shall not profit them!\u201d And that whole ensuing discourse sets a ban as well on the artificers as the worshippers: the close of which is, \u201cLearn that their heart is ashes and earth, and that none can free his own soul.\u201d In which sentence David equally includes the makers too. \u201cSuch,\u201d says he, \u201clet them become who make them.\u201d 184 And why should I, a man of limited memory, suggest anything further? Why recall anything more from the Scriptures? As if either the voice of the Holy Spirit were not sufficient; or else any further deliberation were needful, whether the Lord cursed and condemned by priority the artificers of those things, of which He curses and condemns the worshippers!\nLev. 26:1, Exod. 20:4, Deut. 5:8. It must of course be borne in mind that Tertullian has defined the meaning of the word idol in the former chapter, and speaks with reference to that definition.\n62:180\nCompare de Oratione, c. 23, and de Virg. Vel. c. 7.\n63:181\n\u201cSanguinis perditionis:\u201d such is the reading of Oehler and others. If it be correct, probably the phrase \u201cperdition of blood\u201d must be taken as equivalent to \u201cbloody perdition,\u201d after the Hebrew fashion. Compare, for similar instances, 2 Sam. 16:7, Ps. 5:6, Ps. 26:9, Ps. 55:23, Ezek. 22:2, with the marginal readings. But Fr. Junius would read, \u201cOf blood and of perdition\u201d\u2014sanguinis et perditionis. Oehler\u2019s own interpretation of the reading he gives\u2014\u201cblood-shedding\u201d\u2014appears unsatisfactory.\n63:182\n\u201cIn fanis.\u201d This is Oehler\u2019s reading on conjecture. Other readings are\u2014infamis, infamibus, insanis, infernis.\n63:183\nIsa. xliv. 8 et seqq.\n63:184\nPs. cxv. 8. In our version, \u201cThey that make them are like unto them.\u201d Tertullian again agrees with the LXX.","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol III: Tertullian: Part I: Idols N...","type":"page"}