Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume IV/Origen/Origen Against Celsus/Book VII/Chapter LXII

Chapter LXII.

Let us now see what follows.&#160; &#8220;Let us pass on,&#8221; says he, &#8220;to another point.&#160; They cannot tolerate temples, altars, or images. &#160; In this they are like the Scythians, the nomadic tribes of Libya, the Seres who worship no god, and some other of the most barbarous and impious nations in the world.&#160; That the Persians hold the same notions is shown by Herodotus in these words:&#160; &#8216;I know that among the Persians it is considered unlawful to erect images, altars, or temples; but they charge those with folly who do so, because, as I conjecture, they do not, like the Greeks, suppose the gods to be of the nature of men.&#8217; &#160; Heraclitus also says in one place:&#160; &#8216;Persons who address prayers to these images act like those who speak to the walls, without knowing who the gods or the heroes are.&#8217;&#160; And what wiser lesson have they to teach us than Heraclitus?&#160; He certainly plainly enough implies that it is a foolish thing for a man to offer prayers to images, whilst he knows not who the gods and heroes are.&#160; This is the opinion of Heraclitus; but as for them, they go further, and despise without exception all images.&#160; If they merely mean that the stone, wood, brass, or gold which has been wrought by this or that workman cannot be a god, they are ridiculous with their wisdom.&#160; For who, unless he be utterly childish in his simplicity, can take these for gods, and not for offerings consecrated to the service of the gods, or images representing them?&#160; But if we are not to regard these as representing the Divine Being, seeing that God has a different form, as the Persians concur with them in saying, then let them take care that they do not contradict themselves; for they say that God made man His own image, and that He gave him a form like to Himself.&#160; However, they will admit that these images, whether they are like or not, are made and dedicated to the honour of certain beings.&#160; But they will hold that the beings to whom they are dedicated are not gods, but demons, and that a worshipper of God ought not to worship demons.&#8221;