12
For the idea of making idols was the beginning of fornication, 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 the vanity of men 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 honored as a god what was once a dead human being, and handed on to his dependents secret rites and initiations.
16
Then the ungodly custom, grown strong with time, was kept as a law, and at the command of monarchs graven images were worshiped.
17
When men could not honor monarchs in their presence, since they lived at a distance, they imagined their appearance far away, and made a visible image of the king whom they honored, so that by their zeal they might flatter the absent one as though present.
18
Then the ambition of the craftsman 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 honored as a man.
21
And this became a hidden trap for mankind, because men, in bondage to misfortune or to royal authority, bestowed on objects of stone or wood the name that ought not to be shared.
22
Afterward it was not enough for them to err about the knowledge of God, but they live in great strife due to ignorance, and they call such great evils peace.