On Idolatry 6
Summary: Even apart from the law, the baptismal renunciation of the devil forbids making idols; one who makes them for others to worship offers them his own soul.
Latin text · CSEL 20:35–36
Si nulla lex dei prohibuisset idola fieri a nobis, nulla uox spiritus sancti fabricatoribus idolorum non minus quam cultoribus comminaretur, de ipso sacramento nostro interpretaremur nobis aduersas esse fidei eiusmodi artes. quomodo enim renuntiauimus diabolo et angelis eius, si eos facimus? quod repudium diximus iis, non dico cum quibus, sed de quibus uiuimus? quam discordiam suscepimus in eos, quibus exhibitionis nostrae gratia confiteris? uerbo destruere quod facto struis? unum deum praedicare qui tantos efficis? uerum deum praedicare qui falsos facis? facio, ait quidam, sed non colo: quasi ob aliquam causam colere non audeat, nisi ob quam et facere non debeat, scilicet ob dei offensam utrubique. immo tu colis, qui facis, ut coli possint. colis autem non spiritu uilissimi nidoris alicuius, sed tuo proprio nec anima pecudis impensa, sed anima tua. illis ingenium tuum immolas, illis sudorem tuum libas, illis prudentiam tuam accendis. plus es illis quam sacerdos, cum per te habeant sacerdotem; diligentia tua numen illorum est. negas te quod facis colere? sed illi non negant, quibus hanc saginatiorem et auratiorem et maiorem hostiam caedis, salutem tuam tota die.
English · Claude translation
If no law of God had forbidden us to make idols, and no voice of the Holy Spirit threatened the makers of idols no less than their worshippers, we would understand from our very sacrament that such arts are contrary to the faith. For how have we renounced the devil and his angels, if we make them? What divorce have we declared from those, I do not say with whom, but by whom we live? What discord have we taken up against those to whom you are indebted for your livelihood? Do you destroy by word what you build by deed? Preach one God, you who make so many? Preach the true God, you who make false ones? “I make them,” says someone, “but I do not worship them”: as if there were any reason why he dare not worship them except the same reason for which he ought not to make them either, namely the offense to God in both cases. Nay, you do worship them, you who make them so that they can be worshipped. And you worship them not with the vapor of some cheap savor but with your own spirit, not with the life of a beast spent for them but with your own life. To them you sacrifice your talent, to them you pour out your sweat as a libation, for them you kindle your skill. You are more to them than a priest, since it is through you that they have a priest; your diligence is their divinity. Do you deny that you worship what you make? But they do not deny it, for whom you slaughter this fatter, more gilded, and greater victim, your own salvation, all day long.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- “Our very sacrament” is the baptismal pledge, with its renunciation of the devil and his angels (see De spectaculis 4).
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (doubled letter in the digital text; stray comma in the digital text): nonn debeat → non debeat; ob, dei → ob dei.
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Idol. 6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-idololatria/6/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Idol. 6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-idololatria/6/).
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