CHAPTER 13
Digression on False Worship
A. NATURE WORSHIP*
and who from the good things seen did not succeed in knowing the one who is,*
and from studying the works did not discern the artisan;a
or the circuit of the stars, or the mighty water,
or the luminaries of heaven, the governors* of the world, they considered gods.b
let them know how far more excellent is the Lord than these;
for the original source of beauty fashioned them.c
let them realize from these things how much more powerful is the one who made them.d
their original author, by analogy, is seen.
For they have gone astray perhaps,
though they seek God and wish to find him.
but are distracted by what they see, because the things seen are fair.
that they could speculate about the world,
how did they not more quickly find its Lord?
B. IDOLATRY*
who termed gods things made by human hands:
Gold and silver, the product of art, and images of beasts,
or useless stone, the work of an ancient hand.e
The Carpenter and Wooden Idols
and skillfully scrape off all its bark,
And deftly plying his art
produce something fit for daily use,g
in preparing his food, and have his fill;
crooked wood grown full of knots,
he takes and carves to occupy his spare time.h
This wood he models with mindless skill,
and patterns it on the image of a human being
When he has daubed it with red and crimsoned its surface with red stain,
and daubed over every blemish in it,i
and puts it on the wall, fastening it with a nail.j
knowing that it cannot help itself;
for, truly, it is an image and needs help.k
he is not ashamed to address the thing without a soul.
For vigor he invokes the powerless;
For aid he beseeches the wholly incompetent;
for travel, something that cannot even walk;
he asks power of a thing with hands utterly powerless.
* [13:1–9] The author holds a relatively benign view of the efforts of the philosophers to come to know God from various natural phenomena. This is not a question of proving the existence of God in scholastic style. The author thinks that the beauty and might of the world should have pointed by analogy (v. 5) to the Maker. Instead, those “in ignorance of God” remained fixed on the elements (v. 2, three named, along with the stars). His Greek counterparts are not totally blameless; they should have gone further and acknowledged the creator of nature’s wonders (vv. 4–5). Cf. Rom 1:18–23; Acts 17:27–28.
* [13:1] One who is: this follows the Greek translation of the sacred name for God in Hebrew; cf. Ex 3:14.
* [13:2] Governors: the sun and moon (cf. Gn 1:16).
* [13:6] The blame is less: the greater blame is incurred by those mentioned in v. 10; 15:14–16.
* [13:10–19] The second digression is an example of the polemic against idolatry (cf. Is 44:9–20; Jer 10:3–9; Ps 135:15–18). Whether the idols be of wood or clay, they were made by human beings and have become the source of evil.
a. [13:1] Acts 14:17; Eph 4:17–19.
b. [13:2] Gn 1:14–19; Dt 4:19; Jb 31:26–28.
e. [13:10] Wis 3:11; 15:5, 17; Dt 4:25–28; 7:25; 27:15; Ps 115:4; Hos 14:4; Acts 17:29.
g. [13:11] Wis 15:7; Bar 6:58.
j. [13:15] Is 40:20; 41:7; 44:13.
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