Chapter XXXIV.—Whence men attributed to God human form.

And if any person investigates the subject of images, and inquires on what ground those who first fashioned your gods conceived that they had the forms of men, he will find that this also was derived from the divine history. For seeing that Moses's history, speaking in the person of God, says, “Let Us make man in our image and likeness,” these persons, under the impression that this meant that men were like God in form, began thus to fashion their gods, supposing they would make a likeness from a likeness. But why, ye men of Greece, am I now induced to recount these things? That ye may know that it is not possible to learn the true religion from those who were unable, even on those subjects by which they won the admiration of the heathen,78    Literally, “those without.” to write anything original, but merely propounded by some allegorical device in their own writings what they had learned from Moses and the other prophets.

Εἰ δὲ καὶ τὸν περὶ τῶν ἀγαλμάτων τις ἐξετάζοι λόγον, πόθεν ὁρμώμενοι οἱ πρῶτοι τοὺς θεοὺς ὑμῶν κατασκευάσαντες ἀνθρώπων μορφὰς ἔχειν αὐτοὺς διέγνωσαν, εὑρήσει καὶ τοῦτο ἀπὸ τῆς θείας ἱστορίας αὐτοὺς μεμαθηκότας. Τῆς γὰρ Μωϋσέως ἱστορίας ἐκ προσώπου τοῦ θεοῦ λεγούσης: Ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον κατ' εἰκόνα ἡμετέραν καὶ ὁμοίωσιν, ὡς οὕτως εἰρῆσθαι τῶν ἀνθρώπων κατὰ τὴν μορφὴν ἐοικότων τῷ θεῷ, οὕτως κατασκευάζειν τοὺς θεοὺς αὐτῶν ἤρξαντο, ἐκ τοῦ ὁμοίου τὸ ὅμοιον δημιουργεῖν οἰόμενοι. Τοῦ χάριν μνημονεῦσαι τούτων νυνὶ προήχθην, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἕλληνες; Ἵνα γνῶτε ὅτι τὴν ἀληθῆ θεοσέβειαν οὐ δυνατὸν παρὰ τούτων μανθάνειν τῶν μηδὲ ἐν οἷς ὑπὸ τῶν ἔξωθεν ἐθαυμάσθησαν ἴδιόν τι γράψαι δυνηθέντων, ἀλλὰ διά τινος ἀλληγορίας τὰ ὑπὸ Μωϋσέως καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν προφητῶν εἰρημένα ἐν τοῖς ἑαυτῶν συγγράμμασιν ἀπηγγελκότων.