Homily 2.3
You see, then, that he understands those who “bowed
down to the Baals” to be among the believers, and those “who did not bow down”
to be among the remnant of believers. And this shows that those unbelievers and
impious persons who lived during the time of the Savior “bowed down to the
Baals” and worshiped images, but these who believe and complete the works of
faith “did not bow down to the Baals.” For neither is it mentioned anywhere in
the histories nor in the Gospels nor in any other Scriptures that anyone at the
time of the Savior would have bowed down to images, but this is said
particularly about those who were kept bound, indeed, as if shackled, by their
sins. Whence it is certain that as often as we sin “are taken captive under the
law of sin,” we “bow down to the Baals.” (Origen, Homilies on Judges
[trans. Elizabeth Ann Dively Lauro; The Fathers of the Church 199; Washington
D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2010], 54)
In a
footnote to the following, we read that:
The term here for “Images” is simulacra, which
can be translated also as “likenesses.” (Ibid., 54 n. 31)
Further Reading:
Answering Fundamentalist Protestants and Roman Catholic/Eastern Orthodox on Images/Icons