Celsus writes that “They cannot tolerate the view of temples, altars, and statues (αγαλματα).” [Contra Celsum 7.62] He continues with reference to the Scythians, Libyan nomads, Seres, and Persians who have similar beliefs and again refers to Heraclitus:
He covertly intimates that it is stupid to pray to statues if one does not know gods and heroes—who they are. Such is the thought of Heraclitus. They openly dishonor statues. If it is because an object of stone, wood, copper, or gold—which one artisan or another made—cannot be a god, then their wisdom is laughable. For who other than a very little child think that these things are gods and not votive offerings and images (αγαλματα) of the gods? If it is that one should regard no images (εικονας) as divine because God has a different form (μορφην), as the Persians think, then they have forgotten as they refute themselves when they say “God made the human in his own image” (Gen 1;26-27) and of a form (ειδος) similar to this own. They will agree that the statues are in honor of certain beings, or like or unlike form (ειδος), but that the beings to whom the statues are dedicated are not gods but demons, and whoever worship God should not serve demons.
Celsus is not willing to argue that objects of good and gold are gods, but he does defend the worship of such images which honor the divine beings that they resemble. Origen (7.64) responds to Celsus that the Scythians, Libyan nomads, and Seres believe in no gods and so are led to their rejection of image worship by a different doctrine than are the Christians. Jews and Christians reject temples, altars, and images because of the commandments in Exodus 20;3-5 and Deut. 6:13. The Persians worship the sun (7.65). Origen (7.65) also concedes that it “is possible to know God, his only-begotten son, and those who are honored by God with the title of God who take part in his divinity and who are different from all the gods of the nations that are demons. But it is not possible to known God and to pray to statues.” Origen, in 3.37, explains that angels participate in the divine nature. This reply is similar to Macarius’ answer to the Hellene who is also offended at the Christians’ refusal to take part in the worship of images.
To respond to the Christians claim that the images are dedicated to demons, Celsus replies (7.68): “They themselves are clearly convicted of worshipping not a god, nor a demon, but a corpse (νεκρον).” Celsus then argues that people should worship demons . . .
Celsus continues this line of attack in 8.18 when he charges that “we shrink from establishing altars, statues, and temples [since he thinks it is] the unmistakable password (πιστον . . συνθημα) of our secret and mysterious association (κοινωνιας).” Origen argues that images and votive offerings appropriate to God are formed in us by the divine Logos and include the virtues “which are imitations of the Firstborn of every creature in whom are the models (μιμηματα) of justice, temperance, courage, wisdom, piety, and the other virtues” (8.17). This ethical imagery is based on Col 1:15 and John 1:18.
Celsus knows or claims to know of Christians who believe in shocking ways with regard to images of the gods (8.41):
You revile (λοιδορων) and laugh at their statues (αγαλματα), but if you reviled Dionysus himself or Heracles in his presence, you would perhaps not get away unpunished. But when your God was present, those who tortured and punished him had to suffer nothing for doing these things and not even afterwards during their life. And since that time that new thing has come to pass by which one might believe that he was not a human magician but the child of God. And the one who sent his son for the sake of certain messages allowed him to be punished so cruelly that the message perished with him, and after so much time has passed he has paid no attention. What father is so unholy (ανοσιος)? He may have possibly, as you say, willed it, therefore he suffered such outrages. But the gods whom you blaspheme can also say that they themselves will it, and therefore they endure blasphemy. For it is best to compare equal things to each other. But these gods severely require the one who blasphemes them who either must consequently escape and hide, or being captured and put to death.
Origen denies this form of Christian behavior (8.41), and argues that even if certain demons are established in certain images (Dionysus and Heracles). Christians would not revile even them. He also believes that the suffering of the Jews (8.42) including the destruction of Jerusalem was punishment for the crucifixion. The “new thing” includes the birth of the race of Christians (8.43), and the punishment of Jesus did not destroy God’s message. Origen also believes that the demons take vengeance on Christians, because Christians drive them out of the statues and bodies and souls of human beings (8.43). (John Granger Cook, The Interpretation of the New Testament in Greco-Roman Paganism [Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 2002], 92-94)
Further Reading:
Answering Fundamentalist Protestants and Roman Catholic/Eastern Orthodox on Images/Icons
