• Accueil
  • Œuvres
  • Introduction Instructions Collaboration Sponsors / Collaborateurs Copyrights Contact Mentions légales
Bibliothek der Kirchenväter
Recherche
DE EN FR
Œuvres Aristide d'Athènes (50-134) Apologia The Apology of Aristides the Philosopher

III.

Let us see then which of them participate in truth and which of them in error.

The Chaldaeans, then, not knowing God went astray after the elements and began to worship the creation more than their Creator.

And of these they formed certain shapes and styled them a representation of the heaven and the earth and the sea, of the sun too and the moon and the other primal bodies or luminaries. And they shut them up together in shrines, and worship them, calling them gods, even though they have to guard them securely for fear they should be stolen by robbers. And they did not perceive that anything which acts as guard is greater than that which is guarded, and that he who makes is greater than that which is made. For if their gods are unfit to look after their own safety, how shall they bestow protection upon others? Great then is the error into which the Chaldaeans wandered in adoring lifeless and good-for-nothing images.

And it occurs to me as surprising, O King, how it is that their so-called philosophers have quite failed to observe that the elements themselves are perishable. And if the elements are perishable and subject to necessity, how are they gods? And if the elements are not gods, how do the images made in their honour come to be gods?

pattern
  Imprimer   Rapporter une erreur
  • Afficher le texte
  • Référence bibliographique
  • Scans de cette version
Traductions de cette œuvre
Apologie (BKV) Comparer
L'Apologie d'Aristide Comparer
The Apology of Aristides the Philosopher
The Apology of Aristides the Philosopher - Translated from the Syriac Comparer
Commentaires sur cette œuvre
Einleitung zur Apologie des Aristides
Introduction - The Apology of Aristides

Table des matières

Faculté de théologie, Patristique et histoire de l'Église ancienne
Miséricorde, Av. Europe 20, CH 1700 Fribourg

© 2023 Gregor Emmenegger
Mentions légales
Politique de confidentialité