Wisdom of Solomon 14:19
“However, Firmianus Lactantius, in the first book he wrote on the false religion of the gods, presents similar things regarding this passage, saying: It is not obscure by what reasoning men began to be called gods, for it was because of the depravity of men who lived a rural life without any ruler. There is no doubt th…”
19For he, peradventure willing to please one in authority, forced all his skill to make the resemblance of the best fashion.
Preparing…
Preparing…
Preparing…
17Whom men could not honour in presence, because they dwelt far off, they took the counterfeit of his visage from far, and made an express image of a king whom they honoured, to the end that by this their forwardness they might flatter him that was absent, as if he were present.
18Also the singular diligence of the artificer did help to set forward the ignorant to more superstition.
— Wisdom of Solomon 14:19 —
20And so the multitude, allured by the grace of the work, took him now for a god, which a little before was but honoured.
21And this was an occasion to deceive the world: for men, serving either calamity or tyranny, did ascribe unto stones and stocks the incommunicable name.