14 ¹² For the idea of making idols was the beginning of fornication,
and the invention of them was the corruption of life,
14 ¹³ for neither have they existed from the beginning nor will they exist for ever.
14 ¹⁴ For through the vanity of men they entered the world,
and therefore their speedy end has been planned.
14 ¹⁵ For a father, consumed with grief at an untimely bereavement,
made an image of his child, who had been suddenly taken from him;
and he now honoured as a god what was once a dead human being,
and handed on to his dependents secret rites and initiations.
14 ¹⁶ Then the ungodly custom, grown strong with time, was kept as a law,
and at the command of monarchs graven images were worshipped.
14 ¹⁷ When men could not honour monarchs in their presence, since they lived at a distance,
they imagined their appearance far away,
and made a visible image of the king whom they honoured,
so that by their zeal they might flatter the absent one as though present.
14 ¹⁸ Then the ambition of the craftsman impelled even those who did not know the king to intensify their worship.
14 ¹⁹ For he, perhaps wishing to please his ruler,
skilfully forced the likeness to take more beautiful form,
14 ²⁰ and the multitude, attracted by the charm of his work,
now regarded as an object of worship the one whom shortly before they had honoured as a man.
14 ²¹ And this became a hidden trap for mankind,
because men, in bondage to misfortune or to royal authority,
bestowed on objects of stone or wood the name that ought not to be shared.