And so the multitude, allured by the grace of the work, took him now for a god, which a little before was but honoured as a man.
All Commentaries on Wisdom of Solomon 14:20 Go To Wisdom of Solomon 14
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
Human beings seek purification, but the devil, proud spirit, seeing that they sought this out of pride and boasted of it, anticipated them and presented himself as a mediator, capable of giving a semblance of purity to their souls. In this, hinting at his pride, he led people to think that he was necessary, that is, to show them that a soul desirous to reach God could purify itself through recourse to magic arts. He thus instituted in the temples those sacrilegious rites that assure purification to those who perform them. Many of those images were in fact suggested, as the Scripture says, by the desire to honor certain people held to be great, people not present or dead people.
