And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.
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Ambrosiaster
AD 400
So blinded were their hearts that they altered the majesty of the invisible God, which they knew from the things which he had made, not into men but, what is worse and is an inexcusable offense, into the image of men, so that the form of a corruptible man was called a god by them, i.e., a depiction of a man. Moreover, they did not dare honor living people with this name but elevated the images of dead men to the glory of God! What great idiocy, what great stupidity, in that they knew they were calling them to their damnation, among whom an image was more powerful than the truth, and the dead were mightier than the living! Turning away from the living God they preferred dead men, among whose number they found themselves. They so diminished the majesty and glory of God that they gave the title of “god” to the images of things which were small and tiny. For the Babylonians were the first to deify a notion of Bel, who was portrayed as a dead man, who supposedly had once been one of their k...
People like this make it hard to tell which was the more contemptible, the worshipers or the worshiped. Perhaps the worshipers by far, since as rational beings and recipients of God’s grace, they chose their inferior for patron and better. Oration : On God
Paul’s first charge against the heathen was that they failed to find God. His second was that, although they had great and clear means of doing it they did not; the third is that they nevertheless claimed to be wise; the fourth was that not only did they not find the supreme being, they lowered him to the level of devils, stones and wood. Paul also pulls down their pride in Corinthians but not in the same way as here. There it is from the cross that he deals them the blow, saying that the foolishness of God is wiser than men. But here he does not make any comparison, merely holding their wisdom up to ridicule by itself, showing it to be no more than folly and a display of vain boasting. The heathen ought to have known that God is Lord of all, that he made them out of nothing, that he works by his providence and that he cares about them. For these things are the glory of God. To whom then did they ascribe it? Not even to men, but to an image made like corruptible man! Nor did they stop...
The first charge is, that they did not find God; the second was, that it was while they had great and clear (Sav. marg. wise) means to do it; the third, that withal they said they were wise; the fourth, that they not only did not find that Reverend Being, but even lowered Him to devils and to stones and stocks. Now he takes down their haughtiness also in the Epistle to the Corinthians, but not in the same way there as here. For there it is from the Cross he gives them the blow, saying, The foolishness of God is wiser than men. 1 Corinthians 1:25 But here, without any comparison, he holds their wisdom by itself up to ridicule, showing it to be folly and a mere display of vain boasting. Then, that you may learn that when they had the knowledge of God they gave it up thus treacherously, they changed, he says. Now he that changes, has something to change. For they wished to find out more, and not bear with the limits given them, and so they were banished from these also. For they were lust...
