על עשרת הדברות י״דOn the Decalogue 14
א׳
1[64] Let us then reject all such imposture and refrain from worshipping those who by nature are our brothers, even though they have been given a substance purer and more immortal than ours, for created things, in so far as they are created, are brothers, since they have all one Father, the Maker of the universe. Let us instead in mind and speech and every faculty gird ourselves up with vigour and activity to do the service of the Uncreated, the Eternal, the Cause of all, not submitting nor abasing ourselves to do the pleasure of the many who work the destruction even of those who might be saved.
ב׳
2[65] Let us, then, engrave deep in our hearts this as the first and most sacred of commandments, to acknowledge and honour one God Who is above all, and let the idea that gods are many never even reach the ears of the man whose rule of life is to seek for truth in purity and guilelessness.
ג׳
3[66] But while all who give worship and service to sun and moon and the whole heaven and universe or their chief parts as gods most undoubtedly err by magnifying the subjects above the ruler, their offence is less than that of the others who have given shape to stocks and stones and silver and gold and similar materials each according to their fancy and then filled the habitable world with images and wooden figures and the other works of human hands fashioned by the craftsmanship of painting and sculpture, arts which have wrought great mischief in the life of mankind.
ד׳
4[67] For these idolaters cut away the most excellent support of the soul, the rightful conception of the Ever-living God. Like boats without ballast they are for ever tossed and carried about hither and thither, never able to come to harbour or to rest securely in the roadstead of truth, blind to the one thing worthy of contemplation, which alone demands keen-sighted vision.
ה׳
5[68] To my mind they live a more miserable life than those who have lost the sight of the body, for those have been disabled through no wish of their own but either through suffering from some grievous disease of the eyes or through the malice of their enemies, but these others have of deliberate purpose not only dimmed but without scruple cast away entirely the eye of the soul.
ו׳
6[69] And therefore pity for their misfortune waits upon the former, punishment for their depravity quite justly on the latter. In their general ignorance they have failed to perceive even that most obvious truth which even “a witless infant knows,” that the craftsman is superior to the product of his craft both in time, since he is older than what he makes and in a sense its father, and in value, since the efficient element is held in higher esteem than the passive effect.
ז׳
7[70] And while if they were consistent in their sin, they should have deified the sculptors and painters themselves and given them honours on a magnificent scale, they leave them in obscurity and bestow no favour on them, while they regard as gods the figures and pictures made by their workmanship.
ח׳
8[71] The artists have often grown old in poverty and disesteem, and mishap after mishap has accompanied them to the grave, while the works of their art are glorified by the addition of purple and gold and silver and the other costly embellishments which wealth supplies, and are served not merely by ordinary freemen but by men of high birth and great bodily comeliness. For the birth of priests is made a matter for the most careful scrutiny to see whether it is unexceptionable, and the several parts which unite to form the body whether they make a perfect whole.
ט׳
9[72] Horrible as all this is, we have not reached the true horror. The worst is still to come. We have known some of the image-makers offer prayers and sacrifices to their own creations though they would have done much better to worship each of their two hands, or if they were disinclined for that because they shrank from appearing egotistical, to pay their homage to the hammers and anvils and pencils and pincers and the other tools by which their materials were shaped.