Chapter 2 (139)
152 | THE SENTENCES, BOOK 3
that which has nothing like itself; but a /ikeness has the semblance of some thing, so that, for example, "if someone makes in gold, or wood, or some other material, the semblance of a snake, or a bird, or some other thing, and sets it up for adoration, he did not make an idol, but a likeness.
On the other hand, one who makes a form which the eye has not seen, but the spirit fashions it for itself, as if someone shapes the head of a dog ora ram upon human limbs, or places two faces upon a human figure, he makes not a likeness, but an idol, because he makes something which does not have something else of which it is a likeness."
Chapter 2 (139) 1. HOW AN IDOL IS SAID TO BE NOTHING IN THE WORLD. "It is for that reason that the Apostle says: that an idol is nothing in the world.' For it does not take its appearance from any existing thing, but is what an idle and exceedingly curious mind has devised. A likeness, however, occurs when one shapes something from the things that are either in the sky, or on earth, or in the waters."**»—AUGUSTINE [SAYS] OTHERWISE.— AUGUSTINE, ON JOHN. But Augustine expounds that text as follows: "An idol is nothing in the world, that is, the form of the idol does not exist among the creatures of the world. For God made the material, but the foolishness of man gave the form. All things that are made naturally are made through the Word; but the form of man in an idol is not made through the Word. Similarly, sin is not made through the Word, but is nothing; and men become nothing when they sin."*
2. QUESTION. ON THE EXPOSITION OF THESE WORDS: ALL THINGS ARE
MADE THROUGH HIM. But it is asked how it can be said here that the form of the idol is not made through the Word, since elsewhere we read: "Each form, each structure, each harmony of parts is made through the Word."
—This is resolved differently by different people. For some say that every form, and everything that is, is from God insofar as it is; and the form of the idol, insofar as it is or insofar as it is a form, is from God, but not insofar as it is an idol's, that is, set up for adoration. For in this case it is not a creature, but the perversion of a creature. Similarly, that which is sin, insofar as it is sin, "is nothing; and men become nothing when they sin,"® because they separate themselves from him who truly is —JEROME,
Augustine, Quaestiones in Heptateuchum, q7\.
1 Cor, 8,4.
Cf. Ex. 20, 4; Deut. 5, 8.
*Origen, /n Exodum, hom. 8 n2.
"Augustine, /n Joannem 1, 3, tr. 1 n13.
*[bid.
°Augustine, as above, at end of nl.