Fourth-Century Christian Responses to Paganism

Biblical warrants?

You shall have no other gods before me.  You shall not make for yourself an idol... (Exodus 20:3-4, RSV)

Idol worshippers (from the Dura synagogue)

You shall not bow down to their gods, or worship them, or follow their practices, but you shall utterly demolish them and break their pillars in pieces (Exodus 23:24, RSV)

Faith Stomps on Idolatry!

Break down their altars, smash their pillars, burn their sacred poles with fire, and hew down the idols of their gods, and thus blot out their name from their places. (Deuteronomy 12:3, RSV)

Defacement of Egyptian hieroglyph by Christian monks

Pharonic Temple at Luxor; columns in foreground from early Christian basilicas; late medieval mosque

Pagan Statues marked with sign of the cross

Medusa head, originally from pagan temple, now a column base in Justinian's underground cistern in Constantinple

St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, helped disestablish official pagan religion in Rome
(fifth-century mosaic, Sant'Ambrogio, Milan)

Destruction of the Serapeum

The Serapeum (Alexandria), destroyed in 391

Serapis

Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria, standing on the ruins of the Serapeum
(fragment of fifth-century Alexandrian chronicle)