Excerpt: It is worth noting that these Malabar Coast Christians were neither incorrect nor alone in their views: The primitive Christians were possessed with an unconquerable repugnance to the use and abuse of images, and this aversion may be ascribed to their descent from the Jews, and their enmity to the Greeks.  The Mosaic law had severely proscribed all representations of the Deity; and that precept was firmly established in the principles and practice of the chosen people.The wit of the Christian apologists was pointed against the foolish idolaters, who bowed before the workmanship of their own hands, the images of brass and marble, which,had they been endowed with sense and motion, should have started rather from the pedestal to adore the creative powers of the artist. (Read more...)