>>701462
They adopted the practice from the Carpocrates
>Marcellina [one of the leaders of carpocrates], who came to Rome under Anicetus, and, holding these doctrines, she led multitudes astray.
>They style themselves Gnostics. They also possess images, some of them painted, and others formed from different kinds of material; while they maintain that a likeness of Christ was made by Pilate at that time when Jesus lived among them.
>They crown these images, and set them up along with the images of the philosophers of the world that is to say, with the images of Pythagoras, and Plato, and Aristotle, and the rest. They have also other modes of honouring these images, after the same manner of the Gentiles.
Of course cathodoxes would say they are not "worshiping" these images, rather "venerate" or "adore" them. Well, Carpocrates describe their idolatry as "honoring" their people and It is written that "Thou shalt not adore them [images], nor serve them[images]: I am the Lord thy God, mighty…"
This isn't the first time was pointed out, when the Eastern churches formed a synod (which later become titled the second council of Nicaea) to deal with the iconoclast controversy, the majority basically said 'if you use Exodus 20:5 against us, then you're a Jew.' rather than intellectual exegesis.
As for the martyrdom of Polycarp
>Marcellina led multitudes of Roman Christians astray
>Roman Christians do what we would expect if Irenaeus of Lyon is correct
>You think this is a rebuttal when you're proving our point.
Cope