1
Aristides begins his critique with the Barbarians.
2
He argues that they failed to distinguish the Creator from created elements and therefore fashioned likenesses, enclosed them in temples, and guarded the images from thieves.
3
His argument is deliberately practical: whatever must be guarded is weaker than the one guarding it.
4
If an image cannot preserve itself from theft, decay, or destruction, it cannot reasonably be treated as the source of deliverance for its worshiper.
5
He then criticizes philosophers who transformed elemental powers into divine figures.
6
Earth, water, fire, and wind are all changeable, divisible, and subject to forces beyond themselves.
7
Whatever is corruptible and compelled cannot be the incorruptible Ruler Aristides has already defined.
8
Thus his first major rule is established: do not give the title of Creator to what belongs within creation.