Epitome of the Divine Institutes 22.1–35.5
Latin text: CSEL 19 (Latin text: S. Brandt and G. Laubmann (CSEL 19, 1890), digitized by Open Greek and Latin, University of Leipzig (csel-dev), CC BY-SA 4.0).English: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), public domain (CC0). Compare: Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 7 (1886).
Chapter 22
22.1CSEL 19:694
Unum et ultimum restat, ut quoniam plerumque accidit, sicut in historiis legimus, ut maiestatem suam dii ostendisse uideantur per auguria, per somnia, per oracula, tum etiam poenis eorum qui sacrilegia commiserant, doceam quae ratio id effecerit, ne quis etiamnunc in eosdem laqueos incidat quos illi ueteres inciderunt.
One last thing remains: since it often happens, as we read in histories, that the gods seem to have shown their majesty through auguries, dreams, and oracles, and also by the punishment of those who had committed sacrilege, I should show what cause brought this about, so that no one may even now fall into the same snares into which those ancients fell.
Notes and citation
Summary: He will explain the apparent signs and powers of the gods.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 22.1 (CSEL 19:694; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-22-1).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
22.2CSEL 19:694
cum deus pro uirtute maiestatis suae mundum de nihilo condidisset caelumque luminibus adornasset, terram uero et mare conplesset animalibus, tum hominem de limo ad imaginem similitudinis suae figuratum inspirauit ad uitam posuitque eum in Paradiso, quem conseuerat omni genere fructiferi ligni, et praecepit ei ne una ex arbore, in qua posuerat [ei] scientiam boni malique, gustaret, fore interminatus ut uitam perderet, si fecisset, si uero mandatum seruaret, immortalis permaneret.
When God, by the power of his majesty, had founded the world out of nothing and adorned the heaven with lights, and filled the earth and sea with living things, then he formed man from clay after the image of his likeness, breathed into him for life, and placed him in Paradise, which he had planted with every kind of fruit-bearing tree; and he commanded him not to taste of one tree, in which he had placed the knowledge of good and evil, threatening that he would lose life if he did so, but if he kept the command he would remain immortal.
Gen 1:1 (allusion, high confidence) · Gen 1:26 (allusion, high confidence) · Gen 2:7 (allusion, high confidence) · Gen 2:8 (allusion, high confidence) · Gen 2:17 (allusion, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: God created the world from nothing, made man in his image, and forbade him the tree of knowledge.
- The edition brackets “ei” as spurious; it is left out.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR misread in the digital text): uirtnte → uirtute; fignratum → figuratum.
Topics: Scripture and canon
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 22.2 (CSEL 19:694; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-22-2).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
22.3CSEL 19:694
tum serpens, qui erat unus ex dei ministris, inuidens homini, quod esset immortalis effectus, inlexit eum dolo ut mandatum dei legemque transcenderet. et hoc modo scientiam quidem boni ac mali accepit, sed uitam quam perpetuam deus tribuerat amisit.
Then the serpent, who was one of God's ministers, envying man because he had been made immortal, enticed him by deceit to transgress God's command and law. And in this way he did receive the knowledge of good and evil, but lost the life which God had given him to be everlasting.
Gen 3:1 (allusion, high confidence) · Gen 3:6 (allusion, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: The serpent, envious, tempted man, who gained knowledge but lost immortality.
- That the serpent was one of God's ministers (an angel) is Lactantius's own interpretation.
Extrabiblical texts: Wis 2:24 (Wisdom of Solomon [in RC, EO, ETH canons]; echo)
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 22.3 (CSEL 19:694; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-22-3).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
22.4CSEL 19:694
eiecit ergo peccatorem de sancto loco et in hunc orbem relegauit, ut uictum quaereret per laborem, ut difficultates et aerumnas pro merito sustineret, ipsumque Paradisum uallo igneo circumfudit, ne quis hominum ad diem usque iudicii ad locum illum perpetuae beatitudinis conaretur inrepere.
So he cast the sinner out of the holy place and banished him into this world, to seek his food by labour and to endure hardships and troubles as he deserved; and he surrounded Paradise itself with a rampart of fire, so that no human being might try to creep into that place of everlasting blessedness until the day of judgement.
Gen 3:17 (allusion, high confidence) · Gen 3:24 (allusion, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: God expelled man from Paradise and guarded it with fire.
Topics: Eschatology
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 22.4 (CSEL 19:694; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-22-4).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
22.5CSEL 19:694–695
turn secuta est hominem mors ex dei sententia et tamen uita eius, licet temporalis esse coepisset, in mille annis terminum sumpsit et id fuit humanae uitae spatium usque ad cataclysmi tempus. nam post diluuium paulatim uita hominum breuiata et ad annos centum uiginti redacta est.
Then death followed man by God's sentence; and yet his life, although it had begun to be temporal, took its limit at a thousand years, and that was the span of human life until the time of the flood. For after the deluge the life of men was gradually shortened and reduced to a hundred and twenty years.
Gen 5:5 (allusion, medium confidence) · Gen 6:3 (allusion, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Death came; lives lasted up to a thousand years before the flood, then were shortened to 120.
- Genesis gives lifespans just under a thousand years (Gen 5); the 120 years are from Gen 6:3.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 22.5 (CSEL 19:694–695; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-22-5).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
22.6CSEL 19:695
serpens uero ille, qui de factis diabolus id est criminator siue delator nomen accepit, non destitit semen hominis, quem a principio deceperat, persequi.
But that serpent, who from his deeds received the name devil, that is, accuser or informer, did not cease to persecute the seed of the man whom he had deceived from the beginning.
Rev 12:9 (allusion, medium confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: The serpent, called the devil (accuser), kept attacking Adam's descendants.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 22.6 (CSEL 19:695; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-22-6).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
22.7CSEL 19:695
denique eum qui primus in hoc orbe generatus est, inspirato liuore in caedem fratris armauit, ut de duobus primogenitis hominibus alterum extingueret, alterum faceret parricidam.
Finally he armed him who was first born in this world, breathing envy into him, for the murder of his brother, so that of the first two men born he might destroy the one and make the other a fratricide.
Gen 4:8 (allusion, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: The devil incited Cain to murder Abel.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 22.7 (CSEL 19:695; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-22-7).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
22.8CSEL 19:695
nec quieuit deinceps quominus per singulas generationes pectoribus hominum malitiae uirus infunderet, corrumperet deprauaret, tantis denique sceleribus obrueret, ut iustitiae iam rarum esset exemplum, sed uiuerent homines ritu beluarum.
Nor did he rest thereafter from pouring the poison of malice into human hearts in each generation, corrupting and depraving them, overwhelming them finally with such great crimes that an example of righteousness was now rare, and people lived in the manner of beasts.
Gen 6:5 (allusion, medium confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: In every generation the devil corrupted mankind until righteousness was rare.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 22.8 (CSEL 19:695; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-22-8).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
22.9CSEL 19:695
quod deus cum uideret, angelos suos misit, ut uitam hominum excolerent eosque ab omni malo tuerentur. his mandatum dedit ut se terrenis abstinerent, ne qua labe maculati honore angelico multarentur.
When God saw this, he sent his angels to cultivate human life and protect people from every evil. He gave them a command to keep themselves from earthly things, lest, stained with some defilement, they be deprived of angelic honour.
Gen 6:2 (allusion, medium confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: God sent angels to guard mankind, forbidding them earthly contact.
- The account of the angels' fall follows the tradition of 1 Enoch 6–10 rather than the wording of Gen 6:1–4.
Extrabiblical texts: 1 En. 6–7 (1 Enoch [in the ETH canon]; allusion)
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 22.9 (CSEL 19:695; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-22-9).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
22.10CSEL 19:695
sed eos quoque idem ille subdolus criminator, dum inter homines commorantur, inlexit ad uoluptates, ut se cum mulieribus inquinarent. tum damnati sententia dei et ob peccata proiecti et nomen angelorum et substantiam perdiderunt.
But that same crafty accuser, while they were living among men, enticed them also to pleasures, so that they defiled themselves with women. Then, condemned by God's sentence and cast down for their sins, they lost both the name and the substance of angels.
Gen 6:2 (allusion, high confidence) · Jude 1:6 (allusion, medium confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: The devil lured the angels to sin with women, and they lost their angelic nature.
Extrabiblical texts: 1 En. 6–7 (1 Enoch [in the ETH canon]; allusion)
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 22.10 (CSEL 19:695; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-22-10).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
22.11CSEL 19:695
ita diaboli satellites facti, ut habeant solacium perditionis suae, ad perdendos homines conuerterunt, quos ut tuerentur aduenerant.
So, having become the devil's henchmen, to have some consolation for their own ruin they turned to ruining the men they had come to protect.
Notes and citation
Summary: The fallen angels now seek to destroy mankind.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 22.11 (CSEL 19:695; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-22-11).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
Chapter 23
23.1CSEL 19:695
Hi sunt daemones, de quibus poetae saepe in carminibus suis locuntur, quos custodes hominum appellat Hesiodus. ita enim persuaserunt hominibus inlecebris atque fallaciis suis, ut eosdem deos esse crederent.
These are the demons of whom the poets often speak in their songs, whom Hesiod calls the guardians of men. For by their enticements and deceits they so persuaded men that they believed these same beings to be gods.
Notes and citation
Summary: These are the demons the poets speak of, whom people took for gods.
- Hesiod, Op. 122–126.
Extrabiblical texts: Hesiod, Op. 122–126 (Hesiod, Works and Days; allusion)
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 23.1 (CSEL 19:695; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-23-1).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
23.2CSEL 19:695–696
denique Socrates habere se a prima pueritia custodem rectoremque uitae suae daemonem praedicabat, sine cuius nutu et imperio nihil agere posset.
Finally, Socrates declared that from earliest boyhood he had a demon as guardian and guide of his life, without whose assent and command he could do nothing.
Notes and citation
Summary: Socrates claimed a guiding demon from childhood.
- Compare Plato, Apol. 31c–d.
Extrabiblical texts: Plato, Apol. 31c–d (Plato (works); allusion)
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 23.2 (CSEL 19:695–696; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-23-2).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
23.3CSEL 19:696
adhaerent ergo singulis et sub nomine geniorum aut penatium domos occupant. his sacraria constituuntur, his cottidie libatur ut laribus, his honos datur tamquam malorum depulsoribus;
They cling, then, to individuals, and under the name of genii or penates occupy houses. Shrines are set up to them, daily libations are poured to them as to the Lares, honour is given them as averters of evils;
Notes and citation
Summary: Demons are worshipped in homes as genii, penates, and Lares.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR misread in the digital text): suh nomine → sub nomine; penatiuin → penatium.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 23.3 (CSEL 19:696; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-23-3).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
23.4CSEL 19:696
hi a principio ut auerterent homines a dei ueri agnitione, nouas religiones et cultus deorum introduxerunt, hi memorias regum mortuorum consecrari, templa constitui, simulacra fieri docuerunt, non ut honorem dei minuerent aut suum augerent, quem peccando amiserant, sed ut uitam hominibus eriperent, spem uerae lucis auferrent, ne homines, unde illi exciderunt, ad immortalitatis caeleste praemium peruenirent.
they from the beginning, to turn men away from the knowledge of the true God, introduced new religions and cults of gods; they taught that the memories of dead kings be consecrated, temples established, images made, not to diminish the honour of God or to increase their own, which they had lost by sinning, but to snatch life from men, to take away the hope of the true light, so that men might not reach the heavenly reward of immortality from which they themselves had fallen.
Notes and citation
Summary: The demons invented idolatry to keep people from God and eternal life.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 23.4 (CSEL 19:696; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-23-4).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
23.5CSEL 19:696
idem astrologiam prodiderunt et auguratum et aruspicinam: quae cum per se falsa sint, tamen ipsi auctores malorum sic ea gubernant, sic temperant, ut uera credantur.
They also handed down astrology and augury and haruspicy; and though these are false in themselves, yet the very authors of evils so govern and regulate them that they are believed to be true.
Notes and citation
Summary: Demons invented astrology and divination and make them seem true.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 23.5 (CSEL 19:696; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-23-5).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
23.6CSEL 19:696
ipsi etiam magicae artis praestigias ad circumscribendos oculos reppererunt — illorum adspiratione fit ut
They too invented the illusions of the magic art to deceive the eyes (by their breathing-upon it comes about that
Notes and citation
Summary: Demons are behind magical illusions.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 23.6 (CSEL 19:696; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-23-6).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
23.7CSEL 19:696
quod sit, non esse et quod non sit, esse uideatur —, ipsi necyomantias, ipsi sortes et oracula, ut mentes hominum per ambiguos exitus mentita diuinatione deludant. in templis uero et sacrificiis omnibus praesentes adsunt et prodigiis quibusdam fallacibus editis ad miraculum praesentium sic homines circumueniunt, ut inesse numen simulacris et imaginibus credant.
what is seems not to be, and what is not seems to be); they invented necromancy, lots and oracles, to mock men's minds with lying divination by ambiguous outcomes. And in temples and at all sacrifices they are present, and by producing certain deceptive wonders to amaze those present, they so deceive men that they believe divinity dwells in statues and images.
Notes and citation
Summary: Demons work through necromancy, oracles, and false wonders in temples.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 23.7 (CSEL 19:696; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-23-7).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
23.8CSEL 19:696–697
inrepunt etiam corporibus ut spiritus tenues uitiatisque membris morbos conciunt, quos sacrificiis uotisque placati postmodum relaxent, somnia inmittunt aut plane terrores, ut ipsi rogentur, aut quorum exitus respondelaiit ueritati, ut uenerationem sui augeant.
They also creep into bodies as subtle spirits and stir up diseases in the damaged members, which afterwards, appeased by sacrifices and vows, they relax; they send dreams or outright terrors, so that they themselves may be entreated, or dreams whose outcome answers to the truth, so as to increase veneration of themselves.
Notes and citation
Summary: Demons cause illness and dreams to win worship.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 23.8 (CSEL 19:696–697; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-23-8).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
23.9CSEL 19:697
nonnumquam etiam in sacrilegos edunt aliquid ultionis, ut quisquis uiderit, timidior ac religiosior fiat. sic fraudibus suis obduxerunt humano generi tenebras, ut oppressa ueritate summi ac singularis dei nomen in obliuionem ueniret.
Sometimes too they inflict some vengeance on the sacrilegious, so that whoever sees it may become more fearful and religious. So by their frauds they have drawn darkness over the human race, so that, the truth being suppressed, the name of the supreme and only God might pass into oblivion.
Notes and citation
Summary: By such frauds demons have hidden the one God from mankind.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR misread in the digital text): aiquid → aliquid.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 23.9 (CSEL 19:697; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-23-9).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
Chapter 24
24.1CSEL 19:697
Sed dicet quispiam: cur ergo uerus ille deus patitur haec fieri ac non potius malos uel summouet uel extinguit? cur uero ipse daemoniarchen a principio fecit, ut esset qui cuncta corrumperet, cuncta disperderet?
But someone will say: Why then does that true God allow these things to happen, and not rather remove or destroy the wicked? And why did he himself make a prince of demons from the beginning, to be one who would corrupt and ruin everything?
Notes and citation
Summary: Why does God permit evil and why did he make the devil?
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 24.1 (CSEL 19:697; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-24-1).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
24.2CSEL 19:697
dicam breuiter cur hunc talem esse uoluerit. quaero utrumne uirtus bonum sit an malum. negari non potest, quin bonum. si bonum est uirtus, malum est igitur e contrario uitium.
I will say briefly why he willed him to be such. I ask whether virtue is a good or an evil. It cannot be denied that it is a good. If virtue is a good, then vice, its contrary, is an evil.
Notes and citation
Summary: Virtue is good, so vice, its opposite, is evil.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 24.2 (CSEL 19:697; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-24-2).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
24.3CSEL 19:697
si uitium ex eo malum est, quia uirtutem inpugnat, et uirtus ex eo bonum est, quia uitium adfligit, ergo non potest uirtus sine uitio consistere et si uitium sustuleris, uirtutis merita tollentur. nec enim potest ulla fieri sine hoste uictoria. ita fit ut bonum sine malo esse non possit.
If vice is evil because it attacks virtue, and virtue is good because it strikes down vice, then virtue cannot exist without vice, and if you take away vice, the merits of virtue will be taken away. For no victory can be won without an enemy. So it comes about that good cannot exist without evil.
Notes and citation
Summary: Virtue needs vice to overcome, so good cannot exist without evil.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 24.3 (CSEL 19:697; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-24-3).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
24.4CSEL 19:697
uidit hoc Chrysippus uir acris ingenii de prouidentia disserens eosque stultitiae redarguit, qui bonum quidem a deo factum putant, malum autem negant. huius sententiam interpretatus est A.
Chrysippus, a man of keen mind, saw this when discussing providence, and he convicts of folly those who think that good was made by God but deny that evil was. His view is set out by Aulus
Notes and citation
Summary: Chrysippus rejected the idea that God made good but not evil.
- The sentence continues in the next section.
Extrabiblical texts: Chrysippus, On Providence 4 (Chrysippus; allusion); Aulus Gellius, Noct. att. 7.1.1 (Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights; allusion)
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 24.4 (CSEL 19:697; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-24-4).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
24.5CSEL 19:697–698
Gellius in libris Noctium Atticarum sic dicens: quibus non uidetur mundus dei et hominum causa institutus neque res humanae prouidentia gubernari, graui se argumento uti putant, cum ita dicunt: si esset prouidentia, nulla essent mala. nihil enim minus aiunt prouidentiae congruere quam in eo mundo quem propter homines fecisse dicatur, tantam uim esse aerumnarum et malorum.
Gellius in the books of the Attic Nights, speaking thus: “Those who do not think that the world was established for the sake of God and men, nor that human affairs are governed by providence, think they are using a weighty argument when they say: ‘If there were providence, there would be no evils.’ For nothing, they say, fits providence less than that in the world which it is said to have made for the sake of men there should be such a mass of troubles and evils.
Notes and citation
Summary: Gellius reports the argument that evils disprove providence.
- Aulus Gellius, Noct. att. 7.1.1–13, quoting Chrysippus.
Extrabiblical texts: Aulus Gellius, Noct. att. 7.1.1–13 (Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights; quotation)
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 24.5 (CSEL 19:697–698; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-24-5).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
24.6CSEL 19:698
ad ea Chrysippus cum in libro xept rpovota; quarto dissereret, nihil prorsus inquit istis insulsius qui opinantur bona esse potuisse, si non essent itidem mala.
Against these Chrysippus, discussing it in the fourth book On Providence, says: ‘Nothing is more foolish than those who think that goods could have existed if there were not likewise evils.
Notes and citation
Summary: Chrysippus replies that goods cannot exist without evils.
- The Greek title Περὶ προνοίας is garbled in the digital text.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (words run together in the digital text): ad eaChrysippus → ad ea Chrysippus.
Extrabiblical texts: Chrysippus, On Providence 4 (Chrysippus; quotation)
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 24.6 (CSEL 19:698; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-24-6).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
24.7CSEL 19:698
nam cum bona malis contraria sint, utraque necesse est opposita esse inter se et quasi mutuo aduersoque fulta nisu consistere: nullum adeo contrarium est sine contrario altero.
For since goods are contrary to evils, both must be set against each other and stand supported, as it were, by mutual and opposing pressure: no contrary exists at all without its other contrary.
Notes and citation
Summary: Contraries need each other to exist.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 24.7 (CSEL 19:698; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-24-7).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
24.8CSEL 19:698
quo enim pacto iustitiae sensus esse posset, nisi essent iniuriae, aut quid aliud iustitia est quam iniustitiae priuatio? quid item fortitudo intellegi potest nisi ex ignauiae adpositione, quid continentia nisi ex intemperantia? quo item modo prudentia esset, nisi foret contraria inprudentia?
For how could there be a sense of justice unless there were injuries? Or what else is justice but the absence of injustice? How likewise can courage be understood except by setting cowardice beside it? Or self-control except from intemperance? How likewise would there be prudence unless imprudence were its contrary?
Notes and citation
Summary: Each virtue is understood only by its opposite vice.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 24.8 (CSEL 19:698; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-24-8).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
24.9CSEL 19:698
proinde inquit homines stulti cur non hoc etiam desiderant, ut ueritas sit et non sit mendacium? namque itidem sunt bona et mala, felicitas et inportunitas, uoluptas et dolor. alterum enim ex altero, sicut Plato ait, uerticibus inter se contrariis deligatum: si tuleris unum, abs-
Therefore,’ he says, ‘why do foolish men not also wish that there should be truth and no falsehood? For in the same way there are goods and evils, happiness and misfortune, pleasure and pain. For one is bound to the other, as Plato says, by opposite ends: if you take away one, you take
Notes and citation
Summary: Truth implies falsehood; so too good and evil, pleasure and pain, are bound together.
- Plato, Phaed. 60b.
Extrabiblical texts: Plato, Phaed. 60b (Plato (works); allusion)
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 24.9 (CSEL 19:698; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-24-9).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
24.10CSEL 19:698
tuleris utrumque. uides ergo, id quod saepe dixi, bonum et malum ita sibi esse conexa, ut alterum sine altero constare non possit.
away both.’” You see, then, what I have often said, that good and evil are so connected that one cannot stand without the other.
Notes and citation
Summary: Good and evil cannot exist apart.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 24.10 (CSEL 19:698; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-24-10).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
24.11CSEL 19:698–699
summa igitur prudentia deus materiam uirtutis in malis posuit: quae idcirco fecit, ut uobis constitueret agonem, in quo uictores inmortalitatis praemio coronaret.
With the highest wisdom, therefore, God placed the material of virtue in evils; and he made these so as to set up a contest for you, in which he might crown the victors with the reward of immortality.
2 Tim 4:7 (echo, low confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: God allowed evils as a contest in which the virtuous win immortality.
Topics: Ethics, Eschatology
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 24.11 (CSEL 19:698–699; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-24-11).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
Chapter 25
25.1CSEL 19:699
Docui, ut opinor, cultus deorum non modo impios, sed etiam uanos esse, uel quod homines fuerint, quorum memoria post obitum consecrata sit, uel quod simulacra ipsa insensibilia et surda sint, quia sunt ficta de terra, nec oportere hominem, qui debeat spectare caelestia, terrenis se subiugare, uel quod spiritus qui eas religiones sibi uindicant, incesti et inpuri sint et ideo dei sententia condemnati ceciderint in terram, nec fas esse in eorum dicionem uenire quibus potior sis, si deum uerum sequi uelis.
I have shown, I think, that the cults of the gods are not only impious but also vain: either because they were men whose memory was consecrated after death; or because the images themselves are senseless and deaf, being fashioned from earth, and a human being, who ought to look to heavenly things, should not subject himself to earthly ones; or because the spirits who claim those religions for themselves are unchaste and impure and therefore, condemned by God's sentence, fell to earth, and it is not right to come under the power of those to whom you are superior, if you wish to follow the true God.
Notes and citation
Summary: Summary: pagan worship is impious and vain, being given to dead men, lifeless images, and fallen spirits.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 25.1 (CSEL 19:699; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-25-1).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
25.2CSEL 19:699
Superest ut quoniam de falsa religione diximus, etiam de falsa sapientia disseramus, quam philosophi profitentur homines summa quidem doctrina et eloquentia praediti, sed longe a ueritate summoti, quia nec deum nec sapientiam dei cognouerunt.
It remains, since we have spoken of false religion, that we also discuss false wisdom, which the philosophers profess: men endowed indeed with the highest learning and eloquence, but far removed from the truth, because they knew neither God nor the wisdom of God.
Notes and citation
Summary: Next he turns to the false wisdom of the philosophers.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 25.2 (CSEL 19:699; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-25-2).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
25.3CSEL 19:699
qui licet sint arguti ac diserti, tamen quia humana est eorum sapientia, etiam cum his congredi non uerebor, ut appareat a ueritate mendacium, a caelestibus terrena facile posse superari. quid sit philosophia hoc modo definiunt:
Although they are subtle and eloquent, yet because their wisdom is human, I will not be afraid to engage with them too, so that it may be clear that falsehood can easily be overcome by truth, and earthly things by heavenly. They define what philosophy is in this way:
Notes and citation
Summary: Human wisdom can be overcome by heavenly truth.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 25.3 (CSEL 19:699; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-25-3).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
25.4CSEL 19:699
philosophia est amor uel studium sapientiae. (si amor est sapientiae,) non est ergo ipsa sapientia, quia necesse est aliut esse quod amat, aliud quod amatur. si studium est sapientiae, ne sic quidem philosophia sapientia est. sapientia enim res est ipsa quae quaeritur, studium uero quod quaerit.
Philosophy is the love or pursuit of wisdom. If it is the love of wisdom, it is not therefore wisdom itself, since that which loves must be different from that which is loved. If it is the pursuit of wisdom, not even so is philosophy wisdom. For wisdom is the thing itself which is sought, and pursuit is that which seeks.
Notes and citation
Summary: Philosophy, as love or pursuit of wisdom, is not wisdom itself.
- The clause “If it is the love of wisdom” is the editor's supplement.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 25.4 (CSEL 19:699; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-25-4).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
25.5CSEL 19:699
ipsa igitur definitio uel nominis significatio declarat philosophiam non esse ipsam sapientiam. dicam ne studium quidem esse sapientiae quo sapientia non conprehenditur. quis enim studere dicatur ei rei quam nullo modo possit attingere?
The very definition, then, or the meaning of the name, declares that philosophy is not wisdom itself. I will say that it is not even the pursuit of wisdom, since by it wisdom is not grasped. For who could be said to pursue a thing he can in no way attain?
Notes and citation
Summary: It is not even a real pursuit, since it never attains wisdom.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 25.5 (CSEL 19:699; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-25-5).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
25.6CSEL 19:699–700
qui medicinae aut grammaticae aut oratoriae studet, studiosus eius artis quam discit dici potest: oł,i di<licit, iam medicus, iam grammaticus, iam orator dicitur. sic °I,fJrtuit et studiosos sapientiae, postquam didicissent, sapientes nominari.
One who pursues medicine or grammar or oratory can be called a student of the art he is learning; one who has learned it is called a physician, a grammarian, an orator. So too the students of wisdom ought to have been called wise once they had learned.
Notes and citation
Summary: Students of other arts earn a title when they finish; philosophers never become wise.
- The digital text is garbled here (“oł,i di<licit”, “°I,fJrtuit”), read as qui didicit and oportuit.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR misread in the digital text): sapienh-s → sapientes.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 25.6 (CSEL 19:699–700; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-25-6).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
25.7CSEL 19:700
cum autem studiosi sapientiae quamdiu uiuant uocentur, apparet illut studium non esse quo ad ipsam rem quae studio petitur non potest perueniri; nisi forte qui ad finem usque uitae ut sapiant student, apud inferos sapientes erunt. omni autem studio subiacet finis. non est igitur id studium rectum quod non habet finem.
But since they are called students of wisdom as long as they live, it is plain that this is not a pursuit, since by it one cannot reach the very thing sought; unless perhaps those who pursue wisdom to the end of life will be wise in the underworld. But every pursuit has an end beneath it. That pursuit is not right, then, which has no end.
Notes and citation
Summary: A pursuit that never reaches its goal is not a true pursuit.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 25.7 (CSEL 19:700; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-25-7).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
Chapter 26
26.1CSEL 19:700
Praeterea duo sunt quae cadere in philosophiam uidentur, scientia et opinatio: quae si auferantur, tota philosophia corruit. atquin utrumque philosophiae ipsi philosophorum principes ademerunt. scientiam Socrates, opinationem sustulit Zeno, uideamus an recte.
Moreover, there are two things that seem to belong to philosophy, knowledge and opinion; if these are taken away, the whole of philosophy collapses. Yet the leaders of the philosophers themselves took both away from philosophy: Socrates removed knowledge, Zeno opinion. Let us see whether rightly.
Notes and citation
Summary: Socrates denied knowledge and Zeno opinion, undermining philosophy.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 26.1 (CSEL 19:700; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-26-1).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
26.2CSEL 19:700
sapientia est, ut Cicero definiuit, diuinarum et humanarum rerum scientia. quae definitio si uera est, non cadit in hominem sapientia.
Wisdom is, as Cicero defined it, the knowledge of divine and human things. If this definition is true, wisdom does not belong to man.
Notes and citation
Summary: If wisdom is knowledge of divine and human things, humans cannot have it.
- Cicero, Off. 2.5; Tusc. 4.57.
Extrabiblical texts: Cicero, Off. 2.5 (Cicero; quotation)
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 26.2 (CSEL 19:700; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-26-2).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
26.3CSEL 19:700
quis enim mortalium hoc sibi possit adsumere, ut diuina et humana scire se profiteatur? humana omitto: quae quamquam cum diuinis conexa sunt, tamen quia sunt hominis, concedamus ut homo illa scire possit.
For which of mortals could claim for himself that he professes to know divine and human things? I leave aside human things: although they are connected with divine ones, yet because they belong to man, let us grant that man can know them.
Notes and citation
Summary: Humans may know human things.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 26.3 (CSEL 19:700; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-26-3).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
26.4CSEL 19:700
diuina certe per se scire non potest, quia homo est: qui autem scit illa, diuinus sit necesse est ac propterea deus. homo autem nec diuinus nec deus est. non potest igitur per (se) scire homo diuina. nemo ergo sapiens nisi deus aut certe is homo quem deus docuit.
Divine things he certainly cannot know by himself, because he is human; and whoever knows them must be divine and therefore God. But man is neither divine nor God. Man cannot, then, know divine things by himself. So no one is wise except God, or at least the man whom God has taught.
Notes and citation
Summary: Only God, or one taught by God, can be wise.
Topics: Scripture and canon
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 26.4 (CSEL 19:700; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-26-4).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
26.5CSEL 19:700
illi autem quia nec dii sunt nec a deo docti, sapientes ergo id est diuinarum et humanarum rerum scientes esse non possunt. recte igitur a Socrate atque Academicis scientia sublata est.
But they, since they are neither gods nor taught by God, cannot be wise, that is, knowers of divine and human things. Rightly, then, was knowledge removed by Socrates and the Academics.
Notes and citation
Summary: Philosophers, untaught by God, cannot be wise.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 26.5 (CSEL 19:700; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-26-5).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
26.6CSEL 19:700–701
opinatio quoque non congruit sapienti: id enim quisque opinatur quod ignorat. opinari autem scire te quod ignores, temeritas ac stultitia est. recte igitur opinatio a Zenone sublata est. si ergo scientia in homine nulla est et opinatio esse non debet, philosophia radicitus amputatur.
Opinion too does not befit the wise man: for each person opines what he does not know. And to opine that you know what you do not know is rashness and folly. Rightly, then, was opinion removed by Zeno. If, then, there is no knowledge in man and there ought to be no opinion, philosophy is cut off at the root.
Notes and citation
Summary: With knowledge and opinion both removed, philosophy has no root.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR misread in the digital text): temeritas ae stultitia → temeritas ac stultitia.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 26.6 (CSEL 19:700–701; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-26-6).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
Chapter 27
27.1CSEL 19:701
Huc accedit quod non est uniformis, sed diuisa in sectas et in multas discrepantesque sententias dissipata statum non habet. cum enim singulae alias omnes inpugnent et adfligant nec sit aliqua ex iis quae non indicio ceterarum stultitiae condemnetur, utique discordantibus membris corpus omne philosophiae ad interitum deducitur.
Add to this that it is not uniform, but divided into sects and scattered into many discordant opinions, it has no stability. For since each attacks and strikes down all the others, and there is none of them that is not condemned of folly by the judgement of the rest, the whole body of philosophy is brought to destruction by its discordant members.
Notes and citation
Summary: Philosophy's sects condemn one another and so destroy it.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 27.1 (CSEL 19:701; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-27-1).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
27.2CSEL 19:701
hinc Academia postmodum nata est. nam cum uiderent eius sectae principes omnem philosophiam philosophis inuicem oppugnantibus esse subuersam, susceperunt aduersus omnes bellum, ut omnia omnium dissoluerent, nihil ipsi adserentes nisi unum, nihil sciri posse.
Hence the Academy arose later. For when the leaders of that sect saw that all philosophy had been overturned by the philosophers fighting one another, they undertook war against all, so as to dissolve everything of everyone, asserting nothing themselves except one thing: that nothing can be known.
Notes and citation
Summary: The Academics attacked all schools, asserting only that nothing can be known.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 27.2 (CSEL 19:701; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-27-2).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
27.3CSEL 19:701
ita sublata scientia philosophiam ueterem subruerunt. sed ne ipsi quidem philosophorum nomen retinuerunt qui ignorantiam fatebantur, quia nescire omnia non modo philosophi, sed ne hominis quidem sit.
So, by taking away knowledge, they undermined the old philosophy. But not even they themselves kept the name of philosophers, since they confessed ignorance; for to know nothing belongs not only not to a philosopher but not even to a human being.
Notes and citation
Summary: By professing ignorance the Academics lost even the name of philosophers.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 27.3 (CSEL 19:701; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-27-3).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
27.4CSEL 19:701
ita (fit ut) philosophi quia nihil munimenti habent, mutuis se uulneribus extinguant et ipsa tota philosophia suis se armis consumat ac finiat.
So it comes about that the philosophers, since they have no defence, destroy one another by mutual wounds, and the whole of philosophy consumes and ends itself with its own weapons.
Notes and citation
Summary: Philosophy destroys itself.
- “it comes about that” is the editor's supplement.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 27.4 (CSEL 19:701; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-27-4).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
27.5CSEL 19:701
at enim sola physice labat. quid? illa moralis num aliqua firmitate subnixa est? uideamus an philosophi in hac saltem parte consentiant, quae ad uitae statum pertinet.
But, it will be said, only natural philosophy totters. What then? Is moral philosophy supported by any firmness? Let us see whether the philosophers agree at least in this part, which concerns the conduct of life.
Notes and citation
Summary: Do philosophers at least agree on ethics?
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 27.5 (CSEL 19:701; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-27-5).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
Chapter 28
28.1CSEL 19:701–702
Quod sit in uita summum bonum quaeri necesse est, ut ad illut uita omnis et actiones nostrae deligantur. cum de hominis summo bono quaeritur, tale constitui debet, primum ut id ad hominem solum pertineat, deinde ut animi sit proprium, postremo ut uirtute quaeratur.
It is necessary to ask what is the highest good in life, so that all life and our actions may be directed to it. When the highest good of man is asked about, it ought to be defined such that, first, it belongs to man alone; next, that it is proper to the soul; finally, that it is sought by virtue.
Notes and citation
Summary: The highest good must belong to man alone, to the soul, and be gained by virtue.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 28.1 (CSEL 19:701–702; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-28-1).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
28.2CSEL 19:702
uideamus ergo an summum bonum quod philosophi determinant tale sit, ut nec mutum animal nec corpus attingat nec possit sine uirtute conquiri.
Let us see, then, whether the highest good which the philosophers determine is such that it touches neither a dumb animal nor the body and cannot be obtained without virtue.
Notes and citation
Summary: He will test the philosophers' definitions by these criteria.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 28.2 (CSEL 19:702; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-28-2).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
28.3CSEL 19:702
Aristippus Cyrenaicae sectae conditor, qui summum bonum esse censuit corporis uoluptatem, de numero philosophorum deque coetu hominum propellendus est, quia se pecudi conparauit.
Aristippus, founder of the Cyrenaic sect, who judged bodily pleasure to be the highest good, must be driven out of the number of philosophers and the company of men, since he compared himself to a beast.
Notes and citation
Summary: Aristippus, who made bodily pleasure the highest good, likened himself to a beast.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 28.3 (CSEL 19:702; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-28-3).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
28.4CSEL 19:702
Hieronymi summum bonum est nihil dolere, Diodori, dolere desinere. sed (et) ceterae animantes dolorem fugiunt et cum non dolent aut dolere desinunt, gaudent quid igitur homini dabitur eximium, si bonum eius summum commune cum beluis iudicatur?
The highest good of Hieronymus is to feel no pain; of Diodorus, to cease feeling pain. But the other animals too flee pain, and when they do not feel pain or cease to feel it, they rejoice. What, then, will be given to man as special, if his highest good is judged to be shared with the beasts?
Notes and citation
Summary: Freedom from pain is shared with animals and cannot be man's highest good.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 28.4 (CSEL 19:702; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-28-4).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
28.5CSEL 19:702
Zeno summum bonum putauit cum natura congruenter uiuere. at haec definitio generalis est. omnes enim animantes cum natura congruenter uiuunt et est sua cuique natura.
Zeno thought the highest good was to live in agreement with nature. But this definition is general. For all living things live in agreement with nature, and each has its own nature.
Notes and citation
Summary: Zeno's “living according to nature” applies to all creatures.
Extrabiblical texts: Zeno of Citium, Zeno (Zeno of Citium; allusion)
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 28.5 (CSEL 19:702; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-28-5).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
28.6CSEL 19:702
Epicurus animi adseruit uoluptatem. quid est uoluptas animi nisi gaudium, quo plerumque luxuriat animus ac relaxatur uel ad lusum uel ad risum? sed hoc bonum etiam muta contingit, quae cum pabulis saturata sunt, in gaudium et lasciuiam resoluuntur.
Epicurus asserted pleasure of the mind. What is pleasure of the mind but joy, in which the mind often grows wanton and relaxes either to play or to laughter? But this good befalls dumb animals too, which, when sated with fodder, dissolve into joy and friskiness.
Notes and citation
Summary: Epicurus's pleasure of the mind is also found in well-fed animals.
Extrabiblical texts: Epicurus (Epicurus (sayings and fragments); allusion)
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 28.6 (CSEL 19:702; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-28-6).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
28.7CSEL 19:702
Dinomachus et Callipho honestam uoluptatem probauerunt, sed aut idem dixerunt quod Epicurus, ut corporis sit uoluptas inhonesta, aut si corporis uoluptates alias turpes, alias honestas putauerunt, iam non est summum bonum quod corpori adscribitur.
Dinomachus and Callipho approved honourable pleasure; but either they said the same as Epicurus, so that bodily pleasure is dishonourable, or, if they thought some bodily pleasures shameful and others honourable, then that which is assigned to the body is no longer the highest good.
Notes and citation
Summary: “Honourable pleasure” either repeats Epicurus or still makes a bodily good supreme.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 28.7 (CSEL 19:702; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-28-7).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
28.8CSEL 19:702–703
Peripatetici ex bonis animi et corporis et fortunae summum bonum conflant. animi bona probari possunt. sed si auxilio indigent ad conplendam beatitudinem, utique inbecilla sunt. corporis uero atque fortunae non sunt in hominis potestatem nec iam summum bonum est quod aut corpori aut extra positis adsignatur, quia et pecudes attingit hoc duplex bonum, quibus opus est, ut et bene ualeant et uictu non indigeant.
The Peripatetics compound the highest good out of goods of the soul, of the body, and of fortune. The goods of the soul can be approved; but if they need help to complete happiness, they are surely weak. Those of the body and of fortune are not in man's power, and that is no longer the highest good which is assigned either to the body or to things outside, because this twofold good reaches the beasts too, which need to be in good health and not to lack food.
Notes and citation
Summary: The Peripatetic mixture of goods depends on things outside our control shared with animals.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 28.8 (CSEL 19:702–703; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-28-8).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
28.9CSEL 19:703
Stoici aliquanto melius sensisse creduntur, qui summum bonum uirtutem esse dixerunt. sed uirtus non potest esse summum bonum, quoniam si malorum laborumque tolerantia est, beata per se non est, sed efficere ac procreare summum bonum debet, quia perueniri ad illut sine difficultate ac labore maximo non potest.
The Stoics are believed to have judged somewhat better, who said that the highest good is virtue. But virtue cannot be the highest good, since if it is the endurance of evils and labours, it is not blessed in itself, but it ought to bring about and produce the highest good, because that cannot be reached without difficulty and the greatest labour.
Notes and citation
Summary: Virtue is not itself the highest good but the means to it.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 28.9 (CSEL 19:703; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-28-9).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
28.10CSEL 19:703
at uero Aristoteles longe a ratione aberrauit, qui honestatem uirtuti copulauit: quasi aliquando uirtus aut ab honestate secerni aut turpitudini possit adiungi. Herillus Pyrrhonius scientiam fecit summum bonum.
But Aristotle wandered far from reason, who joined honour to virtue, as if virtue could ever be separated from honour or joined to baseness. Herillus the Pyrrhonist made knowledge the highest good.
Notes and citation
Summary: Aristotle linked virtue with honour; Herillus made knowledge the highest good.
- Herillus of Carthage was a Stoic, a pupil of Zeno; “Pyrrhonius” may be a slip in the tradition.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR misread in the digital text): ratone → ratione.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 28.10 (CSEL 19:703; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-28-10).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
28.11CSEL 19:703
haec quidem et hominis et animi solius est, sed potest sine uirtute contingere. nec enim beatus putandus est qui uel auditu aliquid didicerit uel parua lectione cognouerit, nec est summi boni definitio, quia potest esse aut rerum malarum aut certe inutilium scientia.
This indeed belongs to man and to the soul alone, but it can come about without virtue. For he is not to be thought happy who has learned something by hearing or come to know it by a little reading; nor is it a definition of the highest good, since there can be knowledge of evil things or at least of useless ones.
Notes and citation
Summary: Knowledge can be gained without virtue and can concern bad or useless things.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 28.11 (CSEL 19:703; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-28-11).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
28.12CSEL 19:703
et si sit bonarum et utilium quam labore sis adsecutus, summum tamen bonum non est, quia non propter se expetitur scientia, sed propter aliut. nam idcirco artes discuntur, ut sint nobis aut uictui aut gloriae aut etiam uoluptati: quae utique summa bona esse non possunt.
And even if it is of good and useful things, which you have acquired by labour, it is still not the highest good, because knowledge is sought not for its own sake but for something else. For arts are learned so that they may serve us for a living, or for glory, or even for pleasure: none of which can be the highest good.
Notes and citation
Summary: Knowledge is sought for other ends and so is not the highest good.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 28.12 (CSEL 19:703; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-28-12).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
28.13CSEL 19:703
ergo ne in ethica quidem philosophi regulam tenent, quandoquidem in ipso cardine, id est in ea disputatione qua uita formatur, inter se pugnant.
So not even in ethics do the philosophers hold to a rule, since at the very hinge, that is, in the discussion by which life is shaped, they fight among themselves.
Notes and citation
Summary: Philosophers disagree even on the foundation of ethics.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 28.13 (CSEL 19:703; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-28-13).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
28.14CSEL 19:703–704
nec enim possunt paria esse aut similia praecepta, cum alii forment ad uoluptatem, alii ad honestatem, alii uero ad naturam, alii ad scientiam, alii ad quaerendas, alii ad fugiendas opes, alii ad nihil dolendum, alii ad patientiam malorum: in quibus omnibus, sicut superius ostendi, a ratione declinant, quia deum nesciunt.
For their precepts cannot be equal or similar, since some train men for pleasure, others for honour, others for nature, others for knowledge, some for seeking wealth, others for fleeing it, some for feeling no pain, others for enduring evils: in all of which, as I showed above, they turn aside from reason, because they do not know God.
Notes and citation
Summary: Their conflicting precepts err because they do not know God.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 28.14 (CSEL 19:703–704; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-28-14).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
Chapter 29
29.1CSEL 19:704
Videamus nunc quod [quid sit summum bonum] sit propositum sapienti summum bonum. ad iustitiam nasci homines non modo litterae sacrae docent, uerum etiam idem ipsi philosophi nonnumquam fatentur.
Let us see now what highest good is set before the wise man. That men are born for justice not only the sacred writings teach, but even the philosophers themselves sometimes confess.
Notes and citation
Summary: Scripture and even philosophers teach that humans are born for justice.
- The edition brackets the words “what the highest good is” as a spurious repetition; they are left out.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 29.1 (CSEL 19:704; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-29-1).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
29.2CSEL 19:704
Cicero sic ait: sed omnium quae in hominum doctorum disputatione uersantur, nihil est profecto praestabilius quam plane intellegi nos ad iustitiam esse natos. est hoc uerissimum. nec enim ad scelus nascimur, cum simus animal sociale atque commune.
Cicero says thus: “But of all the things that are discussed by learned men, nothing is truly more excellent than to understand plainly that we are born for justice.” This is most true. For we are not born for crime, since we are a social and communal animal.
Notes and citation
Summary: Cicero: nothing is more excellent than knowing we are born for justice.
- Cicero, Leg. 1.28.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (words run together in the digital text): Cicero sicait: sedomnium → Cicero sic ait: sed omnium.
Extrabiblical texts: Cicero, Leg. 1.28 (Cicero; quotation)
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 29.2 (CSEL 19:704; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-29-2).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
29.3CSEL 19:704
ferae ad saeuitiam gignuntur: aliter enim nequeunt quam praeda et sanguine uictitare. eaedem tamen, etsi ultima fames urgueat, nihilominus generis sui animalibus parcunt. idem faciunt et aues quas aliarum uisceribus pasci necesse est.
Wild beasts are born for savagery: for they cannot live otherwise than on prey and blood. Yet the same, even if extreme hunger presses, nevertheless spare animals of their own kind. Birds that must feed on the flesh of others do the same.
Notes and citation
Summary: Even predators spare their own kind.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 29.3 (CSEL 19:704; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-29-3).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
29.4CSEL 19:704
quanto magis hominem, qui cum homine et commercio linguae et communione sensus copulatus est, parcere homini oportet eumque diligere!
How much more ought a human being, who is joined to another human being by the fellowship of language and the sharing of feeling, to spare his fellow human and to love him!
Notes and citation
Summary: Much more should humans spare and love one another.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 29.4 (CSEL 19:704; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-29-4).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
29.5CSEL 19:704
haec est enim iustitia. sed quoniam soli homini sapientia data est, ut deum intellegat, et haec sola hominis mutorumque distantia est, duobus officiis obstricta est ipsa iustitia: unum deo debet ut patri, alterum homini uelut fratri; ab eodem enim deo geniti sumus.
For this is justice. But since to man alone wisdom has been given, so that he may understand God, and this alone is the difference between man and dumb animals, justice itself is bound by two duties: one it owes to God as to a father, the other to man as to a brother; for we are begotten by the same God.
Mal 2:10 (echo, low confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Justice owes duty to God as Father and to others as brothers.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 29.5 (CSEL 19:704; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-29-5).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
29.6CSEL 19:704–705
merito ergo ac recte dictum est sapientiam esse diuinarum et humanarum rerum scientiam. oportet enim scire nos quid deo, quid homini debeamus, deo scilicet religionem, homini caritatem. sed illut superius sapientiae, hoc posterius uirtutis est et utrumque iustitia conprehendit.
Rightly and properly, then, was it said that wisdom is the knowledge of divine and human things. For we ought to know what we owe to God and what to man: to God, namely, religion, to man, love. But the former belongs to wisdom, the latter to virtue, and justice includes both.
Matt 22:37 (echo, medium confidence) · Matt 22:39 (echo, medium confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: We owe God religion and neighbours love; justice includes both.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 29.6 (CSEL 19:704–705; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-29-6).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
29.7CSEL 19:705
si ergo constat ad iustitiam nasci hominem, necesse est iustum malis esse subiectum, ut uirtutem qua est praeditus in usu habeat; uirtus enim malorum sustinentia est.
If, then, it is certain that man is born for justice, the just man must be subject to evils, so that he may put into use the virtue with which he is endowed; for virtue is the endurance of evils.
Notes and citation
Summary: The just must suffer evils in order to exercise virtue.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 29.7 (CSEL 19:705; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-29-7).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
29.8CSEL 19:705
uoluptates fugiet ut malum; opes contemnet, quia fragiles sunt, et si habuerit, dilargietur, ut miseros seruet; honores non appetet, quia sunt breues et caduci; iniuriam nulli faciet, si fuerit passus, non retribuet, et diripientem sua non persequetur.
He will flee pleasures as an evil; he will despise wealth because it is fragile, and if he has it, he will give it away to preserve the wretched; he will not seek honours, because they are brief and perishable; he will do injury to no one; if he suffers it, he will not repay it, and he will not pursue one who plunders his goods.
Matt 5:39 (echo, medium confidence) · Luke 6:30 (echo, medium confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: The just man shuns pleasure, gives away wealth, seeks no honours, and does not retaliate.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 29.8 (CSEL 19:705; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-29-8).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
29.9CSEL 19:705
nefas enim iudicabit hominem laedere et si quis extiterit qui cogat desciscere a deo, nec cruciatus nec mortem recusabit. ita fiet ut eum necesse sit et inopem et humilem et in contumeliis aut etiam cruciatibus uiuere.
For he will judge it wrong to hurt a human being, and if anyone should arise to compel him to fall away from God, he will refuse neither torments nor death. So it will come about that he must live poor and humble and amid insults or even tortures.
Notes and citation
Summary: He will accept torture and death rather than deny God, and so lives poor and despised.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 29.9 (CSEL 19:705; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-29-9).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
Chapter 30
30.1CSEL 19:705
Quis igitur erit fructus iustitiae atque uirtutis, si nihil habebit in uita nisi malum? quodsi uirtus, quae bona omnia terrena contemnit, mala uniuersa sapientissime perfert ipsamque mortem pro officio suscipit, sine praemio esse non potest, quid superest nisi (ut) merces eius inmortalitas sola sit?
What, then, will be the fruit of justice and virtue, if it has nothing in life but evil? But if virtue, which despises all earthly goods, bears all evils most wisely and undertakes even death for duty, cannot be without reward, what remains but that its reward is immortality alone?
Notes and citation
Summary: Since virtue suffers in this life, its reward must be immortality.
Topics: Eschatology, Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 30.1 (CSEL 19:705; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-30-1).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
30.2CSEL 19:705
nam si cadit in hominem beata uita, ut philosophi uolunt in eo solo non dissidentes, cadit ergo et inmortalitas. id enim solum beatum est quod incorruptum, id solum incorruptum quod aeternum.
For if the happy life belongs to man, as the philosophers hold, who on this point alone do not disagree, then immortality too belongs to him. For that alone is happy which is incorruptible, and that alone incorruptible which is eternal.
Notes and citation
Summary: True happiness requires incorruptibility, hence immortality.
Topics: Eschatology
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 30.2 (CSEL 19:705; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-30-2).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
30.3CSEL 19:705
immortalitas ergo est summum bonum, quia et hominis et animi et uirtutis est tantum. ad hanc dirigimur, ad hanc capiendam nati sumus.
Immortality, therefore, is the highest good, because it belongs to man, to the soul, and to virtue alone. To this we are directed; to gain this we were born.
Notes and citation
Summary: Immortality is the highest good, for which we were born.
Topics: Eschatology
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 30.3 (CSEL 19:705; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-30-3).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
30.4CSEL 19:705–706
idcirco nobis deus uirtutem usamque proponit, ut aeternum illut praemium nostris laboribus adsequamur. de ipsa uero inmortalitate suo loco disseremus.
For this reason God sets virtue and justice before us, so that we may attain that eternal reward by our labours. But of immortality itself we will speak in its proper place.
Textual problem in this passage: see the notes.
Notes and citation
Summary: God offers virtue as the way to eternal reward.
- The digital text reads “uirtutem usamque”, probably a corruption of uirtutem iustitiamque (“virtue and justice”).
Topics: Eschatology
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 30.4 (CSEL 19:705–706; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-30-4).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
30.5CSEL 19:706
restat AovtxYj philosophia, quae ad beatam (uitam) nihil confert. sapientia enim non in sermonis ornatu, sed in corde atque sensu (est).
There remains logical philosophy, which contributes nothing to the happy life. For wisdom is not in ornament of speech but in the heart and the mind.
1 Cor 2:4 (echo, low confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Logic adds nothing to happiness; wisdom lies in the heart.
- The Greek λογική is garbled in the digital text. “life” and “is” are the editor's supplements.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 30.5 (CSEL 19:706; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-30-5).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
30.6CSEL 19:706
quodsi et physica superuacua est et haec logica, in ethica uero, quae sola necessaria est, philosophi errauerunt, qui summum bonum nullo modo inuenire potuerunt, inanis igitur et inutilis omnis philosophia reperitur, quae nec rationem hominis conprehendere nec officium potuit munusque conplere.
But if both physics is superfluous and this logic, and in ethics, which alone is necessary, the philosophers erred, since they could in no way find the highest good, then all philosophy is found to be empty and useless, since it could neither grasp the reason of man nor fulfil his duty and task.
Notes and citation
Summary: So all philosophy proves empty and useless.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 30.6 (CSEL 19:706; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-30-6).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
Chapter 31
31.1CSEL 19:706
Quoniam de philosophia dixi breuiter, nunc etiam de philosophis pauca dicam. Epicuri doctrina haec est, inprimis, nullam esse prouidentiam, et idem deos esse non abnuit: utrumque contra rationem.
Since I have spoken briefly of philosophy, I will now say a few things also about the philosophers. The teaching of Epicurus is this: first, that there is no providence; and the same man does not deny that there are gods. Both are against reason.
Notes and citation
Summary: Epicurus denied providence but admitted gods, both irrationally.
Extrabiblical texts: Epicurus (Epicurus (sayings and fragments); allusion)
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 31.1 (CSEL 19:706; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-31-1).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
31.2CSEL 19:706
sed si sunt dii, est igitur prouidentia. aliter enim deus intellegi non potest, cuius est proprium prouidere. nihil inquit curat. ergo non modo humana, sed ne caelestia quidem curat.
But if there are gods, then there is providence. For otherwise God cannot be understood, whose property it is to provide. “He cares for nothing,” he says. Then he cares not only for human but not even for heavenly things.
Notes and citation
Summary: Gods without providence are contradictory.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 31.2 (CSEL 19:706; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-31-2).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
31.3CSEL 19:706
quomodo igitur aut unde esse illum adfirmas? exclusa enim prouidentia curaque diuina consequens erat, ut non esse omnino deum diceres. nunc eum uerbo reliquisti, re sustulisti. unde ergo rerum natura est, si deus nihil curat?
How, then, or on what basis do you assert that he exists? For once divine providence and care were excluded, it followed that you should say there is no God at all. As it is, you have left him in word and removed him in fact. From where, then, is the nature of things, if God cares for nothing?
Notes and citation
Summary: Without providence Epicurus in effect abolished God; whence then the world?
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 31.3 (CSEL 19:706; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-31-3).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
31.4CSEL 19:706
semina inquit sunt minuta, quae nec uideri nec tangi possunt, quorum coitu fortuito et orta sunt omnia et semper oriuntur.
“There are tiny seeds,” he says, “which can be neither seen nor touched, by whose chance meeting all things have arisen and are always arising.”
Notes and citation
Summary: Epicurus says the world arose from the chance meeting of atoms.
Extrabiblical texts: Lucretius (Lucretius, On the Nature of Things; allusion)
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 31.4 (CSEL 19:706; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-31-4).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
31.5CSEL 19:706–707
si nec uidentur nec ulla corporis parte sentiuntur, unde esse illa scire potuisti? deinde si sunt, qua mente conueniunt, ut aliquid efficiant? si sunt leuia, cohaerere non possunt, si hamata et angulata, ergo secabilia sunt. hami enim et anguli extant et possunt amputari. sed haec delira et inutilia. quid quod idem animas extinguibiles facit?
If they are neither seen nor perceived by any part of the body, how could you know that they exist? Then, if they exist, by what mind do they come together to make something? If they are smooth, they cannot cohere; if hooked and angular, then they are divisible; for hooks and angles project and can be cut off. But these things are crazy and useless. What of the fact that the same man makes souls extinguishable?
Notes and citation
Summary: Invisible atoms are unprovable and self-contradictory; and Epicurus made souls mortal.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 31.5 (CSEL 19:706–707; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-31-5).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
31.6CSEL 19:707
quem refellunt non modo philosophi omnes et publica persuasio, uerum etiam responsa uatum, carmina Sibyllarum, ipsae denique diuinae uoces prophetarum, ut mirum sit extitisse unum Epicurum qui cum pecoribus ac beluis sortem hominis aequaret.
He is refuted not only by all the philosophers and by public conviction, but also by the answers of seers, the songs of the Sibyls, and finally by the divine voices of the prophets themselves, so that it is astonishing that Epicurus alone should have arisen to make the lot of man equal to that of cattle and beasts.
Notes and citation
Summary: All witnesses refute Epicurus, who alone equated man with beasts.
Topics: Eschatology
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 31.6 (CSEL 19:707; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-31-6).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
31.7CSEL 19:707
quid Pythagoras, qui primus est philosophus nominatus, qui animas quidem inmortales esse (dixit), in alia tamen corpora uel pecudum uel auium uel bestiarum commeare?
What of Pythagoras, who was the first to be named a philosopher, who said that souls are indeed immortal, but that they pass into other bodies, of cattle or birds or beasts?
Notes and citation
Summary: Pythagoras taught immortality but also transmigration into animals.
- “said” is the editor's supplement.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 31.7 (CSEL 19:707; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-31-7).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
31.8CSEL 19:707
non satius fuerat eas cum suis corporibus extingui quam sic ad aliena damnari, satius, omnino non esse quam post hominis formam uel suem uel canem uiuere?
Would it not have been better for them to be extinguished with their bodies than to be condemned in this way to others' bodies? Better not to exist at all than after human form to live as a pig or a dog?
Notes and citation
Summary: Annihilation would be better than rebirth as an animal.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 31.8 (CSEL 19:707; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-31-8).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
31.9CSEL 19:707
et homo ineptus ut fidem dicto adderet, se ipsum Troiano bello Euphorbum fuisse dixit, quo occiso in alias figuras animalium transisse, postremo Pythagoram factum.
And the foolish man, to add credibility to his saying, said that he himself had been Euphorbus in the Trojan war, and after he was killed had passed into other animal forms, and finally had become Pythagoras.
Notes and citation
Summary: Pythagoras claimed he had been Euphorbus at Troy.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 31.9 (CSEL 19:707; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-31-9).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
31.10CSEL 19:707
o felicem, cui soli tanta memoria concessa est, uel potius infelicem, cui translato in pecudem non licuit nescire quid fuerit! atque utinam solus delirasset! inuenit etiam qui crederent et quidem (non) indoctos homines, ad quos stultitiae transiret hereditas.
O happy man, to whom alone so great a memory was granted! Or rather unhappy, who, transferred into a beast, was not allowed to be ignorant of what he had been! And would that he alone had raved! He also found people to believe him, and not unlearned men, to whom the inheritance of folly passed.
Notes and citation
Summary: Pythagoras's folly found learned followers.
- “not” is the editor's supplement.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 31.10 (CSEL 19:707; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-31-10).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
Chapter 32
32.1CSEL 19:707
Post hunc Socrates philosophiae tenuit principatum sapientissimus etiam oraculo dictus, quia se fatebatur unum scire, quod nihil sciret.
After him Socrates held the first place in philosophy, called most wise even by the oracle, because he confessed that he knew one thing, that he knew nothing.
Notes and citation
Summary: Socrates was called wisest because he knew he knew nothing.
- Plato, Apol. 21a–d.
Extrabiblical texts: Plato, Apol. 21a–d (Plato (works); allusion)
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 32.1 (CSEL 19:707; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-32-1).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
32.2CSEL 19:707
cuius oraculi auctoritate apstinere se physicos oportebat, ne aut quaererent ea quae scire non poterant aut scire se putarent quae ignorabant.
By the authority of this oracle the natural philosophers ought to have held back, lest they either seek what they could not know or think they knew what they did not know.
Notes and citation
Summary: The oracle should have restrained the natural philosophers.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 32.2 (CSEL 19:707; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-32-2).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
32.3CSEL 19:707–708
uideamus tamen an sapientissimus Socrates, sicut Pythius praedicauit. usurpabat hoc saepe prouerbium, quod supra nos esset, nihil ad nos pertinere. iam excessit sententiae suae terminos. nam qui unum se scire dicebat, aliut inuenit quod tamquam sciens diceret, sed id frustra.
Let us see, however, whether Socrates was most wise, as the Pythian proclaimed. He often used this proverb: that what is above us is nothing to us. Here he already went beyond the limits of his own principle. For he who said that he knew one thing found another thing to say as if he knew it; but in vain.
Notes and citation
Summary: Socrates' saying “what is above us is nothing to us” contradicts his claim to know nothing.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 32.3 (CSEL 19:707–708; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-32-3).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
32.4CSEL 19:708
nam et deus, qui utique supra nos est, quaerendus est et religio suscipienda. quae sola nos discernit a beluis: quam quidem Socrates non modo repudiauit, uerum etiam derisit per anserem canemque iurando: quasi uero per Aesculapium non posset, cui uouerat gallum. en sapientis uiri sacrificium!
For God, who is certainly above us, must be sought, and religion must be taken up; religion alone distinguishes us from the beasts. Socrates not only rejected it but even mocked it by swearing by a goose and a dog: as if he could not swear by Aesculapius, to whom he had vowed a cock. Behold the sacrifice of a wise man!
Notes and citation
Summary: Socrates mocked religion yet vowed a cock to Aesculapius.
- Plato, Phaed. 118a.
Extrabiblical texts: Plato, Phaed. 118a (Plato (works); allusion)
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 32.4 (CSEL 19:708; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-32-4).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
32.5CSEL 19:708
et quia eum prosecare ipse non potuit, amicos moriturus orauit, ut post se soluerent uotum, scilicet ne apud inferos uelut debitor teneretur. hic profecto et pronuntiauit quod nihil scierit et probauit.
And because he could not offer it himself, when about to die he begged his friends to fulfil the vow after him, lest, of course, he be held in the underworld as a debtor. He truly both declared that he knew nothing and proved it.
Notes and citation
Summary: Socrates' dying request proved he truly knew nothing.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 32.5 (CSEL 19:708; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-32-5).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
Chapter 33
33.1CSEL 19:708
Huius auditor Plato, quem deum philosophorum Tullius nominat, qui solus omnium sic philosophatus est, ut ad ueritatem propius accederet, tamen quia deum ignorauit, in multis ita lapsus est, ut nemo deterius errauerit, inprimis quod in libris ciuilibus omnia omnibus uoluit esse communia.
His pupil Plato, whom Tully calls the god of philosophers, who alone of all so philosophized as to come nearer to the truth, nevertheless, because he did not know God, fell into so many errors that no one erred worse; above all, that in his books on the state he wanted all things to be common to all.
Notes and citation
Summary: Plato came nearest the truth but erred badly, above all in making everything common.
- Cicero, Nat. d. 2.32; Plato, Resp. 5.
Extrabiblical texts: Plato, Resp. 457c–464b (Plato (works); allusion); Cicero, Nat. d. 2.32 (Cicero; allusion)
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 33.1 (CSEL 19:708; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-33-1).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
33.2CSEL 19:708
de patrimoniis tolerabile est, licet sit iniustum: nec enim aut obesse cuiquam debet, si sua industria plus habet, aut prodesse, si sua culpa minus. sed, ut dixi, potest aliquo modo ferri. etiamne coniuges, etiamne liberi communes erunt?
As to property it is tolerable, although it is unjust; for it ought neither to harm anyone if by his own industry he has more, nor to profit him if by his own fault he has less. But, as I said, it can be borne in some way. Will wives too, will children too be common?
Notes and citation
Summary: Common property is unjust but tolerable; common wives and children are not.
Topics: Marriage
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 33.2 (CSEL 19:708; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-33-2).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
33.3CSEL 19:708–709
non erit sanguinis ulla distinctio nec genus certum nec familiae nec cognationes nec adfinitates, sed sicut in gregibus pecudum confusa. et indiscreta omnia, nulla erit in uiris continentia, nulla in feminis pudicitia.
There will be no distinction of blood, no certain lineage, no families, no kinships, no relations by marriage, but everything confused and undistinguished as in herds of cattle; there will be no self-control in men, no chastity in women.
Notes and citation
Summary: Common wives would destroy families and chastity.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 33.3 (CSEL 19:708–709; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-33-3).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
33.4CSEL 19:709
quis esse in utrisque amor coniugalis potest, in quibus non est certus aut proprius affectus? quis erit in patrem pius, ignorans unde sit natus? quis filium diliget, quem putabit alienum?
What conjugal love can there be in either, in whom there is no certain or proper affection? Who will be dutiful to a father, not knowing from whom he was born? Who will love a son whom he will think another's?
Notes and citation
Summary: Without marriage there is no conjugal or family love.
Topics: Marriage
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 33.4 (CSEL 19:709; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-33-4).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
33.5CSEL 19:709
quin etiam feminis curiam reserauit, militiam et magistratus et imperia permisit. quanta erit infelicitas urbis illius, in qua uirorum officia mulieres occupabunt! sed haec alias latius.
He even opened the senate-house to women and allowed them military service, magistracies, and commands. How great will be the misfortune of that city in which women will occupy the offices of men! But of this more fully elsewhere.
Notes and citation
Summary: Plato also admitted women to public offices.
- Compare Div. inst. 3.22.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 33.5 (CSEL 19:709; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-33-5).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
33.6CSEL 19:709
Zeno Stoicorum magister, qui uirtutem laudat, misericordiam, quae summa est uirtus, tamquam morbum animi amputandum iudicauit: quae et deo cara est et hominibus necessaria.
Zeno, the master of the Stoics, who praises virtue, judged that pity, which is the highest virtue, should be cut away as a disease of the soul; yet it is both dear to God and necessary to human beings.
Notes and citation
Summary: Zeno condemned pity, which is dear to God and needed by people.
Extrabiblical texts: Zeno of Citium, Zeno (Zeno of Citium; allusion)
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 33.6 (CSEL 19:709; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-33-6).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
33.7CSEL 19:709
quis est enim qui aliquo in malo constitutus nolit esse miserabilis ac non desideret auxilia succurrentium? qui ad opem ferendam non nisi misericordiae adfectu excitantur.
For who is there who, when placed in some evil, would not wish to be pitied and not long for the help of those who run to aid him? And they are stirred to bring help only by the feeling of pity.
Notes and citation
Summary: Everyone in trouble wants pity, which moves others to help.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 33.7 (CSEL 19:709; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-33-7).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
33.8CSEL 19:709
hanc ille licet humanitatem, licet pietatem uocet, non rem, sed nomen inmutat. hic est adfectus qui soli homini datus est, ut inbecillitatem nostram mutuis adiumentis leuaremus: quem qui tollit, ad uitam nos redigit beluarum.
Though he may call it humanity, though he may call it kindness, he changes not the thing but the name. This is the feeling given to man alone, so that we might relieve our weakness by mutual help: whoever takes it away reduces us to the life of beasts.
Notes and citation
Summary: Pity, given only to humans for mutual help, cannot be removed without making us beasts.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (words run together in the digital text): nostrammutuis → nostram mutuis.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 33.8 (CSEL 19:709; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-33-8).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
33.9CSEL 19:709
nam quod dicit paria esse peccata, ex eadem immanitate est qua misericordiam ueluti morbum insectatur. qui enim nullam facit differentiam delictorum, aut leuia magnis suppliciis adiicienda censet, quod est crudelis iudicis, aut grauia paruis, quod est dissoluti. utrumque rei publicae incommodum:
For his saying that all sins are equal comes from the same inhumanity with which he attacks pity as a disease. For whoever makes no difference between offences either thinks light ones should be subjected to great punishments, which belongs to a cruel judge, or grave ones to small, which belongs to a lax one. Both are harmful to the state:
Notes and citation
Summary: Zeno's doctrine that all sins are equal leads to cruelty or laxity.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 33.9 (CSEL 19:709; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-33-9).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
33.10CSEL 19:709
si enim summa scelera leuiter puniantur, audacia malis crescet ad facinora maiora, et si leuibus delictis poena grauior inrogetur, multi ciues, quoniam nemo esse sine delicto potest, in periculum uenient, qui correpti possent esse meliores.
for if the greatest crimes are lightly punished, the boldness of the wicked will grow to greater misdeeds; and if a heavier penalty is inflicted for light offences, many citizens, since no one can be without fault, will come into danger who, if corrected, could have been better.
Notes and citation
Summary: Unequal crimes need unequal penalties.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 33.10 (CSEL 19:709; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-33-10).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
Chapter 34
34.1CSEL 19:709–710
Illa uero leuia, sed ex eadem uanitate nascuntur: Xenophanes orbem lunae decem et octo partibus dixit esse maiorem quam haec nostra sit terra; itaque intra sinum eius aliam terram contineri, quae ab hominibus et omnis generis animalibus incolatur.
These indeed are light, but they arise from the same vanity: Xenophanes said that the orb of the moon was eighteen times larger than this earth of ours, and so that within its hollow another earth is contained, inhabited by men and animals of every kind.
Notes and citation
Summary: Xenophanes claimed the moon was a huge inhabited world.
Extrabiblical texts: Xenophanes (Xenophanes (fragments); allusion)
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 34.1 (CSEL 19:709–710; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-34-1).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
34.2CSEL 19:710
de antipodis quoque sine risu nec audiri nec dici potest, adseritur tamen quasi aliquid serium. ut credamus esse homines qui uestigiis nostris habeant aduersa uestigia. tolerabilius Anaxagoras delirauit, qui nigram niuem dixit.
Of the antipodes too one can neither hear nor speak without laughing; yet it is asserted as something serious, that we should believe there are men whose footprints are opposite to ours. Anaxagoras raved more tolerably, who said snow was black.
Notes and citation
Summary: The idea of antipodes is laughable; Anaxagoras said snow was black.
- Lactantius rejects a spherical inhabited earth (Div. inst. 3.24).
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR misread in the digital text): nee audiri → nec audiri.
Extrabiblical texts: Anaxagoras (Anaxagoras; allusion)
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 34.2 (CSEL 19:710; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-34-2).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
34.3CSEL 19:710
quorumdam non modo dicta, sed etiam facta ridenda sunt. Democritus agrum suum a patre sibi relictum deseruit et pascua publica fieri passus est.
Not only the sayings but also the deeds of some are to be laughed at. Democritus abandoned the field left him by his father and let it become public pasture.
Notes and citation
Summary: Democritus abandoned his inheritance.
Extrabiblical texts: Democritus (Democritus (fragments); allusion)
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 34.3 (CSEL 19:710; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-34-3).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
34.4CSEL 19:710
Diogenes cum choro canum suorum, qui uirtutem illam summam et exactam rerum omnium contemtum profitetur, mendicare uictum maluit quam honesto labore conquirere aut habere ullam rem familiarem.
Diogenes, with his chorus of dogs, who professes that highest and perfect virtue, contempt of all things, preferred to beg his food rather than acquire it by honest labour or have any property.
Notes and citation
Summary: Diogenes and the Cynics chose begging over honest work.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 34.4 (CSEL 19:710; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-34-4).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
34.5CSEL 19:710
certe uita sapientis exemplum esse uiuendi ceteris debet. si horum sapientiam omnes imitentur, quomodo stabunt ciuitates?
Surely the life of the wise man ought to be an example of living for others. If all imitated the wisdom of these men, how would cities stand?
Notes and citation
Summary: If all followed these philosophers, society would collapse.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 34.5 (CSEL 19:710; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-34-5).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
34.6CSEL 19:710
. sed forsitan idem Cynici exemplum uerecundiae praebere potuerunt, qui palam cum coniugibus suis cubitauerunt. nescio quam
But perhaps the same Cynics could offer an example of modesty, who lay with their wives in public. I do not know what
Notes and citation
Summary: The Cynics had intercourse in public.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR misread in the digital text): cuhitanerunt → cubitauerunt.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 34.6 (CSEL 19:710; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-34-6).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
34.7CSEL 19:710
possent uirtutem defendere qui pudorem sustulerunt non melior his Aristippus, qui credo ut amiculae suae Laidi placeret, Cyrenaicam instituit disciplinam, qua summi boni finem in uoluptate corporis conlocauit, ne aut peccatis auctoritas aut uitiis doctrina deesset.
virtue they could defend who took away shame. No better than these was Aristippus, who, I suppose to please his mistress Lais, founded the Cyrenaic school, in which he placed the end of the highest good in bodily pleasure, so that neither sins should lack authority nor vices a doctrine.
Notes and citation
Summary: Aristippus founded a school that justified vice by making pleasure the highest good.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 34.7 (CSEL 19:710; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-34-7).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
34.8CSEL 19:710
an illi fortiores magis sunt probandi, qui ut mortem contemsisse dicerentur, uoluntariam
Or are those braver men rather to be approved who, so as to be said to have despised death, brought a voluntary
Notes and citation
Summary: What of the philosophers who killed themselves?
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 34.8 (CSEL 19:710; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-34-8).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
34.9CSEL 19:710
necem sibi intulerunt, Zeno Empedocles Chrysippus Cleanthes Democritus et hos imitatus Cato, nec scierunt homicidii crimine teneri secundum ius legemque diuinam eum qui se interfecerit? deus enim nos in hoc domicilium carnis induxit, ille nobis
death on themselves: Zeno, Empedocles, Chrysippus, Cleanthes, Democritus, and Cato, who imitated them; and did they not know that by divine right and law one who kills himself is held guilty of the crime of murder? For God brought us into this dwelling of flesh; he gave us
Notes and citation
Summary: Philosophers who committed suicide were guilty of murder under God's law.
- Several of these deaths are only reported as suicides in later tradition.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 34.9 (CSEL 19:710; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-34-9).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
34.10CSEL 19:710
temporale corporis habitaculum dedit, ut incolamus quamdiu idem uoluerit. nefas igitur habendum est sine dei iussu uelle migrare.
the temporary lodging of the body, that we may inhabit it as long as he wills. It must therefore be held wrong to wish to depart without God's command.
2 Cor 5:1 (echo, low confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Only God may call us out of the body.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 34.10 (CSEL 19:710; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-34-10).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
34.11CSEL 19:710–711
non est ergo uis adhibenda naturae: scit ille quemadmodum opus suum resoluat. cui operi si quis manus impias adhibuerit ac diuini opificii uincla dirruperit, deum conatur effugere, cuius sententiam nec uiuus quisquam nec mortuus poterit euadere.
No violence, then, is to be done to nature: he knows how to dissolve his own work. If anyone lays impious hands on that work and breaks the bonds of the divine workmanship, he tries to escape God, whose sentence no one, living or dead, will be able to evade.
Notes and citation
Summary: Suicide is an attempt to escape God, which is impossible.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 34.11 (CSEL 19:710–711; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-34-11).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
34.12CSEL 19:711
scelerati ergo et nefarii quos superius nominaui, qui etiam docuerunt quas causas habere debeat mors uoluntaria, ut parum sit sceleris quod homicidae in semet ipsos extiterunt, nisi ad hoc nefas et alios erudirent.
Wicked and impious, then, are those I named above, who even taught what reasons voluntary death ought to have, as if it were too little crime that they became murderers of themselves, unless they also trained others to this wickedness.
Notes and citation
Summary: They even taught others to commit suicide.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 34.12 (CSEL 19:711; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-34-12).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
Chapter 35
35.1CSEL 19:711
Innumerabilia sunt philosophorum dicta factaque quibus eorum insipientia redargui possit. itaque quoniam cuncta enumerare non possumus, pauca suffecerint.
Countless are the sayings and deeds of the philosophers by which their folly could be exposed. So, since we cannot enumerate them all, a few will suffice.
Notes and citation
Summary: A few examples of the philosophers' folly suffice.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 35.1 (CSEL 19:711; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-35-1).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
35.2CSEL 19:711
satis est intellegi philosophos neque iustitiae, quam ignorant, neque uirtutis, quam mentiuntur, esse doctores. quid enim doceant qui suam saepe ignorantiam confitentur?
It is enough to understand that the philosophers are teachers neither of justice, which they do not know, nor of virtue, which they falsely claim. For what can they teach who often confess their own ignorance?
Notes and citation
Summary: Philosophers cannot teach justice or virtue, as they admit their ignorance.
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 35.2 (CSEL 19:711; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-35-2).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
35.3CSEL 19:711
mitto Socraten, cuius est nota sententia. Anaxagoras omnia circumfusa tenebris esse pronuntiat, Empedocles angustas ad inueniendam ueritatem sensuum semitas esse.
I pass over Socrates, whose saying is well known. Anaxagoras declares that all things are surrounded by darkness; Empedocles that the paths of the senses for finding the truth are narrow.
Notes and citation
Summary: Anaxagoras and Empedocles admitted the limits of knowledge.
Extrabiblical texts: Empedocles (Empedocles (fragments); allusion); Anaxagoras (Anaxagoras; allusion)
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 35.3 (CSEL 19:711; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-35-3).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
35.4CSEL 19:711
Democritus in profundo quodam puteo demersam ueritatem iacere testatur, quam quia nusquam reperiunt, idcirco adfirmant neminem adhuc extitisse sapientem.
Democritus testifies that truth lies sunk in some deep well; and since they find it nowhere, they affirm that no wise man has yet existed.
Notes and citation
Summary: Democritus said truth lies at the bottom of a well.
Extrabiblical texts: Democritus (Democritus (fragments); allusion)
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 35.4 (CSEL 19:711; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-35-4).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.
35.5CSEL 19:711
quoniam igitur nulla est, (ut) apud Platonem Socrates dicit, humana sapientia, sequamur ergo diuinam deoque gratias agamus, qui eam nobis et reuelauit et tradidit, ac nobis gratulemur, quod ueritatem ac sapientiam caelesti beneficio tenemus, quam tot ingeniis, tot aetatibus requisitam philosophia[m] num- <quam) potuit inuenire.
Since, then, there is no human wisdom, as Socrates says in Plato, let us follow the divine, and give thanks to God, who has both revealed and handed it down to us, and let us congratulate ourselves that by heavenly kindness we hold the truth and wisdom which philosophy, sought by so many talents through so many ages, could never find.
Notes and citation
Summary: Since human wisdom fails, we follow the divine wisdom God has revealed.
- Plato, Apol. 23a. The edition brackets a final “m” (philosophia[m]) as spurious; the nominative is translated.
Extrabiblical texts: Plato, Apol. 23a (Plato (works); allusion)
Topics: Scripture and canon
Cite (SBL): Lactantius, Epit. 35.5 (CSEL 19:711; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lactantius-epitome/22-1/#p-35-5).
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Brandt, CSEL 19 (1890); made independently of existing English translations.