Sophia Scriptura

Octavius 30.6

Minucius Felix · Octavius · ca. 197–250 · Rome · Read in context

Summary: Christians abhor bloodshed so much that they do not even eat animal blood.

Latin text · CSEL 2:44

non dissimiles et qui de harena feras deuorant inlitas et infectas cruore uel membris hominis et uiscere saginatas. nobis homicidium nec uidere fas nec audire, tantumque ab humano sanguine cauemus, ut nec edulium pecorum in cibis sanguinem nouerimus.

English · Claude translation

Not unlike them are those who devour the beasts from the arena, smeared and stained with blood or fattened on the limbs and entrails of men. For us it is not lawful either to see or to hear of homicide; and we so shun human blood that we do not use even the blood of edible animals in our food.

About this passage

Source
CSEL 2:44 · Karl Halm, ed., M. Minucii Felicis Octavius; Iulii Firmici Materni Liber de errore profanarum religionum, CSEL 2 (Vienna: Gerold, 1867), 1–56 · Latin text: K. Halm (CSEL 2, 1867), digitized by Open Greek and Latin, University of Leipzig (csel-dev), CC BY-SA 4.0
Text
As printed in CSEL 2. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.
Translation
Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Latin text of CSEL 2; made independently of existing English translations.
Compare
Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 4 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made) · Divided there by chapter only.
Scripture
Topics
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The abstention from blood follows the apostolic decree (Acts 15:29).

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (OCR: "n" for "u".): canemus → cauemus.

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 30.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/30/6/).

Plain text
Minucius Felix, Oct. 30.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/30/6/).

Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)

Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text

Report an error in this passage