Octavius 32.4

Summary: God is invisible but perceived in his works in nature.

Show

Latin text · CSEL 2:46

at enim quem colimus Deum, nec ostendimus nec uidemus. immo ex hoc Deum credimus, quod eum sentire possumus, uidere non possumus. in operibus enim eius et in mundi omnibus motibus uirtutem eius semper praesentem aspicimus, cum tonat, fulgurat, fulminat, cum serenat.

English · Claude translation

'But the God we worship we neither show nor see.' On the contrary, we believe him to be God precisely because we can perceive him but cannot see him. For in his works and in all the movements of the world we behold his power ever present, when he thunders, lightens, strikes with thunderbolts, when he makes the sky clear.

About this passage

Source
CSEL 2:46 · 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

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 32.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/32/4/).

Plain text
Minucius Felix, Oct. 32.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/32/4/).

Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)

Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text

Report an error in this passage