Sophia Scriptura

Octavius 36.5

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

Summary: Like the birds, Christians possess everything by not coveting.

Latin text · CSEL 2:51

dicam tamen quemadmodum sentio: nemo tam pauper potest esse quam natus est. aues sine patrimonio uiuunt et in diem pascuntur: et haec nobis tamen nata sunt, quae omnia, si non concupiscimus, possidemus.

English · Claude translation

Yet I will say what I think: no one can be as poor as he was born. Birds live without patrimony and are fed day by day; and yet these things were made for us, and we possess them all if we do not covet them.

About this passage

Source
CSEL 2:51 · 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

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 36.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/36/5/).

Plain text
Minucius Felix, Oct. 36.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/36/5/).

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