Sophia Scriptura

Octavius 5.7

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

Summary: If the world arose from natural or chance causes, there is no need for a creator god or religious fear.

Latin text · CSEL 2:7–8

sint principio omnium semina natura se coeunte densata, quis hic auctor deus? sint fortuitis concursionibus totius mundi membra coalita, digesta, formata, quis deus machinator? sidera licet ignis accenderit et caelum licet sua materia suspenderit, licet terram sua fundauerit pondere et mare licet confluxerit e liquore, unde haec religio, unde formido?

English · Claude translation

Suppose that in the beginning the seeds of all things were condensed by nature combining with itself: what god is the author here? Suppose that the members of the whole world were joined together, arranged, and formed by chance collisions: what god is the builder? Though fire may have kindled the stars, and the heaven may have been suspended by its own matter, and the earth founded by its own weight, and the sea flowed together from liquid, whence this religion, whence this fear?

About this passage

Source
CSEL 2:7–8 · 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.

Notes

Translation notes

  • The argument draws on Epicurean and atomist physics.

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 5.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/5/7/).

Plain text
Minucius Felix, Oct. 5.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/5/7/).

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