Octavius 18.11 · Sophia Scriptura

Latin text · CSEL 2:25

quid quod omnium de isto habeo consensum? audio uulgus: cum ad caelum manus tendunt, nihil aliud quam <Deum) dicunt et (Deus magnus est et Deus uerus est et (si Deus dederit/ uulgi iste naturalis sermo est an Christiani confitentis oratio? et qui Iouem principem uolunt, falluntur in nomine, sed de una potestate consentiunt.

English · Claude translation

What of the fact that I have the agreement of all about this? I hear the common people: when they stretch their hands to heaven they say nothing but 'God', and 'God is great', and 'God is true', and 'if God grants'. Is this the natural speech of the common people, or the prayer of a confessing Christian? And those who want Jupiter as chief are mistaken in the name, but agree about the one power.

About this passage

Source

CSEL 2:25 · 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 quotation marks in the digital text are garbled ("<Deum)", "(Deus", "dederit/"); the sense is clear.

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 18.11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/18/11/).

Plain text

Minucius Felix, Oct. 18.11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/18/11/).