Sophia Scriptura

Octavius 19.14

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

Summary: Plato calls God the maker and father of the world, hard to find and impossible to declare publicly.

Latin text · CSEL 2:27–28

Platoni apertior de deo et rebus ipsis et nominibus oratio est et quae tota esset caelestis, nisi persuasionis ciuilis nonnumquam admixtione sordesceret. Platoni itaque in Timaeo deus est ipso suo nomine mundi parens, artifex animae, caelestium terrenorumque fabricator, quem et inuenire difficile prae nimia et incredibili potestate, et cum inueneris, in publicum dicere inpossibile praefatur.

English · Claude translation

Plato's discourse about God is more open both in substance and in names, and it would be wholly heavenly were it not sometimes soiled by an admixture of civic persuasion. So for Plato in the Timaeus God is, by his very name, the parent of the world, the craftsman of the soul, the maker of things heavenly and earthly; and he says at the outset that he is hard to find because of his exceeding and incredible power, and, when you have found him, impossible to speak of in public.

About this passage

Source
CSEL 2:27–28 · 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.
Extrabiblical texts
  • Plato, Tim. 28c (Plato (works)) · allusion, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

  • Plato, Tim. 28c.

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 19.14 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/19/14/).

Plain text
Minucius Felix, Oct. 19.14 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/19/14/).

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