Sophia Scriptura

Octavius 23.12

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

Summary: Metal and stone idols feel neither their making nor their worship.

Latin text · CSEL 2:34

et deus aereus uel argenteus de immundo uasculo, ut accepimus factum Aegyptio regi, conflatur, tunditur malleis et in incudibus figuratur: et lapideus deus caeditur, scalpitur et ab impurato homine leuigatur, nec sentit suae natiuitatis iniuriam, ita ut nec postea de uestra ueneratione culturam: nisi forte nondum deus saxum est uel lignum uel argentum.

English · Claude translation

And a god of bronze or silver is melted down, as we have learned was done for an Egyptian king, from an unclean little vessel, beaten with hammers, and shaped on anvils; and a stone god is cut, carved, and polished by some defiled man, and he does not feel the injury of his birth, any more than he afterwards feels worship from your veneration: unless perhaps the stone or wood or silver is not yet a god.

About this passage

Source
CSEL 2:34 · 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
  • Herodotus, Hist. 2.172 (Herodotus, Histories) · allusion, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

  • The Egyptian king is Amasis, who had a god's statue made from a golden footbath (Herodotus 2.172).

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 23.12 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/23/12/).

Plain text
Minucius Felix, Oct. 23.12 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/23/12/).

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