Octavius 18.7 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: As nature has single rulers, so the one eternal God rules all by his word.

Latin text · CSEL 2:24

uide cetera: rex unus apibus, dux unus in gregibus, in armentis rector unus. tu in caelo summam maiestatem diuidi credas et scindi ueri illius ac diuini imperii totam potestatem, cum palam sit parentem omnium Deum nec principium habere nec terminum, qui natiuitatem omnibus praestet, sibi perpetuitatem, qui ante mundum fuerit sibi ipse pro mundo: qui uniuersa, quaecumque sunt, uerbo iubet, ratione dispensat, uirtute consummat.

English · Claude translation

Look at the rest: bees have one king, flocks one leader, herds one ruler. Would you believe that in heaven the supreme majesty is divided, and the whole power of that true and divine rule split, when it is plain that God, the parent of all, has neither beginning nor end; who gives birth to all things and everlastingness to himself; who before the world was a world to himself; who commands all things whatever that exist by his word, arranges them by his reason, and perfects them by his power?

About this passage

Source

CSEL 2:24 · 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.

Topics

Trinity

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 18.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/18/7/).

Plain text

Minucius Felix, Oct. 18.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/18/7/).