Sophia Scriptura

Octavius 32.6

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

Summary: If we cannot look at the sun or see our own soul, how could we see God with bodily eyes?

Latin text · CSEL 2:46

quid? ipsum solis artificem, illum luminis fontem, possis sustinere, cum te ab eius fulgoribus auertas, a fulminibus abscondas? Deum oculis carnalibus uis uidere, cum ipsam animam tuam, qua uiuificaris et loqueris, nec aspicere possis nec tenere? sed enim Deus

English · Claude translation

What? Could you bear the very maker of the sun, that fountain of light, when you turn yourself away from its brightness and hide from its lightnings? Do you wish to see God with fleshly eyes, when you can neither see nor hold your own soul, by which you are given life and speak? 'But God

About this passage

Source
CSEL 2:46 · 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

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (OCR: stray hyphen.; OCR: word split by a line-break hyphen.): uiuifi- caris → uiuificaris; aspicere- possis → aspicere possis.

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 32.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/32/6/).

Plain text
Minucius Felix, Oct. 32.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/32/6/).

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