Sophia Scriptura

Octavius 34.5

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

Summary: The philosophers' ideas echo the prophets, from whom they borrowed a distorted shadow of truth.

Latin text · CSEL 2:48

ita nihil mirum est, si ista moles ab eo, quo extructa est, destruatur. animaduertis philosophos eadem disputare quae dicimus, non quod nos simus eorum uestigia subsecuti, sed quod illi de diuinis praedictionibus profetarum umbram interpolatae ueritatis imitati sint.

English · Claude translation

So it is no wonder if this mass is destroyed by him by whom it was built. You notice that the philosophers argue the same things that we say: not because we have followed in their footsteps, but because they, from the divine predictions of the prophets, imitated a shadow of the truth, distorted.

About this passage

Source
CSEL 2:48 · 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.
Scripture
Topics
Eschatology, Scripture and canon

Notes

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (OCR: "g" for "s".): exgtructa → extructa.

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 34.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/34/5/).

Plain text
Minucius Felix, Oct. 34.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/34/5/).

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