Sophia Scriptura

Octavius 5.8

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

Summary: Living things simply combine from and dissolve back into the elements, with no creator or judge.

Latin text · CSEL 2:8

quae superstitio est? homo et animal omne quod nascitur, inspiratur, attollitur, elementorum ut uoluntaria concretio est, in quae rursum homo et animal omne diuiditur, soluitur, dissipatur: ita in fontem refluunt et in semet omnia reuoluuntur, nullo artifice nec iudice nec auctore.

English · Claude translation

What is this superstition? Man, and every animal that is born, receives breath, and grows up, is as it were a voluntary combination of the elements, into which man and every animal is again divided, dissolved, and dispersed: so all things flow back to their source and turn back into themselves, with no maker, no judge, no author.

About this passage

Source
CSEL 2:8 · 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.

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 5.8 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/5/8/).

Plain text
Minucius Felix, Oct. 5.8 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/5/8/).

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