Octavius 9.4 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Caecilius mocks Christians for worshipping a crucified criminal and repeats other obscene rumours.

Latin text · CSEL 2:13

alii eos ferunt ipsius antistitis ac sacerdotis colere genitalia et quasi parentis sui adorare naturam: nescio an falsa, certe occultis ac nocturnis sacris adposita suspicio! et qui hominem summo supplicio pro facinore punitum et crucis ligna feralia eorum caerimonias fabulatur, congruentia perditis sceleratisque tribuit altaria, ut id colant quod merentur.

English · Claude translation

Others say that they worship the genitals of their very overseer and priest, and adore, as it were, the nature of their parent: I do not know whether this is false, but the suspicion certainly fits secret and nocturnal rites. And he who tells that their ceremonies involve a man punished with the supreme penalty for a crime, and the deadly wood of the cross, assigns to lost and wicked men altars that suit them, so that they worship what they deserve.

About this passage

Source

CSEL 2:13 · 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

Christology

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 9.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/9/4/).

Plain text

Minucius Felix, Oct. 9.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/9/4/).