God's knowledge of all peoples and the Jews' desertion

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Octavius is answering Caecilius's attack on Christians, arguing that God knows all people without needing reports and that the Jews' misfortunes came from their own disobedience.

Nor should we flatter ourselves about our numbers. We seem many to ourselves, but to God we are quite few. We divide the world into peoples and nations, but to God this whole world is one house. Kings learn the state of their kingdom through the varied services of their ministers, but God has no need of informers, for we live not only in his sight but in his bosom.

Yet it did the Jews no good that they too worshipped one God with altars and temples and the greatest superstition. You slip into ignorance if you remember only their earlier history and forget or never knew their later one.

For they too experienced our God, and he is the God of all. As long as they worshipped him purely, innocently, and religiously, as long as they obeyed his wholesome commands, from a few they became countless, from poor they became rich, from slaves they became kings. A small band overwhelmed many, unarmed men overwhelmed armed ones, fleeing men overwhelmed their pursuers, by God's command and with the elements assisting them.

Read their writings again, or if you prefer Roman authors, to pass over the ancients, consult Flavius Josephus or Antonius Julianus on the Jews. Then you will learn that their own wickedness earned them this fate, and that nothing happened to them that had not been foretold, if they persisted in their defiance.

So you will understand that they abandoned God before they were abandoned, and that they were not, as you impiously say, captured along with their God, but handed over by God as deserters from discipline.

Latin

Nec nobis de nostra frequentia blandiamur: multi nobis uidemur, sed Deo admodum pauci sumus. nos gentes nationesque distinguimus: Deo una domus est mundus hic totus. reges statum regni sui per officia ministrorum diuersa nouerunt: Deo indiciis opus non est: non enim solum in oculis eius, sed in sinu uiuimus.

sed Iudaeis nihil profuit, quod unum et ipsi Deum aris atque templis maxima superstitione coluerunt. ignorantia laberis, si priorum aut oblitus ant inscius posteriorum recordaris.

nam et ipsi Deum nostrum, idem enim omnium Deus est, experti sunt: quamdiu enim eum caste, innoxie religioseque coluerunt, quamdiu praeceptis salubribus obtemperauerunt, de paucis innumeri facti, de egentibus diuites, de seruientibus reges: modici multos, inermi armatos, dum fugiunt insequentes, Dei iussu et elementis adnitentibus obruerunt.

scripta eorum relege, uel si Romanis magis gaudes, ut transeamus ueteres, [Flaui Josephi uel] Antonii Iuliani de Iudaeis require: iam scies, nequitia sua hanc eos meruisse fortunam, nec quidquam accidisse quod non sit iis, si in contumacia perseuerarent, ante praedictum.

ita prius eos deseruisse conprehendes quam esse desertos nec, ut impie loqueris, cum Deo suo captos, sed a Deo ut disciplinae transfugas deditos.

About this text

A Latin dialogue set at Ostia: the pagan Caecilius and the Christian Octavius debate the old gods and the Christian faith.

Minucius Felix (fl. c. 200) was a Roman lawyer and Christian apologist who wrote in Latin. His only known work is the dialogue Octavius, composed in the Roman Empire as a defense of Christianity against pagan philosophy and skepticism. He wrote it to persuade educated non-Christians by presenting a reasoned debate between a pagan and a Christian.

The dialogue is framed as the author's recollection of a visit to Ostia with his friends Octavius and Caecilius. When Caecilius, a pagan, kisses a statue of Serapis, Octavius reproaches him, and Caecilius proposes a formal debate about pagan religion and Christianity, with the author as judge. The internal audience is Marcus, the narrator.

Caecilius first argues that human knowledge is uncertain, that Rome owes its greatness to traditional worship of the gods, and that Christians are a depraved secret society deserving punishment. Octavius replies that the order of the universe proves one creator God, that the pagan gods were merely deified humans and their myths are immoral, and that demons inspire pagan oracles and slanders against Christians. He defends Christian morals, worship, and hope of resurrection, and argues that Christian endurance under suffering shows God's power. Caecilius concedes defeat, acknowledges providence and the Christian God, and the friends depart joyfully. A reader should know that 'superstition' means false or excessive religious practice, 'religion' means proper worship, 'demons' are impure spirits that deceive humans, 'providence' is God's ordering and care of the universe, 'fate' is blind chance or destiny, 'resurrection' is the Christian hope of bodily restoration after death, 'idol' is an image of a pagan god, 'deity' is divine power, 'wisdom' is true wisdom available to all through reason, 'truth' is the truth about God and religion, 'incest' is alleged sexual immorality, 'sacrilege' is violation of what is sacred, 'spirit' is used of God's nature and of impure spirits, 'mind' is reason identified with God's nature, and 'reason' is rational order in the universe and human understanding of God.

New English from the Latin base text; no published English used as wording.

Printed text used

Translated from CSEL 2 (1867) (Latin)

This work has passed this project's source check. This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.