Marcus Minucius Felix (Full Script)

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Marcus Minucius Felix

Post-Apostolic Church

INTRO

Marcus Minucius Felix probably lived in or near Rome.  Like Justin Martyr, he did not have any leadership—or clergy—roles in the church, and, therefore, very little is known about him.  In fact, it is difficult to date his work.  Based on my research, it seems likely that he wrote at the same time as, or shortly after, Tertullian.  If this is the case, he wrote around AD 210.

WORKS

Felix studied the works of Cicero, a very popular Roman philosopher and politician from the first century BC.  Like Tertullian, Felix was one of the first Christian writers to use Latin.  Despite being in Tertullian's shadow, so to speak, he had a very educated writing style similar to Lactantius, who also had Roman political roots and who wrote around 100 years later.

Felix's famous work is called Octavius and was written as a dialogue between a pagan, Caecilius Natalis, and a Christian, Octavius Januarius, who was a lawyer and Felix's friend.  The setting of the work is in Ostia, a suburb of Rome.

QUOTATIONS

About the helplessness of idols, Felix wrote,

How much more truly do dumb animals naturally judge concerning your gods?  Mice, swallows, and hawks know that they [idols] have no feeling: they gnaw them, they trample on them, they sit upon them.  And unless you drive them off, they build their nests in the very mouth of your god.  Indeed, spiders weave their webs over his face and suspend their threads from his very head.  You wipe, cleanse, scrape, protect, and fear those whom you make.  (Marcus Minucius Felix.  AD 210.  ANF, vol 4, page 187.)

About Felix, Lactantius wrote,

Of those who are known to me, Minucius Felix was of high rank among the apologists.  His book, which bears the title of Octavius, declares how suitable he might have been [as] a maintainer of the truth if he had given himself altogether to that pursuit.  (Lactantius.  AD 310.  ANF, vol 7, page 136.)