Opening the library…
Adversus Gentes
Arnobius of Sicca
A vigorous Latin defense of Christianity against claims that conversion had angered the gods, combining criticism of Roman mythology and cult with arguments about Christ and the soul.
62. But, you will say, He was cut
So the ms., followed by Hildebrand and Oehler, reads and punctuates quis mortuus? homo, for which all edd. read mortuus est? “Who died?”
Here, as in the whole discussion in the second book on the origin and nature of the soul, the opinions expressed are Gnostic, Cerinthus saying more precisely that Christ having descended from heaven in the form of a dove, dwelt in the body of Jesus during His life, but removed from it before the crucifixion.
So the ms. by changing a single letter, with LB. and others, similitudine proxim-a (ms. o) constitutum; while the first ed., Gelenius, Canterus, Ursinus, Orelli, and others, read -dini proxime—“settled very closely to analogy.”
In the original latronibus; here, as in the next chapter, used loosely to denote lawless men.
So emended by Mercerus for the ms. vatis.
So read in the ms.—not -tius, as in LB. and Orelli.
Lit., “the ways of things”—vias rerum.
The ms. reads unintelligibly assumpti-o which was, however, retained in both Roman edd., although Ursinus suggested the dropping of the o, which has been done by all later edd.
The ms. reads, quam nec ipsam perpeti succubuisset vis—“would his might,” i.e., “would He with His great power have stooped.” Orelli simply omits vis as Canterus, and seemingly the other later edd. do.
The ms. and 1st ed. read sati-s, which has clearly arisen from f being confounded with the old form of s.