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.
63. What are these hidden and unseen mysteries, you
The construction is a little involved, quæ nulli nec homines scire nec ipsi qui appellantur dii mundi queunt—“which none, neither men can know, nor those…of the world can reach, except those whom,” etc.
In the Latin, vel potestate inversa, which according to Oehler is the ms. reading, while Orelli speaks of it as an emendation of LB. (where it is certainty found, but without any indication of its source), and with most edd. reads universa—“by His universal power.”
So the ms. according to Hildebrand, reading præcipi=bat. Most edd., however, following Gelenius, read faciebat—“made them lame.”
Lit., “to bind fast the motions of the members,” adopting the reading of most edd., motus alligare membrorum (ms. c-al-igare).
The ms. reads nervorum duritia-m, for which Ursinus, with most edd., reads as above, merely dropping m; Hildebrand and Oehler insert in, and read, from a conjecture of Ursinus adopted by Elmenhorst, c-ol-ligare—“to bind into stiffness.”
Ursinus suggested di-, “most terrible,” for the ms. durissimis.
So the ms. reading, multa mala de illarum contra insinuator (mala is perhaps in the abl., agreeing with a lost word), which has been regarded by Heraldus and Stewechius, followed by Orelli, as mutilated, and is so read in the first ed., and by Ursinus and LB. The passage is in all cases left obscure and doubtful, and we may therefore be excused discussing its meaning here.
Lit., “to the ends of fitting duties.”
In the original, seminaria abscidit,—the former word used of nurseries for plants, while the latter may be either as above (from abscindo), or may mean “cut off ” (from abscido); but in both cases the general meaning is the same, and the metaphor is in either slightly confused.
Lit., “familiar to be accosted,”—the supine, as in the preceding clause.
So the edd., reading corporalibus affectos malis, but the ms. inserts after malis the word morbis (“with evil bodily diseases”); but according to Hildebrand this word is marked as spurious.