Novatian

Footnotes

Introductory Notice to Novatian, a Roman Presbyter.

^[5299] [Compare the Athanasian Confession.]

^[5300] [As in the Athanasian Confession.]

^[5301] There is apparently some indistinct reference here to the passage in Heb. v. 7, “and was heard in that He feared”—ἀπὸ τῆς εὐλυβείας. [For the Angel of Great Counsel, see p. 629, supra.]

On the Jewish Meats.

^[5302] Entitled “A Letter of Novatian, the Roman Presbyter.”

Chapter I. Argument.—Novatian, a Roman Presbyter, During His Retirement at the Time of the Decian Persecution, Being Urged by Various Letters from His Brethren, Had Written Two Earlier Epistles Against the Jews on the Subjects of Circumcision and the Sabbath, and Now Writes the Present One on the Jewish Meats.

^[5303] “Liberiorem,” translated, according to a plausible emendation, as “hilariorem.”

^[5304] Eph. vi. 12.

^[5305] Phil. iii. 14.

^[5306] Traditionem.

^[5307] These letters are not extant, but they are mentioned by Jerome, De vir. Illustr., ch. lxx.

^[5308] [1 Cor. vi. 13. A passage probably connected with the Jewish superstition. But see the Peshito-Syriac version on Mark vii. 19. Compare Murdock’s version ad loc., ed. 1855.]

Chapter II. Argument.—He First of All Asserts that the Law is Spiritual; And Thence, Man’s First Food Was Only the Fruit Trees, and the Use of Flesh Was Added, that the Law that Followed Subsequently Was to Be Understood Spiritually.

^[5309] Which, distinguishing between meats, granted certain animals as clean, and interdicted certain others as not clean, especially as all animals were declared “very good,” and even unclean animals were reserved for offspring in Noah’s ark, although they otherwise might have been got rid of, if they ought to have been destroyed on account of their uncleanness.

^[5310] [The divers animals are also parables illustrating human passions and appetites. See Jones of Nayland, vol. xi. p. 1.]

^[5311] Rom. vii. 14.

^[5312] This sentence is very unintelligible, but it is the nearest approach to a meaning that can be gathered from the original.

^[5313] [Gen. ix. 3. The Noachic covenant was Catholic, and foreshadowed Acts x. 15, although clean and unclean beasts were recognised as by natural classification. Gen. vii. 2. Argue as in Gal. iii. 17.]

^[5314] Or, as some read, “for eating,” substituting “esum” for “usum.”

^[5315] Gen. i. 31.

Chapter III. Argument.—And Thus Unclean Animals are Not to Be Reproached, Lest the Reproach Be Thrown Upon Their Author; But When an Irrational Animal is Rejected on Any Account, It is Rather that that Very Thing Should Be Condemned in Man Who is Rational; And Therefore that in Animals the Character, the Doings, and the Wills of Men are Depicted.

^[5316] [See chap. ii. p. 645, supra, note 9.]

^[5317] Sui culpa.

^[5318] [The moral uses of the animal creation are recognised in all languages; as when we say of men, a serpent, a fox, a hog, an ass, etc.; so otherwise, a lion, a lamb, an eagle, a dove, etc.]

^[5319] [Novatian was a keen analyst, and his allegorial renderings are logical generally, though sometimes fanciful.]

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