Novatian

Moses represents God as descending to the tower that the sons of men were building, seeking to inspect it and saying, “Come, let us go down quickly, and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” Who do the heretics think was the God that descended to the tower in this passage and then sought to visit these men? Was he God the Father? In that case, God is enclosed in a place. If so, how then does he embrace all things? Or is it possible that he speaks of an angel descending with other angels and saying, “Come, let us go down quickly, and there confuse their language”? On the contrary, we note in Deuteronomy that it was God who recounted these things and God who spoke, where it is written: “When he scattered abroad the sons of Adam, he set up the boundaries of the people according to the number of the angels of God.” Therefore the Father did not descend, nor did an angel command these things, as the narrative clearly indicates. Accordingly, the only remaining conclusion is that he descended of whom the apostle Paul says, “He who descended, he it is who ascended also above all heavens, that he might fill all things,” that is, the Son of God, the Word of God.

A man, Scripture says, wrestled with Jacob. If he is a mere man, who is he? Where did he come from? Why does he struggle and wrestle with Jacob? What had come between them? What had happened? What was the cause of so great a conflict and struggle as that? Moreover, why is it that Jacob proves to be the stronger even to the holding of the man with whom he was struggling? And why still, because the morning star was rising, is it he who, on that account, asks a blessing from him whom he held? It can only mean that this struggle was prefiguring that future contention between Christ and the sons of Jacob, which is said to have had its completion in the gospel. For Jacob’s people struggled against this man and proved to be more powerful in the conflict, because they obtained the triumph of their own unrighteousness over Christ. Then, on account of the crime they had perpetrated, they began to limp very badly in the gait of their own faith and salvation, stumbling and slipping in their course. Though Jacob’s people proved superior by their condemnation of Christ, they still need his mercy and still need his blessing. Now this man who wrestled with Jacob says to him, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.” And if Israel is a man who “sees God,” then the Lord was showing in an elegant manner that he who wrestled with Jacob was not only man but also God. Undoubtedly Jacob saw God with whom he wrestled, though it was a man whom he held in his grip. That there might not remain any doubt, he himself gave the interpretation when he said, “For you have prevailed with God, and with men you are powerful.” That is why this same Jacob, understanding now the meaning of the prefiguration and realizing the authority of him with whom he had wrestled, called the name of the place where he had wrestled “Vision of God.” Furthermore, Jacob added his reason for giving his interpretation of God: “I have seen God face to face, and my soul has been saved.” For he saw God with whom he wrestled, as though he were wrestling with a man; but while as if victor he held the man, as an inferior he asked a blessing of him, as one would of God. Thus he wrestled with God and with man. Now if this struggle was then prefigured and has been actually fulfilled in the gospel between Christ and Jacob’s people—a struggle in which the people proved superior yet were found to be inferior because of their guilt—who will hesitate to acknowledge that Christ in whom this figure of a struggle was fulfilled was not only human but also God, when that very figure of a struggle seems to have proved that he is both God and human?

Fish with rough scales are considered clean, just as persons with austere, rough, unpolished, steadfast and grave traits are commended. Fish without scales are considered unclean, just as loose, fickle, insincere and effeminate traits are censured. What does the law mean when it states, “You shall not eat the camel”? From the example of an animal, it censures an unruly life and one distorted by unpleasantness. What does the law mean when it forbids one to partake of the flesh of swine? It condemns, you can be sure, a foul and filthy life—one that delights in sordid vices by placing its supreme good not in nobility of spirit but in the flesh alone. What does the law want to indicate when it forbids the hare? It denounces nervous, effeminate men. Who would use as food the flesh of the weasel? In it the law condemns theft.Who would dare partake of the skink? The law abhors a capricious and fickle life. Who would eat the newt? The law detests aberrations of the mind. Who would dare partake of the hawk, the kite or the eagle? The law hates marauders and those who live by violence. Who does not loathe the vulture? The law execrates those who look for booty in someone else’s death. Who would eat the crow? The law detests immoral and shady intentions. When the law prohibits ostrich, it disapproves of intemperance. When it condemns the nightjar, it hates those who shun the light of truth. When it bans the swan, it loathes stiff-necked pride. When it excludes the heron, it dislikes a garrulous and undisciplined tongue. When it detests the bat, it condemns those who seek out the darkness of error that is like night. The law execrates these and similar characteristics in animals. Since the animals, however, are born with such characteristics, they are without reproach. Conversely such qualities are reprehensible in humanity, which was not created with them but learns from them by comparison with contrary nature, through the exercise of their own error.

He it is who “comes forth as a bridegroom from his bridal chamber.” For he [returns] even to the height; “since no one has ascended into heaven except him who has descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven.” He repeats this very same fact when he says, “Father, glorify me with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” If this Word descended from heaven as a bridegroom to take on our flesh, so that in taking flesh he might ascend again as Son of man to that place where, as Son of God, the Word had descended, then assuredly, because of a mutual bond, the flesh bears the Word of God, and the Son of God assumes the weakness of the flesh. He ascends with his spouse, the flesh, to the same place from which he had descended without the flesh and receives now that glory that he is shown to have had before the creation of the world. This proves, without the least doubt, that he is God. Nevertheless, since the world itself is said to have been created after him, it is evident that it was created through him. This fact itself gives proof of the glory and the authority of the divinity that is in him, through whom the world was made.

Although heavenly Scripture frequently changes the divine countenance to human form when it says “the eyes of the Lord are on the just”; or “the Lord God smelled the scent of a good fragrance” or “tables written with the finger of God” are given to Moses; or the children of Israel are delivered from the land of Egypt “with a mighty hand and uplifted arm.” Again Scripture asserts, "The mouth of the Lord has spoken these things"; or when the earth is considered “the footstool of God”; or when it says, “Incline your ear, and hear.” We who say “that the law is spiritual” do not confine the measure or form of the divine Majesty within these outlines of our own bodily frame. On the contrary, we extend it infinitely over the field, if I may use the expression, of its own illimitable greatness. For it is written, “If I ascend into heaven, you are there; if I descend into hell, you are present; and if I take my wings and depart across the sea, there shall your hand take hold of me and your right hand hold me fast.” We know the meaning of holy Scripture from the unfolding of the divine dispensation. The prophet, at that time, was still speaking about God in parables according to the faith of the times, not as God really was but as the people were able to comprehend him. The use of such language to describe God must be attributed to the people, not to God. Thus the people were permitted to erect the tabernacle, although God cannot be contained within a tabernacle. The temple was constructed, although God cannot possibly be enclosed within the narrow limits of a temple. God is not finite, but the people’s faculty of perceiving is finite. God is not restricted, but rather the understanding of people’s minds is limited. Accordingly, our Lord said in the Gospel, “The hour shall come when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father,” and he gave the reason: “God is spirit, and therefore they who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” Thus it is the divine powers that are represented there by means of bodily members, and neither any external appearance nor bodily features of God are set before us.

The same rule of truth teaches us to believe, after the Father, also on the Son of God, Christ Jesus, the Lord our God, but the Son of God—of that God who is both one and alone, namely, the Founder of all things, as already has been expressed above. For this Jesus Christ, I will once more say, the Son of this God, we read of as having been promised in the Old Testament and we observe to be manifested in the New, fulfilling the shadows and figures of the Old Testament types, being the embodiment of truth. For as well the ancient prophecies as the Gospels testify him to be the son of Abraham and the son of David. Genesis itself anticipates him when it says, “To you will I give it, and to your seed.” He is spoken of when Scripture shows how a man wrestled with Jacob; he too, when it says, “There shall not fail a prince from Judah, nor a leader from between his thighs, until he shall come to whom it has been promised; and he shall be the expectation of the nations.” He is spoken of by Moses when he says, “Provide another whom you may send.” He is again spoken of by the same, when he [Moses] testifies, saying, “A prophet will God raise up to you from your brothers; listen to him as if to me.” [Moses] bears witness of him, finally, when he says, “You shall see your life hanging in doubt night and day, and you shall not believe him.” Isaiah also refers to him: “There shall go forth a rod from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall grow up from his root.” The same also when he says, “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son.”

Moreover, the apostle Paul says, “Having the same Spirit; as it is written, ‘I believed, and therefore have I spoken’; we also believe, and therefore speak.” He is therefore one and the same Spirit who was in the prophets and apostles, except that in the former he was occasional, in the latter always. But in the former not as being always in them, in the latter as abiding always in them; and in the former distributed with reserve, in the latter entirely poured out; in the former given sparingly, in the latter liberally bestowed; not yet manifested before the Lord’s resurrection, but conferred after the resurrection. For, he said, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, that he may be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth.” And, “When he, the Advocate, shall come, whom I shall send to you from my Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from my Father.” And, “If I do not go away, that Advocate shall not come to you; but if I go away, I will send him to you.” And, “When the Spirit of truth shall come, he will direct you into all the truth.” And because the Lord was about to depart to the heavens, he gave the Paraclete out of necessity to the disciples; so as not to leave them in any degree orphans, which was hardly desirable, and forsake them without an advocate and some kind of protector.For this is he who strengthened their hearts and minds, who marked out the Gospel sacraments, who was in them the enlightener of divine things; and they being strengthened, feared, for the sake of the Lord’s name, neither dungeons nor chains, nay, even trod under foot the very powers of the world and its tortures. For they were henceforth armed and strengthened by the same Spirit, having in themselves the gifts which this same Spirit distributes and appropriates to the church, the spouse of Christ, as her ornaments. This is he who places prophets in the church, instructs teachers, directs tongues, gives powers and healings, does wonderful works, often discrimination of spirits, affords powers of government, suggests counsels and orders and arranges whatever other gifts there are of charismata.… This is he who, after the manner of a dove, when our Lord was baptized, came and abode upon him, dwelling in Christ full and entire, and not maimed in any measure or portion; but with his whole overflow copiously distributed and sent forth, so that from him others might receive some enjoyment of his graces: the source of the wholeness of the Holy Spirit remaining in Christ, so that from him might be drawn streams of gifts and works, while the Holy Spirit dwelt richly in Christ. For truly Isaiah, prophesying this, said, “And the Spirit of wisdom and understanding shall rest upon him, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and piety; and the Spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill him.” This selfsame thing also he said in the person of the Lord himself, in another place. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because he has anointed me, he has sent me to preach the gospel to the poor.”