Novatian (c. 200-c. 258) | WEST

(Updated July 13, 2025)

This Quote Archive collects pertinent quotes from the Ecclesiastical Writer, Novatian.

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Treatises

Novatian, Jewish Foods (c. 253-60)

• Homosexual and Gender-Confusing Behavior | Ch. 3, §§13-17

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(Ch. 3, §§13-17)¹

When fish with rough scales are considered clean, men with austere, rough, unpolished, steadfast, and grave traits are commended; fish without scales are unclean because loose, fickle, insincere, and effeminate traits are censured. What does the Law mean when it states: “You shall not eat the camel” (Lev. 11:4; Deut. 14:7)? From the example of an animal, it censures an unruly life and one distorted by disorders. What does the Law mean when it forbids one to partake of the flesh of swine (Lev. 11:7; Deut. 14:8)? 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 (Lev. 11:6; Deut. 14:7)? It denounces effeminate men.

Footnotes

1. Novatian, Russell J. DeSimone, trans., The Fathers of the Church, Vol. 67: The Trinity, The Spectacles, Jewish Foods, In Praise or Purity, Letters (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1974), 149. ↩︎