The Christian's True Spectacles in Scripture

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Novatian is concluding his treatise by directing the faithful Christian away from public shows and toward the spectacles found in Scripture and in God's works.

Let the faithful Christian devote himself to the Scriptures, I say. There he will find public shows worthy of his faith. He will see God establishing His world, and along with the other creatures He makes human beings—that admirable workmanship, and something better still. He will watch the world in its sins: righteous shipwrecks, rewards for the godly and punishments for the ungodly, seas dried up for a people to cross, and then seas brought forth for them again from a rock (Exodus 14:21-22; Exodus 17:6). He will watch harvests come down from heaven, not pressed out of threshing floors by the plow (Exodus 16:4). He will look upon rivers that offer dry crossings while the ranks of their waters are held back (Joshua 3:17). He will see faith wrestling with fire in certain men (Daniel 3:25), wild beasts overcome by reverence and turned gentle (Daniel 6:22). He will gaze upon souls called back from death itself, and he will consider the admirable lives of the perfected, their bodies brought back from the tombs. And in all these things he will see a greater public show still: that devil who had triumphed over the whole world, now lying under the feet of Christ. How fitting is this public show, brothers—how pleasant, how necessary! To look always upon one's hope, and to open one's eyes to one's salvation. This is a public show that is seen even when one's eyes are lost. This is a public show that no praetor or consul puts on, but He who alone is before all things and above all things—indeed, from whom all things come—the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and honor forever and ever. I wish you well, brothers.

Latin

Scriptftris, inquam, sacris incumbat christianus fidelis: ibi inueniet condigna fidei spectacula. uidebit instituentem Deum mundum suum et cum ceteris animalibus homines illam admirabilem fabricam melioremque facientem. spectabit mundum in delictis suis, iusta naufragia, piorum praemia impiorumque supplicia, maria populo siccata et de petra rursus populo maria porrecta. spectabit de caelo descendentes messes, non ex areis aratro impressas: inspiciet flumina transitus siccos refrenatis aquarum agminibus exhibentia: uidebit in quibusdam fidem cum igne luctantem, religione superatas feras et in mansuetudinem conuersas: intuebitur et animas ab ipsa iam morte reuocatas: considerabit etiam de sepulcris admirabiles ipsorum consummatorum iam uitas corporum redactas. et in his omnibus iam maius uidebit spectaculum, diabolum illum qui totum detriumphauerat mundum sub pedibus Christi iacentem. quam hoc decorum spectaculum, fratres, quam iocundum, quam necessarium? intueri semper spem suam et oculos aperire ad salutem suam. hoc est spectaculum quod uidetur etiam luminibus amissis. hoc est spectaculum quod non exhibet praetor aut consul, sed qui est solus et ante omnia et super omnia, immo ex quo omnia, pater Domini nostri Iesu Christi, cui laus et honor in saecula saeculorum. opto uos, fratres, bene ualere.

About this text

Novatian warns Christians who quote Scripture to defend going to the public games and shows.

Novatian (fl. c. 250) was a Roman presbyter and Christian teacher who wrote this treatise to the faithful, whom he addresses as brothers. He composed it because some Christians were defending attendance at public spectacles by appealing to Scripture, and he feared that wounds poorly bound might break open again. His aim was to admonish those already instructed rather than to teach them anew.

The occasion is a dispute within the Christian community. Some believers argued that Scripture does not forbid the circus, theater, and athletic contests, and they cited examples such as Elijah, David, and an unnamed apostle whose athletic imagery matches Paul's epistles. Novatian quotes these opponents directly and refutes their appeals, showing that the biblical examples were written to stir virtue, not to permit spectacles. He also names Romulus, who first consecrated circus games to the god Consus, and Ceres and Liber, to whom stage plays were dedicated.

A reader should know that public shows means the circus games, stage plays, and athletic contests of the Roman world, all of which Novatian traces to idolatry and the devil. He argues that even apart from idolatry these shows are marked by vanity and immodesty, and that Christians have better spectacles in God's creation and in Scripture. The treatise cites Old Testament figures such as Elijah, David, and Daniel without formal book citations, and it alludes to the apostle's athletic imagery in the epistles. The term Eucharist refers to the consecrated body of Christ, which in Novatian's time a believer might carry home from church.

New English from the Latin base text; no published English used as wording.

Printed text used

Translated from CSEL 3.3 (1871) (Latin)

This work has passed this project's source check. This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.