Note: St. Melito uses “Israel” to refer to Jews in this work, so those words will be highlighted.
The Scripture of the exodus of the Hebrews has been read, and the words of the mystery have been declared; how the sheep was sacrificed, and how the people was saved, and how Pharaoh was flogged by the mystery.
Therefore, well-beloved, understand, how the mystery of the Pascha is both new and old, eternal and provisional, perishable and imperishable, mortal and immortal.
It is old with respect to the law, new with respect to the word. Provisional with respect to the type, yet everlasting through grace. It is perishable because of the slaughter of the sheep, imperishable because of the life of the Lord. It is mortal because of the burial in the ground, immortal because of the resurrection from the dead.
For the law is old, but the word is new. The type is provisional, but grace is everlasting. The sheep is perishable, but the Lord, not broken as a lamb but raised up as God, is imperishable. For though led to the slaughter like a sheep, he was no sheep. Though speechless as a lamb, neither was he a lamb. For there was once a type, but now the reality has appeared.
For instead of the lamb there was a son, and instead of the sheep a man; in the man was Christ encompassing all things.
So the slaughter of the sheep, and the sacrificial procession of the blood, and the writing of the law encompass Christ, on whose account everything in the previous law took place, though better in the new dispensation.
For the law was a word, and the old was new, going out from Sion and Jerusalem, and the commandment was grace, and the type was a reality, and the lamb was a son, and the sheep was a man, and the man was God.
For he was born a son, and led as a lamb, and slaughtered as a sheep, and buried as a man, and rose from the dead as God, being God by his nature and a man.
He is all things. He is law, in that he judges. He is word, in that he teaches. He is grace, in that he saves. He is father, in that he begets. He is son, in that he is begotten. He is sheep, in that he suffers. He is human, in that he is buried. He is God, in that he is raised up.
This is Jesus the Christ, to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.
This is the mystery of the Pascha, just as it is written in the law, which was read a little while ago. I shall narrate the scriptural story, how he gave command to Moses in Egypt, when wanting to flog Pharaoh and to free Israel from flogging through the hand of Moses.
“Look,” he says, “you shall take a lamb, without spot or blemish, and, toward the evening, slaughter it with the sons of Israel. And eat it at night with haste. And not a bone of it shall you break.”
“This is what you shall do,” he says: “You shall eat it in one night by families and tribes, with your loins girded up and with staves in your hands. This is the Passover of the Lord, a commemoration to the sons of Israel for ever.”
“Taking the blood of the sheep you shall anoint the front doors of your houses putting blood on the doorposts of the entrances; the sign of the blood to avert the angel. For behold, I shall strike Egypt and in one night shall both beast and man be made childless.”
Then Moses, having slaughtered the sheep and performed the mystery at night with the sons of Israel, sealed the doors of the houses to protect the people and to avert the angel.
But while the sheep is being slaughtered, and the Pascha is being eaten, and the mystery is completed, and the people is rejoicing, and Israel is being sealed: then came the angel to strike Egypt, those uninitiated in the mystery, those with no part in the Pascha, those not sealed by the blood, those not guarded by the spirit, the hostile, the faithless; in one night he struck them and made them childless.
For the angel had passed by Israel, and seen him sealed with the blood of the sheep, he fell upon Egypt, he tamed stiff-necked Pharaoh with grief, clothing him not with a garment of gray, nor with a tunic all torn, but with all Egypt torn and grieving for her first-born.
For all Egypt was pained and grieving, in tears and mourning, and came to Pharaoh stricken with woe, not outwardly only but inwardly. Not only were her garments torn, but also her delicate breasts.
It was indeed a strange spectacle, here people beating their breasts, there people wailing, and grief-stricken Pharaoh in the middle, seated on sackcloth and ashes, palpable darkness thrown around him as a mourning cloak, clad in all Egypt like a tunic of grief.
For Egypt was surrounding Pharaoh like a robe of wailing. Such a tunic was woven for the tyrannical body, With such a garment did the angel of justice clothe unyielding Pharaoh: bitter grief and palpable darkness and a strange childlessness, the loss of her first-born.
The death of the first-born was swift and greedy, it was a strange trophy on which to gaze, upon those falling dead in one moment. And the food of death was the defeat of the prostrate.
Listen and wonder at a new disaster, for these things enclosed the Egyptians: long night, palpable darkness, death grasping, the angel squeezing out the life, and Hades gulping down the first-born.
But the strangest and most terrifying thing you are yet to hear: In the palpable darkness hid untouchable death, and the wretched Egyptians were grasping the darkness, while death sought out and grasped the Egyptian first-born at the angel’s command.
If anyone grasped the darkness he was pulled away by death. And one of the first-born, grasping the material darkness in his hand, as his life was stripped away, cried out in distress and terror: “Whom does my hand hold? Whom does my soul dread? Who is the dark one enfolding my whole body? If it is a father, help me. If it is a mother, comfort me. If it is a brother, speak to me. If it is a friend, support me. If it is an enemy, depart from me, for I am a first-born.”
Before the first-born fell silent, the long silence held him and spoke to him: “You are my first-born, I am your destiny, the silence of death.”
Another first-born, perceiving the seizure of the first-born, denied himself, so not bitterly to die: “l am not a first-born, I was begotten third.” But the one who could not be deceived fastened on the first-born who fell silently down. At one moment the first-born fruit of the Egyptians was destroyed, the first-begotten, the first-born, not human only but of dumb beasts, the desired, the fondled one, was dashed downward.
A lowing was heard in the plains of the land, the moaning of beasts over their sucklings, the cow with sucking calf and the horse with foal, and the rest of the beasts bearing young and carrying milk, and their moaning over their first-born was bitter and piteous.
At the human loss there was howling and grief over the dead first-born, and all Egypt was stinking with unburied bodies.
It was a terrible spectacle to watch, the mothers of the Egyptians with hair undone, the fathers with minds undone, wailing terribly in the Egyptian tongue: “By evil chance we are bereaved in a moment of our first-born issue.” They were beating their breasts, they were tapping time with their hands for the dance of the dead.
Such was the calamity which surrounded Egypt, and made her suddenly childless. Israel was guarded by the slaughter of the sheep, and was illuminated by the shedding of blood, and the death of the sheep was a wall for the people.
O strange and ineffable mystery! The slaughter of the sheep was Israel’s salvation, and the death of the sheep was life for the people, and the blood averted the angel.
Tell me angel, what turned you away? The slaughter of the sheep or the life of the Lord? The death of the sheep or the type of the Lord? The blood of the sheep or the spirit of the Lord?
It is clear that you turned away seeing the mystery of the Lord in the sheep and the life of the Lord in the slaughter of the sheep and the type of the Lord in the death of the sheep. Therefore you struck not Israel down, but made Egypt alone childless.
What is this strange mystery, that Egypt is struck down for destruction and Israel is guarded for salvation? Listen to the meaning of the mystery.
Nothing, beloved, is spoken or made without an analogy and a sketch; for everything which is made and spoken has its analogy, what is spoken an analogy, what is made a prototype, so that whatever is made may be perceived through the prototype and whatever is spoken clarified by the illustration.
This is what occurs in the case of a first draft; it is not a finished work but exists so that, through the model, that which is to be can be seen. Therefore a preliminary sketch is made of what is to be, from wax or from clay or from wood, so that what will come about, taller in height, and greater in strength, and more attractive in shape, and wealthier in workmanship, can be seen through the small and provisional sketch.
When the thing comes about of which the sketch was a type, that which was to be, of which the type bore the likeness, then the type is destroyed, it has become useless, it yields up the image to what is truly real. What was once valuable becomes worthless, when what is of true value appears.
To each then is its own time: the type has its own time, the material has its own time, the reality has its own time. When you construct the model you require it, because in it you can see the image of what is to be. You prepare the material before the model, you require it because of what will come about from it. You complete the work, and that alone you require, that alone you desire, because only there can you see the type, and the material, and the reality.
So then, just as with the provisional examples, so it is with eternal things; as it is with things on earth, so it is with the things in heaven. For indeed the Lord’s salvation and his truth were prefigured in the people, and the decrees of the Gospel were proclaimed in advance by the law.
Thus the people was a type, like a preliminary sketch, and the law was the writing of an analogy. The Gospel is the narrative and fulfillment of the law, and the church is the repository of reality.
So the type was valuable in advance of the reality, and the illustration was wonderful before its elucidation. So the people were valuable before the church arose, and the law was wonderful before the illumination of the Gospel.
But when the church arose and the Gospel came to be, the type, depleted, gave up meaning to the truth: and the law, fulfilled, gave up meaning to the Gospel.
In the same way that the type is depleted, conceding the image to what is intrinsically real, and the analogy is brought to completion through the elucidation of interpretation, so the law is fulfilled by the elucidation of the Gospel, and the people is depleted by the arising of the church, and the model is dissolved by the appearance of the Lord. And today those things of value are worthless, since the things of true worth have been revealed.
For then the slaughter of the sheep was of value, now it is worthless because of the Lord’s life. The death of the sheep was of value, now it is worthless because of the Lord’s salvation. The blood of the sheep was of value, now it is worthless because of the Lord’s spirit. The dumb lamb was of value, now it is worthless because of the son without spot. The temple below was of value, now it is worthless because of the heavenly Christ.
The Jerusalem below was of value, now it is worthless because of the heavenly Jerusalem. Once the narrow inheritance was of value, now it is worthless because of the breadth of grace. For it is not on one place, nor in a narrow plot, that the glory of God is established, but on all the ends of the earth. For his grace has been poured out and the almighty God has made his dwelling there. Through Christ Our Lord, to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen
You have heard the narrative of the type and its correspondence: hear now the confirmation of the mystery. What is the Pascha? It is called by its name because of what constitutes it: from “suffer” comes “suffering.” Therefore learn who is the suffering one, and who shares in the suffering one’s suffering, and why the Lord is present on the earth to surround himself with the suffering one, and take him to the heights of the heavens.
God, in the beginning, having made the heaven and the earth and all in them through the Word, formed humanity from the earth and shared his own breath. He set him in the garden in the east, in Eden, there to rejoice. There he laid down for him the law, through his commandment: “Eat food from all the trees in the garden yet eat not from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; on the day that you eat you shall die.”
The man was susceptible by nature of good and evil, as a clod of earth may receive seed of either kind, and he consented to the wicked and seductive counselor, and was thrown out into this world, condemned as though to prison.
This man became fecund and long-lived, yet through tasting of the tree he was destroyed, and was dissolved into the earth. He left an inheritance to his children, and as an inheritance he left his children: not purity but lust, not incorruption but decay, not honor but dishonor, not freedom but bondage, not sovereignty but tyranny, not life but death, not salvation but destruction.
Strange and terrible was the destruction of people on earth, for these things attended them: they were grasped by tyrannical sin and they were led to the land of sensuality, where they were swamped in unsatisfying pleasures: by adultery, by lust, by license, by love of money, by murder, by the shedding of blood, by the tyranny of evil, by the tyranny of lawlessness.
The father took up sword against his son, and the son laid hands upon his father and impiously struck the breasts which fed him. And brother killed brother, and host harmed guest, and friend murdered friend, and man struck down man with a tyrannical right hand. Everyone became murderers, parricides, infanticides, fratricides, everyone on earth.
The strangest and most terrible thing happened on the earth: a mother touched the flesh which she had borne, and fastened onto those she had fed at the breast; and the fruit of her loins she received in her loins, becoming a terrible tomb, the wretched mother gobbling up, not gabbling to, what she had borne.
Many other bizarre and most terrible and dissolute things took place among people: a father went to bed with his child, a son with his mother, and a brother with his sister and a male with a male, and each was braying for his neighbor’s wife.
Sin rejoiced in all of this, working together with death, making forays into human souls and preparing the bodies of the dead as his food. Sin set his sign on every one and those on whom he etched his mark were doomed to death.
All flesh fell under sin, and every body under death, and every soul was plucked from its dwelling of flesh, and that which was taken from the dust was reduced to dust, and the gift of God was locked away in Hades. What was marvelously knit together was unraveled, and the beautiful body divided.
Humanity was doled out by death, for a strange disaster and captivity surrounded him; he was dragged off a captive under the shadow of death, and the father’s image was left desolate. For this reason in the body of the Lord is the paschal mystery completed.
The Lord made advance preparation for his own suffering, in the patriarchs and in the prophets and in the whole people; through the law and the prophets he sealed them. That which more recently and most excellently came to pass he arranged from of old. For when it would come to pass it would find faith, having been foreseen of old.
Thus the mystery of the Lord, prefigured from of old through the vision of a type, is today fulfilled and has found faith, even though people think it something new. For the mystery of the Lord is both new and old; old with respect to the law, but new with respect to grace. But if you scrutinize the type through its outcome you will discern him.
Thus if you wish to see the mystery of the Lord, look at Abel who is likewise slain, at Isaac who is likewise tied up, at Joseph who is likewise traded, at Moses who is likewise exposed, at David who is likewise hunted down, at the prophets who likewise suffer for the sake of Christ.
And look at the sheep, slaughtered in the land of Egypt, which saved Israel through its blood whilst Egypt was struck down.
The Mystery of the Lord is proclaimed through the prophetic voice. For Moses says to the people: “And you shall look upon your life hanging before your eyes night and day and you shall not have faith in your life.”
David says: “Why have the nations been haughty, and the peoples imagined vain things? The kings of the earth stood by and the rulers gathered themselves together against the Lord and against his anointed one.”
Jeremiah says: “I am like a harmless lamb led to sacrifice; they planned evil for me saying: come let us put wood on his bread and let us rub him out from the land of the living. And his name shall not be remembered.”
Isaiah says: “Like a sheep he was led to slaughter and like a silent lamb before its shearer he does not open his mouth; who shall tell of his generation?”
Many other things were proclaimed by many prophets concerning the mystery of the Pascha, who is Christ, to whom be the glory for ever. Amen.
This is the one who comes from heaven onto the earth for the suffering one, and wraps himself in the suffering one through a virgin womb, and comes as a man. He accepted the suffering of the suffering one, through suffering in a body which could suffer, and set free the flesh from suffering. Through the spirit which cannot die he slew the manslayer death.
He is the one led like a lamb and slaughtered like a sheep; he ransomed us from the worship of the world as from the land of Egypt, and he set us free from the slavery of the devil as from the hand of Pharaoh, and sealed our souls with his own spirit, and the members of our body with his blood.
This is the one who clad death in shame and, as Moses did to Pharaoh, made the devil grieve. This is the one who struck down lawlessness and made injustice childless, as Moses did to Egypt. This is the one who delivered us from slavery to freedom, from darkness into light, from death into life, from tyranny into an eternal Kingdom, and made us a new priesthood, and a people everlasting for himself.
This is the Pascha of our salvation: this is the one who in many people endured many things. This is the one who was murdered in Abel, tied up in Isaac, exiled in Jacob, sold in Joseph, exposed in Moses, slaughtered in the lamb, hunted down in David, dishonored in the prophets.
This is the one made flesh in a virgin, who was hanged on a tree, who was buried in the earth, who was raised from the dead, who was exalted to the heights of heaven.
This is the lamb slain, this is the speechless lamb, this is the one born of Mary the fair ewe, this is the one taken from the flock, and led to slaughter. Who was sacrificed in the evening, and buried at night; who was not broken on the tree, who was not undone in the earth, who rose from the dead and resurrected humankind from the grave below.
This is the one who has been murdered. And where murdered? In the middle of Jerusalem. By whom? By Israel. Why? Because he healed their lame, and cleansed their lepers, and enlightened their blind, and raised up their dead; and therefore he died. Where is it written in the law and the prophets: “They repaid me bad things for good and childlessness for my soul. They planned wickedness for me saying: ‘Let us tie up the just man because he is a nuisance to us'”?
What strange injustice have you done, O Israel? You have dishonored the one who honored you, you have disgraced the one who glorified you, you have denied the one who owned you, you have ignored the one who made you known, you have murdered the one who gave you life.
O Israel, what have you done? Is it not written for you: “You shall not spill innocent blood” so that you might not die the death of the wicked? “I” said Israel. “I killed the Lord.” Why? “Because he had to die.” You have erred, O Israel, to reason so about the slaughter of the Lord.
He had to suffer, but not through you. He had to be dishonored, but not by you. He had to be judged, but not by you. he had to be hung up, but not by you and by your right hand.
This, O Israel, is the cry with which you should have called to God: “O master, if your son should suffer, and this is your will, let him suffer indeed, but not by me. Let him suffer through foreigners, let him be judged by the uncircumcised, let him be nailed in place by a tyrannical right hand, not mine.”
With this cry, O Israel, you did not call out to God. Nor did you devote yourself to the master, nor did you have regard for his works.
You did not have regard for the withered hand restored to its body, nor the eyes of the maimed opened by a hand, nor limp bodies made strong through a voice. Nor did you regard the strangest of signs, a corpse four days dead called alive from a tomb.
You put these things to one side, you hurried to the slaughter of the Lord. You prepared for him sharp nails and false witnesses, and ropes and whips, and vinegar and gall, and a sword and torture as against a murderous thief. You brought forth a flogging for his body, and thorns for his head; and you bound his goodly hands, which formed you from the earth. And you fed with gall his goodly mouth which fed you with life.
And you killed your Lord at the great feast. And while you were rejoicing he was starving. You were drinking wine and eating bread; he had vinegar and gall. Your face was bright whereas his was cast down. You were triumphant while he was afflicted. You were making music while he was being judged. You were proposing toasts; he was being nailed in place. You were dancing, he was buried. You were reclining on a cushioned couch, he in grave and coffin.
O lawless Israel, what is this new injustice you have done, casting strange sufferings on your Lord? Your master who formed you, who made you, who honored you, who called you Israel.
You were not Israel. You did not see God. You did not perceive the Lord, Israel, you did not recognize the first-born of God, begotten before the morning star, who adorned the light, who lit up the day, who divided the darkness, who fixed the first boundary, who hung the earth, who tamed the abyss, who stretched out the firmament, who furnished the world, who arranged the stars in the heavens, who lit up the great lights, who made the angels in heaven, who there established thrones, who formed humanity on the earth.
It was he who chose you and led you, from Adam to Noah, from Noah to Abraham, from Abraham to Isaac and Jacob and the twelve patriarchs.
He it was who led you into Egypt, and guarded you there and sustained you. He it was who lit up your way with a pillar, and sheltered you with a cloud. He cut the Red Sea open, leading you through, and destroyed the enemy.
He it is who gave you manna from heaven, who gave you drink from a rock, who gave you the law at Horeb, who gave you the inheritance in the land, who sent you the prophets, who raised up kings for you.
He it is who, coming to you, healed your suffering and raised your dead. He it is whom you outraged, he it is whom you blasphemed, he it is whom you oppressed, he it is whom you killed, he it is whom you extorted, demanding from him two drachmas as the price of his head.
Ungrateful Israel, come to trial with me concerning your ingratitude. How much did you value being formed by him? How much did you value the finding of your fathers? How much did you value the descent into Egypt, and your refreshment there under Joseph the just?
How much did you value the ten plagues? How much did you value the pillar by night, and the cloud by day, and the crossing of the Red Sea? How much did you value the heavenly gift of manna, and the water gushing from rock, and the giving of the law at Horeb, and the allotment of the land, and the gifts given there?
How much did you value the suffering ones, healed by his very presence? Give me a price on the withered hand, which he restored to its body. Give me a price on those blind from birth, whom he illumined by a voice. Give me a price on those who lay dead and who, four days later, were raised from the tomb.
His gifts to you are beyond price, yet you held them worthless when you thanked him, repaying him with ungrateful acts; evil for good, affliction for joy, and death for life. On this account you had to die.
For if the king of a nation is seized by enemies a war is fought on his account, a wall is breached on his account, a city is ransacked on his account, ransoms are sent on his account, envoys are sent off on his account, so that he might be brought back alive, or buried if he is dead.
But you cast the vote of opposition against your Lord, whom the gentiles worshipped, at whom the uncircumcised marveled, whom foreigners glorified, over whom even Pilate washed his hands: for you killed him at the great feast.
Therefore the feast of unleavened bread is bitter for you: as it is written, “You shall eat unleavened bread with bitterness.” The nails you sharpened are bitter for you, the tongue you incited is bitter for you, the false witnesses you set up are bitter for you, the ropes you prepared are bitter for you, the whips which you wove are bitter for you, the Judas you hired is bitter for you, the Herod you followed is bitter for you, the Caiaphas you believed is bitter for you, the gall you cooked up is bitter for you, the vinegar you produced is bitter for you, the thorns which you gathered are bitter for you, the hands which you made bloody are bitter for you. You killed the Lord in the middle of Jerusalem.
Listen all you families of the nations and see: a strange murder has occurred in the middle of Jerusalem; in the city of the law, in the city of the Hebrews, in the city of the prophets, in the city reckoned righteous. And who has been murdered? Who is the killer? I am ashamed to say and I am obliged to tell. For if the murder took place by night, and if he was slaughtered in a deserted place, I might have been able to keep silent. Now in the middle of the street, and in the middle of the city, in the middle of the day before the public gaze, the unjust murder of a just man has taken place.
And so he is lifted up on a tall tree, and a placard is attached to show who has been murdered. Who is it? To say is hard and not to say yet more fearful. Listen then, shuddering at him through whom the earth shook.
He who hung the earth is hanging. He who fixed the heavens in place has been fixed in place. He who laid the foundations of the universe has been laid on a tree. The master has been profaned. God has been murdered. The King of Israel has been destroyed by an Israelite right hand.
O mystifying murder! O mystifying injustice! The master is obscured by his body exposed, and is not held worthy of a veil to shield him from view. For this reason the great lights turned away, and the day was turned to darkness; to hide the one denuded on the tree, obscuring not the body of the Lord but human eyes.
For when the people did not tremble, the earth shook. When the people did not fear, the heavens were afraid. When the people did not rend their garments, the angel rent his own. When the people did not lament, the Lord thundered from heaven, and the most high gave voice.
Therefore, Israel, you did not shudder at the presence of the Lord; so you have trembled, embattled by foes. You did not fear the Lord, < … > You did not lament the Lord, so you lamented your firstborn. When the Lord was hung up you did not rend your clothing, so you tore them over the fallen. You disowned the Lord, and so are not owned by him. You did not receive the Lord, so you were not pitied by him. You smashed the Lord to the ground, you were razed to the ground. And you lie dead, while he rose from the dead, and is raised to the heights of heaven.
The Lord clothed himself with humanity, and with suffering on behalf of the suffering one, and bound on behalf of the one constrained, and judged on behalf of the one convicted, and buried on behalf of the one entombed, rose from the dead and cried out aloud:
“Who takes issue with me? Let him stand before me. I set free the condemned. I gave life to the dead. I raise up the entombed. Who will contradict me?”
“It is I”, says the Christ, “I am he who destroys death, and triumphs over the enemy, and crushes Hades, and binds the strong man, and bears humanity off to the heavenly heights.” “It is I,” says the Christ.
“So come all families of people, adulterated with sin, and receive forgiveness of sins. For I am your freedom. I am the Passover of salvation, I am the lamb slaughtered for you, I am your ransom, I am your life, I am your light, I am your salvation, I am your resurrection, I am your King. I shall raise you up by my right hand, I will lead you to the heights of heaven, there shall I show you the everlasting father.”
He it is who made the heaven and the earth, and formed humanity in the beginning, who was proclaimed through the law and the prophets, who took flesh from a virgin, who was hung on a tree, who was buried in earth, who was raised from the dead, and ascended to the heights of heaven, who sits at the right hand of the father, who has the power to save all things, through whom the father acted from the beginning and for ever.
This is the alpha and omega, this is the beginning and the end, the ineffable beginning and the incomprehensible end. This is the Christ, this is the King, this is Jesus, this is the commander, this is the Lord, this is he who rose from the dead, this is he who sits at the right hand of the father, he bears the father and is borne by him. To him be the glory and the might for ever. Amen.
Source. St. Anianus Coptic Church – Translated, introduced, and annotated by Alistair Stewart-Sykes. From “On Pascha: With the Fragments of Melito and Other Material Related to the Quartodecimans”, published by St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press in English in Crestwood, New York, 2001.