The Paschal celebration in the Peri Pascha of Melito, Bishop of Sardis

Abstract

The paschal mystery lies at the very heart of the Christian life (Acl3, 32-33). It is of capital importance to deepen our study about what genre Melito's late second century paschal homily, Peri Pascha, was written in; what the preceding and succeeding influences upon it were and the theological implications of this work My objective is to show that the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus, the real and true Pasch, was certainly celebrated in the first two centuries. Since the paschal celebration is viewed by Melito as a celebration of the event of the mystery of redemption, I will treat the theological aspect of the matter. Regarding the historical aspect of the celebration, the sacred scripture readings in both Old and New Testaments, and to the ancient sources that are linked to the Pasch, I am making use of Greek dictionaries, Greek and Latin Patristics texts, commentaries, historical and theological books and other data I am presenting this paper in four separate chapters. The first chapter gives a background of the date and the identification of Peri Pascha. It also deals with the person of Melito himself, as a bishop, as a second century writer and his works, with his Johannine tradition who kept Pascha on the fourteenth day of the month of Nisan. We will have a look at Sardis, his city and the cultural activity of the communities in this locale. The second chapter deals with the genre of Peri Pascha. We are going to analyze from this text: its structure, its homiletic genre, and the links between this text and the Jewish Passover Haggadah. Is it true that Peri Pascha "represents a text-book case of the anti-Jewish sentiments?" The third part, the crux of this work: From a Jewish to a Christian Passover. We shall be dealing firstly with the Jewish Pesach in the light of Exodus12 then the transplantation of the Jewish Pesach to the Christian Pasch. Most significantly in this chapter is the Quartodeciman commemoration of the passion and death of Jesus Christ in accordance with the Johannine heritage. This commemoration was preceded by a vigil, celebrated by a fast (which was disputed) and with the reading of Exodus. Fourthly, we tum our attention to the theological implications of Peri Pascha: The Christological, eschatological and typological aspects.