On the Passover

Peri Pascha (On the Passover) is a paschal homily delivered by Melito, bishop of Sardis in Asia Minor, during the latter half of the second century. The sermon emerged from the Quartodeciman controversy, when Asian churches celebrated Easter on the fourteenth day of Nisan regardless of the day of the week, following Jewish Passover timing. Melito preached this homily during the church's paschal vigil, likely around 170 CE, as Christian communities were defining their liturgical identity in relation to Judaism.

The homily unfolds as a sophisticated typological meditation on the relationship between the Jewish Passover and Christ's death. Melito argues that the Old Testament Passover was a "type" or prefiguration that found its fulfillment in Christ, the true paschal lamb. He traces salvation history from the Exodus through Christ's passion, demonstrating how the blood of the lamb that saved Israel in Egypt points forward to Christ's blood that saves humanity from sin and death. The sermon reaches its climactic moment in Melito's dramatic prosopopoeia, where Christ himself speaks from the cross, addressing both Israel and the nations. Melito employs rhetorical techniques borrowed from Greek oratory, including anaphora and rhythmic prose, creating a work that functions simultaneously as theological argument and liturgical poetry.

Peri Pascha represents the earliest substantial Christian homily to survive complete and demonstrates how second-century Christians understood the relationship between the Hebrew scriptures and the gospel. The work influenced later patristic thought on typology and remained significant for its bold christological claims and its witness to early Christian worship practices. Who should read this: students of early Christianity seeking to understand how the church developed its biblical hermeneutics, and those interested in the origins of Christian liturgical preaching, though readers unfamiliar with patristic theology may find Melito's typological method challenging.