Primary source · Koine Greek
Peri Pascha and fragments
Melito of Sardis · c. AD 160–177
What this text is
The blind poet-bishop of Sardis: a rhythmic Paschal sermon on the Exodus fulfilled in Christ, an apology to Marcus Aurelius, and the first recorded Christian canon-list journey to the East. The full sermon was recovered only in 1932.
Interlinear passages
Word-for-word glosses of the original; the complete public-domain translation is linked below.
Peri Pascha 96 — the great paradox
ὁtheδεσπότηςMasterὕβρισται,has been insultedὁ—θεὸςGodπεφόνευταιhas been murdered
Public-domain translations
ANF fragments (1885)
Accordingly, when I went East and came to the place where these things were preached and done, I learned accurately the books of the Old Testament, and send them to thee as written below. (From the letter to Onesimus, via Eusebius IV.26.)
Manuscript witnesses
P. Chester Beatty XII
4th c.The papyrus codex that restored On Pascha to the world (published 1940).
Papyrus Bodmer XIII
3rd–4th c.A nearly complete Greek text, confirming and correcting Beatty.
Georgian, Coptic & Syriac versions
5th c. onwardThe homily's wide ancient circulation, lost under its author's name.
Provenance
Sardis, c. AD 160–170; the Peri Pascha recovered from the sands
Editions & scholarship
Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.
- Melito of Sardis: On Pascha and Fragments (OECT)Stuart George Hall, 1979The critical edition with translation.
- On Pascha (Popular Patristics 55)Alistair C. Stewart, 2nd ed. 2016Faithful translation with introduction.