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De azymis

OF SAINT ATHANASIUS CONCERNING THE UNLEAVENED BREAD. The Jews celebrated the Passover with three materials and with three virtues; and with three witnesses according to the order of the Law. And the three materials were the lamb, the unleavened bread, and the bitter herbs; and the three virtues, with loins girded, and sandals on their feet, and a staff in their hands. And the three witnesses, scribes standing at the table, and knowing precisely the waning of the moon, by means of a certain cup being shaken and giving a sign; with the priest immediately sounding the trumpet that it is the Lord's Passover; and then after hearing the sound of the trumpet's voice, they would make the leaven without bread for 7 days. But before the sign of the cup and of the trumpet, they did not have authority to prepare for seven days a lamb, or unleavened bread, or bitter herbs; for so says also the great David: Blow the trumpet at the new moon. But our Lord Jesus Christ on the fifth day made the tradition of the holy mysteries at the seventh hour of the night; but the beginning of the feast of unleavened bread occurred on Friday evening after the Lord was buried. For this reason the four evangelists say that the Lord handed down perfect bread in the holy mysteries and not unleavened bread; so that it might be confirmed that it was a perfect body from the holy Virgin; I mean animate and intelligent; and not as the heretic Apollinarius said, that He took on a body only; but we say that the bread which is consecrated is that which consists of flour and leaven and salt; just as with the body there is the spiritual and the mind; for a body without breath is dead; and unleavened bread alone, not having leaven, is dead and not life-giving bread; since the leaven gives life to the dough and unity, just as the spirit does to the body, and salt to the mind, and for this reason we celebrate the mystery with consecrated bread, so that we may not fall into the blasphemy of the impious Apollinarius. And the waning of the light occurs in fourteen and a half days and three hours; but at the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ it passed the sixteenth day; so that it might testify that He is true and eternal life. It should be known, therefore, that in the age of Christ and of His holy apostles, no 26.1329 Church received the practice of eating or offering the fine flour of the Unleavened Bread; and since Christ Himself did not eat the legal Passover at the time of His passion, hear John the evangelist saying: Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world to the Father, ... and supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him; and when, it says, the hour came, that is, when the time to betray him was at hand, he reclined, and the twelve apostles with him; and he said to them: With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. You see, he says, Before I suffer; since therefore he had to suffer on the day of the legal Passover on which the lamb was also sacrificed by the Jews, and the passion was about to take place at the hands of the deicides on a Friday, as John again says: Since it was the Preparation, for that Sabbath day was a high day on which at that time the fourteenth day of the moon also, in the first month, in the five hundred and thirtieth year happened to fall, so that, having been betrayed, he might not fail to hand down his own Passover to the disciples, at the supper he reclined late, and late in the evening around nighttime, that is, of the fifth day, he ate, but his own Passover before the feast of Unleavened Bread; and this is clear from his reclining; for this was not legislated; since standing and

1

De azymis

ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΑΘΑΝΑΣΙΟΥ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΩΝ ΑΖΥΜΩΝ. Ἐν τρισὶν ὕλαις ἐτέλουν οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι τὸ Πάσχα καὶ ἐν τρισὶν ἀρεταῖς· καὶ ἐν τρισὶ μάρτυρσι κατὰ τὴν τάξιν τοῦ Νόμου. Καὶ αἱ μὲν τρεῖς ὕλαι ὁ ἀμνὸς ἦσαν, τὰ ἄζυμα καὶ ἡ πικραλίς· αἱ δὲ τρεῖς ἀρεταὶ, περιεζωσμένοι, καὶ ὑποδήματα εἰς τοὺς πόδας, καὶ βακτηρίαν ἐν ταῖς χερσίν. Οἱ δὲ τρεῖς μάρτυρες, γραμματεῖς ἐπὶ τῇ τραπέζῃ ἑστῶτες, καὶ ἀκριβῶς γινώσκοντες τὴν τῆς σελήνης ἀπόχυσιν, διὰ ποτηρίου τινὸς σαλευομένου καὶ σημαινομένου· σαλπίζοντος εὐθὺς τοῦ ἱερέως ὅτι Πάσχα ἐστὶ Κυρίου· καὶ λοιπὸν μετὰ τὸ ἄκουσμα τῆς φωνῆς τῆς σάλπιγγος, ἐποίουν τὴν ζύμην ἄνευ ἄρτου ἡμέρας ζʹ. Πρὸ δὲ τοῦ σημείου τοῦ ποτηρίου καὶ τῆς σάλπιγγος, οὐκ εἶχον ἐξουσίαν ἑτοιμάσαι ἡμέρας ἐπτὰ ἀμνὸν, ἢ ἄζυμον, ἢ πικρίδα· οὕτω γάρ φησι καὶ ὁ μέγας ∆αυΐδ· Σαλπίσατε ἐν Νεομηνίᾳ σάλπιγγι. Ὁ δὲ Κύριος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς ἐν τῇ εʹ ἡμέρᾳ ἐποίησε τὴν παράδοσιν τῶν ἁγίων μυστηρίων ὥρᾳ τῆς νυκτὸς ζʹ· ἡ δὲ εἴσοδος τῶν ἀζυμοφάγων ἐγένετο Παρασκευῇ ἑσπέρας μετὰ τὸ ταφῆναι τὸν Κύριον. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο οἱ δʹ εὐαγγελισταὶ ἄρτον τέλειον λέγουσι παραδοῦναι τὸν Κύριον ἐν τοῖς ἁγίοις μυστηρίοις καὶ οὐκ ἄζυμον· ἵνα πιστώσηται ὅτι τέλειον σῶμα ἐκ τῆς ἁγίας Παρθένου· λέγω δὲ ἔμψυχον καὶ ἔννουν· καὶ οὐ καθάπερ ὁ αἱρετικὸς Ἀπολλινάριος ἔλεγεν, ὅτι σῶμα μόνον ἀνελάβετο· ἀλλ' ἡμεῖς ἄρτον τελειούμενον φαμεν τὸν δι' ἀλεύρου καὶ ζύμης καὶ ἅλατος συνεστηκότα· καθάπερ σώματι ὁ πνευματικὸς, καὶ νοΐ· σῶμα γὰρ, χωρὶς πνοῆς, νεκρόν ἐστι· καὶ τὸ ἄζυμον μόνον μὴ ἔχον ζύμην νεκρόν ἐστι καὶ οὐ ζωτικὸς ἄρτος· ἐπειδὴ ἡ ζύμη ζωὴν δίδωσι τῷ φυράματι καὶ ἕνωσιν καθάπερ τὸ πνεῦμα τῷ σώματι, καὶ τὸ ἅλας τῷ νῷ καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τελοῦμεν τὸ μυστήριον δι' ἄρτου τελειουμένου, ἵνα μὴ τῇ βλασφημίᾳ τοῦ ἀσεβοῦς Ἀπολλιναρίου περιπέσωμεν. Γίνεται δὲ ἡ τοῦ φέγγους ἀπόχυσις, ἐν ἡμέραις τέσσαρσι καὶ δέκα ἥμισυ καὶ ὥραις τρισίν· εἰς δὲ τὸ πάθος τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ ὑπερέβην ἕκτην καὶ δεκάτην ἡμέραν· ἵνα μαρτυρήσῃ ὅτι ἀληθινός ἐστι καὶ ζωὴ αἰώνιος. Ἰστέον οὖν ὡς αἰῶνι τοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ τῶν ἁγίων ἀποστόλων αὐτοῦ τὴν σεμίδαλιν τῶν Ἀζύμων ἐσθίειν ἢ προσφέρειν οὐδεμία 26.1329 παρέλαβεν Ἐκκλησία· ἐπεὶ δὲ οὔτε ὁ Χριστὸς αὐτὸς κατὰ τὸν καιρὸν τοῦ πάθους αὐτοῦ τὸ νομικὸν ἔφαγε Πάσχα, ἄκουε Ἰωάννου τοῦ εὐαγγελιστοῦ λέγοντος· Πρὸ δὲ τῆς ἑορτῆς τοῦ Πάσχα, εἰδὼς ὁ Ἰησοῦς ὅτι ἐλήλυθεν αὐτοῦ ἡ ὥρα ἵνα μεταβῇ ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου τούτου πρὸς τὸν Πατέρα, ... καὶ δείπνου γενομένου τοῦ ∆ιαβόλου ἤδη βεβληκότος εἰς τὴν καρδίαν Ἰούδα Σίμωνος Ἰσκαριώτου ἵνα αὐτὸν παραδῷ· καὶ ὅτε, φησὶν, ἐγένετο ἡ ὥρα, τουτέστιν ὅτε παρέστη ὁ καιρὸς τοῦ προδοῦναι αὐτὸν, ἀνέπεσαν καὶ οἱ δώδεκα ἀπόστολοι σὺν αὐτῷ· καὶ εἶπε πρὸς αὐτούς· Ἐπιθυμίᾳ ἐπεθύμησα τοῦτο τὸ Πάσχα φαγεῖν μεθ' ὑμῶν πρὸ τοῦ με παθεῖν. Ὁρᾷς, Πρὸ τοῦ με παθεῖν φησίν· ἐπεὶ οὖν ἔδει παθεῖν αὐτὸν κατὰ τὴν ἡμέραν τοῦ Πάσχα τοῦ νομικοῦ καθ' ἣν καὶ ὁ ἀμνὸς παρὰ τῶν Ἰουδαίων ἐθύετο, ἔμελλε δὲ γενέσθαι τὸ πάθος παρὰ τῶν θεοκτόνων Παρασκευῇ ἡμέρᾳ, ὡς αὖθίς φησιν ὁ Ἰωάννης· Ἐπεὶ Παρασκευὴ ἦν, ἦν γὰρ μεγάλη ἡμέρα ἐκείνη τοῦ Σαββάτου ἐν ᾗ τηνικαῦτα καὶ ἡ τεσσαρεσκαιδεκάτη τῆς σελήνης, κατὰ τὸν πρῶτον μῆνα, ἐν τῷ πεντακοσιοστῷ τριακοστῷ ἔτει ἐκπεσεῖν ἔτυχεν, ἵνα μὴ παραδοθεὶς οὐ φθάσῃ τὸ οἰκεῖον Πάσχα τοῖς μαθηταῖς παραδοῦναι, ἐν τῷ δείπνῳ ἀναπεσὼν ὀψὲ, καὶ βραδὺ περὶ τὴν νύκτα κατὰ τὴν ὀψίαν, δηλονότι τῆς εʹ, ἔφαγε μὲν, ἀλλὰ τὸ οἰκεῖον Πάσχα πρὸ τῆς ἑορτῆς τῶν Ἀζύμων· καὶ τοῦτο δῆλον ἐκ τοῦ ἀναπεσεῖν αὐτόν· οὐδὲ γὰρ νενομοθετημένον· ἐπειδὴ ἱσταμένους καὶ