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and as it rises in diametrical opposition to the sun's course, the miracle may be seen unshadowed, justice being shown against the curse, not artifice.

38 For all these reasons, Christ observed the ancient appointed times for the new passion; for this reason, indeed, we too observe all the times, embracing the imitation as a demonstration of the mysterious reasonings. But the Savior, fulfilling the true Pascha in order to rescue all from the impending judgment, rightly, as for a true and master Pascha, gathered together with precision all the aforementioned times in the week according to the ancient custom, so that He might carry out the recapitulation precisely; but we, since the appointed times cannot always coincide thus, making an imitation of the true Pascha as much as we are able, we gather together the imitation of the times around the place, having conceded the precise arrangement of the times 39 to the original Pascha of the Savior. Therefore, since the Only-Begotten was sacrificed once and it was sufficient for the economy, a lamb is no longer sacrificed, but the Savior, being at His passion, gives the bread and the cup as an imitation of the most sovereign sacrifice, accomplishing the one as His own body, and the other as His blood by ineffable invocations, and commanding that we perform the Pascha in these types. Accordingly, therefore, with the imitation, we also gather the times in imitation as much as we are able, and we bring together the equinox and the fourteenth day of the moon and the three days around the place, the fourteenth day necessarily within the week, as the ancient custom showed, and the three days themselves, and the equinox around the time of Pascha, as it may happen to coincide.

40 The Savior, having shown the most sovereign Pascha, revealed it as an aversion of the evils hanging over us and of demons and idolatry and of all ruin, and He worked our nature to be free for the recovery of blessedness; but since, being at the times and the passion, He commanded that we also do this in imitation, with the symbols He gave, saying: "Do this in remembrance of me," rightly, each year, being at the same remembrance after the equinox, for the salvation of us all and the aversion of ensuing evils and for the partaking of heavenly graces, imitating the Savior we accomplish the 41 Pascha with the most manifest brightness of the universe. For this reason we have cast off the ignorance of the heretics and of the Jews concerning the mystery of the Pascha, always taking for this the equinox and seeking the fourteenth day after the equinox, and thus the Preparation and the Sabbath and the Lord's Day named after the Lord, as has often been said, because the Lord Himself observed these appointed times in order to show the riddle of the sheep, which indeed the law called Pascha, having been fulfilled in Him Who was opportunely introduced in its place.

42 See then, brother, the necessity of the matter for the showing of the truth. Moses commanded that on the fourteenth day of the moon in the first month the sheep be slaughtered, which indeed the prophets proclaimed was a type of the Savior, whence indeed they also applied it to the Savior Himself and said: "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent; with his stripes we are healed," wherefore John the Forerunner, seeing him, cried out: "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." Since, therefore, it was fitting that, with the arrival of the reality, the type should cease, Christ did not ask for another appointed time in another way than that of the slaughter of the sheep, so that he might show the replacement. 43 For this reason He connects all the times, as I said, and the fourteenth day coincides with the Preparation; and, with the law commanding the sheep to be slaughtered "toward evening" and "between the two evenings," the Savior also observes the day and the hour of the slaughter, the day being the Preparation, on which man was created, and the hour being the ninth, and around the ninth hour itself He breathes His last upon the cross. For "toward evening" is from the seventh hour

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καὶ κατὰ διάμετρον τῷ ἡλιακῷ ἀντανατελλούσης δρόμῳ, ἀνεπισκίαστον ὀφθῇ τὸ θαῦμα, δίκης κατὰ τὸ ἄγος οὐ τέχνης ἐμφαινομένης.

38 ∆ιὰ ταῦτα πάντα τὰς ἀρχαίας ἐπὶ τῷ νέῳ πάθει προθεσμίας ἐτήρησεν ὁ Χριστός· διὰ τοῦτο δὴ καὶ ἡμεῖς τηροῦμεν πάντας τοὺς χρόνους εἰς ἔνδειξιν τῶν μυστηριωδῶν λογισμῶν τὸ μίμημα περιέποντες. Ἀλλ' ὁ μὲν σωτήρ, τὸ ἀληθινὸν ἐκτελῶν πάσχα ὑπὲρ τοῦ τῆς ἐπικρεμαμένης δίκης τοὺς πάντας ῥύσασθαι, εἰκότως οἷα ἐπ' ἀληθινῷ καὶ κυρίῳ πάσχα πάντας τοὺς προειρημένους χρόνους μετ' ἀκριβείας ἐν τῇ ἑβδομάδι κατὰ τὸ ἀρχαῖον συνήγαγεν, ἵνα τὴν ἀνακεφα λαίωσιν ἀκριβῶς ἐκτελέσειεν· ἡμεῖς δέ, ἐπεὶ μὴ δύνανται εἰς ἀεὶ οὕτω συντρέχειν αἱ προθεσμίαι, μίμημα τοῦ ἀληθινοῦ πάσχα ποιοῦντες ὅση δύναμις τὸ μίμημα τῶν χρόνων περὶ τὸν τόπον συνάγομεν, τὴν ἀκριβῆ τῶν χρόνων κατάστασιν 39 τῷ πρωτοτύπῳ πάσχα τοῦ σωτῆρος παραχωρήσαντες. Ὅθεν ἅπαξ τυθέντος τοῦ μονογενοῦς καὶ πρὸς τὴν οἰκονομίαν ἀρκέσαντος οὐκέτι ἀμνὸς θύεται, ἀλλ' ὁ σωτὴρ ἐπὶ τῷ πάθει γινόμενος τῆς κυριωτάτης θυσίας ἄρτον καὶ ποτήριον μίμημα δίδωσιν, τὸ μὲν σῶμα ἴδιον, τὸ δὲ αἷμα ἀρρήτοις ἐπικλήσεσιν ἐκτελῶν καὶ προστάττων ἐν τούτοις τοῖς τύποις τὸ πάσχα ποιεῖν. Ἀκολούθως οὖν τῷ μιμήματι καὶ τοὺς χρόνους ἐν μιμήσει συνάγομεν ὅση δύναμις, καὶ ἰσημε ρίαν καὶ τεσσαρεσκαιδεκάτην κατὰ σελήνην καὶ τριήμερον περὶ τὸν τόπον ἀθροΐζοντες, τὴν μὲν τεσσαρεσκαιδεκάτην ἐξ ἀνάγκης κατὰ τὴν ἑβδομάδα, ὡς τὸ ἀρχαῖον διέδειξεν, καὶ αὐτὴν τὴν τριήμερον, τὴν δὲ ἰσημερίαν περὶ τὸν χρόνον τοῦ πάσχα, ὡς ἂν συνερχομένην.

40 Ὁ μὲν σωτὴρ τὸ κυριώτατον πάσχα ἐπιδειξάμενος ἀποτρόπαιον τῶν ἐπηρτημένων ἡμῖν κακῶν καὶ δαιμόνων καὶ εἰδωλολατρείας καὶ πάσης λύμης ἀπέφηνε καὶ ἐλευθέραν τὴν φύσιν ἡμῶν πρὸς τὴν τῆς μακαριότητος ἐπανάληψιν ἀπειργάσατο· ἐπειδὴ δὲ προσέταξεν ἐπὶ τῶν χρόνων καὶ τοῦ πάθους γινόμενος καὶ ἡμᾶς τοῦτο μιμουμένους ποιεῖν ἐπὶ συμβόλοις οἷς ἔδωκε φήσας· "Τοῦτο ποιεῖτε εἰς ἐμὴν ἀνάμνησιν", εἰκότως καθ' ἕκαστον ἐνιαυτὸν ἐπὶ τῆς αὐτῆς ἀναμνήσεως μετ' ἰσημερίαν γινόμενοι εἰς σωτηρίαν πάντων ἡμῶν καὶ ἀποτροπὴν τῶν ἐπιγινομένων κακῶν καὶ τῶν οὐρανίων χαρίτων μετάληψιν τὸν σωτῆρα μιμούμενοι τὸ 41 πάσχα ἀνύομεν ἐπὶ φανοτάτῃ φαιδρότητι τοῦ παντός. ∆ιὰ ταύτην τὴν αἰτίαν τὴν τῶν αἱρετικῶν ἄγνοιαν καὶ τὴν τῶν Ἰουδαίων ἐπὶ τῷ τοῦ πάσχα μυστηρίῳ ἀπεδυσάμεθα, παραλαμβάνοντες ἀεὶ πρὸς τοῦτο ἰσημερίαν καὶ ζητοῦντες τὴν μετ' ἰσημερίαν τεσσαρεσκαιδεκάτην καὶ οὕτω παρα σκευὴν καὶ σάββατον καὶ κυριακὴν τὴν τοῦ κυρίου ἐπώνυμον, καθὰ πολλάκις ἐρρήθη, διὰ τὸ αὐτὸν τὸν κύριον ταύτας τὰς προθεσμίας τετηρηκέναι ἐπὶ τὸ δεῖξαι τὸ τοῦ προβάτου αἴνιγμα, ὃ δὴ ὁ νόμος πάσχα ἐκάλει, ἐπ' αὐτοῦ τελεσθὲν εὐκαίρως ἀντεισαχθέντος.

42 Ὅρα δή, ἄδελφε, τὴν ἀνάγκην τοῦ πράγματος εἰς δεῖξιν τῆς ἀληθείας. Ἐκέλευσε Μωϋσῆς πρώτῳ μηνὶ τεσσαρε σκαιδεκάτῃ σελήνης τὸ πρόβατον σφαγιάζεσθαι, ὃ δὴ τύπον τοῦ σωτῆρος οἱ προφῆται ἐβόων, ὅθεν δὴ καὶ παρέλαβον αὐτῷ τῷ σωτῆρι καὶ ἔλεγον· "Ὡς πρόβατον ἐπὶ σφαγὴν ἤχθη καὶ ὡς ἀμνὸς ἐναντίον τοῦ κείραντος αὐτὸν ἄφωνος· τῷ μώλωπι αὐτοῦ ἡμεῖς ἰάθημεν", διὸ θεασάμενος τοῦτον ὁ πρόδρομος Ἰωάννης ἐβόα· "Ἴδε ὁ ἀμνὸς τοῦ θεοῦ ὁ αἴρων τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ κόσ μου". Ἐπεὶ οὖν ἀκόλουθον ἦν παρελθόντος τοῦ ἐναργοῦς παυθῆναι τὸν τύπον, οὐκ ἄλλην προθεσμίαν ἐν ἄλλῃ ᾔτησεν ὁ Χριστὸς ἢ τὴν τοῦ προβάτου σφαγήν, ὡς ἂν τὴν ἀντει 43 σαγωγὴν ἐπιδείξειεν. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο συνάπτει μὲν πάντας τοὺς χρόνους, ὡς εἶπον, καὶ συντρέχει τῇ παρασκευῇ ἡ τεσσαρε σκαιδεκάτη· καί, νόμου κελεύοντος "πρὸς ἑσπέραν" καὶ "ἀνὰ μέσον τῶν ἑσπερινῶν" τὸ πρόβατον σφάζεσθαι, καὶ ἡμέραν καὶ ὥραν τῆς σφαγῆς ἐπιτηρεῖ ὁ σωτήρ, ἡμέραν μὲν τὴν παρασκευήν, ἐν ᾗ ἐκτίσθη ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ὥραν δὲ τὴν ἐννάτην, καὶ περὶ αὐτὴν τὴν ἐννάτην ἐπὶ σταυροῦ ἀποπνεῖ. "Πρὸς ἑσπέραν" μὲν γὰρ ἀπὸ τῆς ἑβδόμης ὥρας εἶναι