On Pascha

1.1Before we begin the word-by-word reading of the Passover, a little should be said about the name itself, taken on its own.

Most of the brothers — perhaps all of them — take the name of the Passover from the Savior's passion, as if the feast were called pascha from that. But among the Hebrews this feast is not properly called pascha. It is called phas. The three letters of phas, with the heavier breathing they use, make up the name of the feast. If you translate it, it is crossing.

1.2For on this feast the people come out of Egypt, and so it is called phas, that is, crossing. The name cannot be spoken in Hebrew through the Greek tongue. The Greeks cannot say phas with the heavier breathing the Hebrews use. So the name was made Greek. In the prophets it is said phasek. When it has been more fully made Greek, it has been named pascha (Ezekiel 45:21) (2 Chronicles 35:1).

1.3And if one of our people, rather rashly, should meet with Hebrews and say that the Passover was named from the Savior's passion, they will laugh at him as one who does not know at all what the name means — if they translate the name of the Passover properly, as the perfect among the Hebrews do.

1.4This is enough about the name itself, taken on its own — enough to teach us what the name phas means, and enough to build us up: not to throw ourselves rashly at what is said in Hebrew, trying it without first knowing the Hebrew sense. Now we shall examine the words themselves. The Passover means crossing.

1.5Since the people of the Hebrews then come out of Egypt, the law for this feast is given them, reasonably, household by household: each takes a male sheep, perfect and unblemished, sacrifices it, and toward evening eats it roasted with fire, neither raw nor boiled in water — so that the destroyer of the firstborn of the Egyptians may not touch them, seeing the posts of their doors anointed with the blood (Exodus 12:3–8) (Exodus 12:22–23) (Exodus 12:29).

1.6When this has been done, the people come out of Egypt, and the firstborn of the Egyptians perish. After the Hebrews have gone out, Pharaoh regrets it. He comes out pursuing them with the army and the chariots, and so is drowned in the Red Sea. Moses with the people passes through the sea (Exodus 12:29–33) (Exodus 14:5–9) (Exodus 14:23–29).

1.7That even to this day the Passover still takes place, and the sheep is sacrificed, and the people come out from Egypt — the apostle also teaches us, saying: "For our Passover also has been sacrificed, Christ; so let us keep the feast not with old leaven nor with leaven of malice and wickedness, but with unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." (1 Corinthians 5:7–8)

1.8And if our Passover has been sacrificed, Jesus Christ, those who sacrifice Christ come out of Egypt and pass through the sea and will see Pharaoh drowned. But if some of them want to go back into Egypt, they will not enter the holy land (1 Corinthians 5:7) (Numbers 14:3–4) (Exodus 16:3) (Hebrews 3:11–19).

1.9So that the mind that lies in the events of the history may be shown more fully in speech, we shall come to the words themselves, according to the letter.

1.10And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying: This month is for you the beginning of months; it is first for you among the months of the year (Exodus 12:1–2).

1.11This month, God says to Moses and Aaron, is a beginning of months, and first among the months of the year for them, when they come out of Egypt. And as far as the history goes, this same month is first, and the Jews keep this feast every year on the fourteenth of the first month, household by household, sacrificing a sheep according to the law given them through Moses (Exodus 12:1–6).

1.12But since Christ came not to abolish the law or the prophets but to fulfill them, he showed us what the true Passover is, the true crossing from Egypt (Matthew 5:17).

1.13And for the one who crosses, that is then a beginning of months, when the month of the crossing from Egypt comes. So for him a beginning of another birth comes: a new way of life for the one who has left the darkness and is coming to the light. I speak of the sign given through water to those who have hoped in Christ, which has been named a washing of regeneration. For what else does regeneration mean but the beginning of another birth (Titus 3:5) (John 3:3–5) (Colossians 1:12–13) (1 Peter 2:9)?

1.14A person must come inside a perfect way of life and perfect love, so that someone still in the present world may be able to hear: This month is the beginning of months for you (Exodus 12:2).

1.15For this is not said by God to all the people, but only to Moses and Aaron. It is not written: "And God said to the people: This month is for you the beginning of months; it is first for you among the months of the year." (Exodus 12:1–3) It is written: "And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying: This month is for you the beginning of months; it is first for you among the months of the year." Then he adds: "Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying: On the tenth of this month let each take a sheep."

1.16For if he had added: "Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying: This month is for you the beginning of months," (Exodus 12:2–3) he would have been saying this without distinction both to Moses and Aaron and to the whole people. But it is said to Moses and Aaron: "This month is for you the beginning of months; it is first for you among the months of the year." And he is commanded to speak not this, but that on the tenth of the month they should take a sheep according to the houses of the fathers.

1.17It is clear that that month was not then a beginning of months for all the people, but only for Moses and Aaron, to whom it was said. For a person must fully renounce the creation and this world, so as to grasp that one has almost been born another than what one was — in order to hear: This month is for you a beginning of months; it is first for you among the months of the year (Exodus 12:2).

1.18For that the perfect has a beginning of another birth and becomes another than what he was, the apostle teaches us. At one time he says: "The old man was crucified with Christ" (Romans 6:6); and again: "If we died with him, we shall also live with him." (2 Timothy 2:11) And of himself he says plainly: "I live no longer I, but Christ lives in me." (Galatians 2:20) (Romans 6:8)

1.19Such are those who, while still in the world, are able to hear that a first month and a beginning of months have come to be for them (Exodus 12:2).

1.20That the perfect, having become another than what he was, then receives promises and blessing from God, let us consider. Abram does not receive the promises, but Abraham does. Jacob does not receive the blessings, but Israel does. And Simon does not become the first disciple of the Savior, but Peter does. James and John are sent as apostles when they have become Boanerges, that is, sons of thunder (Mark 3:17).

1.21And if we watch carefully everywhere, we shall find such things meant in Scripture: those who have been perfected have other names. They are no longer those people, but others than what they were.

1.22And so a beginning of months has come to be for them. And we should attend to [The text is damaged here.] the beginning and the first [The text is damaged here.], but "This month is a beginning of months for you; it is first among the months of the year." (Exodus 12:2)

1.23For he could have said: "This month is for you the beginning of months and of the year," (Exodus 12:2) or: "This month is first of the year for you." But as if there were some distinction, he says that the month is both a beginning and first.

1.24How then shall we find a path, and come to grasp whether "beginning" and "first" were said in the same sense, or were used of one thing and another — unless we are guided by the like things that lie in the Scriptures?

1.25In the making of the world it is said at once at the opening: "In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth." (Genesis 1:1) For Scripture, knowing a distinction of "first" and "beginning," does not say: "He made first."

1.26For the making of the world has had a beginning, the Creator, yet it was not made first by the Creator — for the Creator made many things before [...]. But the things that came to be had a beginning, whether first or second in word. For the first is properly said only when nothing precedes; but beginning is signified of things that begin, even if they come last. And whatever is first is also a beginning; but what is a beginning is not already also first.

1.27And so that we may be led more fully to see what is being said, we shall take an example that will guide us to the thought. If some builder who has never built a house should come to building, we shall find in this house both the first and the beginning.

1.28For since he has never built, when he builds, then he builds for the first time. He has not built another house before this one. Yet even if this house he is building is first, it has, along with being first, a beginning as well — so that the beginning is taken of the foundation, while the first it has because he is building this for the first time.

1.29But if he is already building this house as a second or third [...], the first the house does not have, but the one built before this, because of its being first as well.

1.30And so that we may understand more clearly, we shall take another thing. If several logs should lie near one another, we shall find the beginning in all of them — for each log, even to the last, has its own beginning — but only the one lying first has the first. And the first, being first according to position, has also its own beginning. Those that follow, having fallen out of the first, each have their own beginning.

1.31Since then a beginning does not in every case have the first, but the first in every case has the beginning, he says that this month is a beginning of months and first of the months of the year for them (Exodus 12:2).

1.32And so that what is said may not seem a mere assertion, we also call the Savior himself as witness, teaching us to have a distinction between beginning and first. For in the Apocalypse that is current of John he is saying: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and last, the beginning and the end." (Revelation 22:13) [...] it is shown that the beginning is taken in one sense and the first in another (Revelation 1:8).

1.33And as it has been shown that of the first there must also be the beginning, he accordingly says here, because he is first, that he is also beginning: For I am, he says, the first and the last and the beginning and the end. For insofar as he is firstborn of all creation, he is first; and insofar as he is Wisdom, he is beginning. For so says Wisdom through Solomon, that "The Lord created me a beginning of his ways." (Proverbs 8:22)

1.34And perhaps John too, knowing this, began in the gospel: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; this was in the beginning with God." (John 1:1–2)

1.35For in the case of Wisdom he takes the beginning, and he says the Word is not beginning but "in the beginning." (John 1:1) For when the Son is with the Father in his own glory, he is not said to be first; for this belongs to the Father alone. For God alone is unbegotten, but the Son is not first [...] that [...] he wisely administers all things, he is beginning (John 17:5).

1.36Therefore also when he comes into his world John does not say: "the Word was first," (John 1:1) but "in the beginning was the Word."

1.37This distinction of the first and the beginning Jacob too, when he had become Israel, used when blessing Reuben: "Reuben, my firstborn and my strength and beginning of my children." (Genesis 49:3) For he knows both that he is firstborn and that he is beginning of his children.

1.38And many such things in Scripture will be shown, which seem to those who read in passing to have sameness, but to those who meet them with care and attention are proved to have been distinguished.

1.39For if he says: "Together the mindless and the fool shall perish" (Psalm 49:10) [...] together [...] they shall perish [...] the apostle when [...].

1.40Since then [The text is damaged here.]. The sheep is sacrificed by holy ones or Nazirites, but the Savior is sacrificed by the lawless and by sinners. And that the sheep of the Passover is sacrificed by holy ones, the apostle has also said: "For our Passover also has been sacrificed, Christ." (1 Corinthians 5:7) Christ is sacrificed according to the type of the Passover. He is sacrificed by the holy ones. And the Passover is a type of Christ — yet not of his passion (Numbers 6:14–17) (Acts 2:23).

1.41For we must sacrifice the true sheep, if we have been made priests or offer equally with the priests, and we must roast and eat his flesh. And if this has not happened in the passion of the Savior, then his passion is not a type of the Passover. Rather, the Passover becomes a type of Christ himself, who is sacrificed by us (Exodus 12:8–9) (1 Peter 2:5).

1.42For each of us first takes the sheep, then names it, then sacrifices it, and so having roasted it eats, and having eaten leaves nothing of it until morning, and then keeps the feast of unleavened bread, already having come out of Egypt (Exodus 12:3–11) (Exodus 12:14–20).

1.43And that the Passover is intelligible and not this sensible one, he himself says: "Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in yourselves." (John 6:53) Must we then chew his flesh according to sense and drink his blood? But if he says this intelligibly, then the Passover too is intelligible and not sensible.

1.45But if [The text is damaged here.] the Savior to have been crucified [The text is damaged here.] as we have said before, that the Passover is not a type of the passion but a type of Christ himself.

1.46For the Savior himself says: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up," (John 3:14) according to the type of the serpent hung on the wood by Moses, signifying nothing other than the passion of the Savior insofar as he was hung on wood. It is clear, then, that the passion will be taken according to the type of the serpent and not according to the type of the Passover (Numbers 21:8–9) (Deuteronomy 21:23).

1.47For if he had said: "As Moses made the Passover in Egypt, so must Christ suffer," (John 3:14) it would have been undeniable that it had become a type of the Passover. Since he likened his passion to the serpent hung on wood, his passion would be a type of nothing else but this.

1.48And it would have been enough [...].

1.49perhaps [The text is damaged here.] Christ is sacrificed, but he has not been crucified for all, but for those who are able to say: "But to me the world has been crucified, and I to the world," (Galatians 6:14) and for those who are able to say: "Having stripped the principalities and the authorities, he made a show of them, triumphing on the wood," (Colossians 2:15) and for those who are able to say: "But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."

1.50And now let us come also to the next wording: Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying: On the tenth of this month let each take a sheep according to the houses of the fathers, each a sheep according to a house (Exodus 12:3).

1.52So the Hebrews keep Passover: from the tenth they must take the sheep by houses and by families, and still feed them the eleventh and twelfth and thirteenth, and name them, saying: "This sheep is sacrificed for this one and that one" (Exodus 12:3–6) — their names not exceeding eighteen — and on the fourteenth it is sacrificed in the midst of the evenings. So from the taking of the sheep until the sacrificing there are five days. And this used to take place according to the sensible.

1.53[...] that the true sheep is Christ, because he, being second after the Father, is taken through the second monad — I mean the number ten (Exodus 12:3) (John 1:29).

1.54And as there the sheep is not sacrificed at the same time as it is taken on the tenth, but on the fourteenth, five days having passed, so here too the one who has taken the true sheep, that is Christ, does not at once sacrifice and chew, but five days having passed after the taking of him (Exodus 12:3–6).

1.55For the one who hears about Christ and believes — this one has taken Christ. But he does not sacrifice him and chew him unless five days have first passed. For since a human being has five senses, unless Christ comes to be in each of them, he could not be sacrificed and, having been roasted, be eaten.

1.56For when from his spittle he makes clay and anoints our eyes and makes us see clearly, and when he opens the ears of our heart so that having ears we may be able to hear, and when we smell his fragrance recognizing that his name is ointment poured out, and if having tasted we see that the Lord is good, and through touch we handle him (John 9:6–7) (Song of Songs 1:3) (Psalm 34:8) (1 John 1:1) (Mark 8:25) (Matthew 13:9) (Isaiah 6:10).

1.57as John too: "What was," he says, "from the beginning, what we have heard and seen with our eyes and our hands have handled concerning the word of life" (1 John 1:1) — then we shall also be able to sacrifice the sheep and eat and so come out of Egypt [...].

1.58which, besides the type of the mysteries, also shows an intelligible contemplation, of which we shall speak later. For that the law is a shadow and a type, the oracle shows, saying: "See that you make everything according to the type of the tent that was shown you on the mountain." (Hebrews 8:5) (Exodus 25:40)

1.59[...] and having observed often [...] the eighth psalm was inscribed over the winepresses. And when the temple is built, a certain number is given of the burden-bearers and stonecutters working in it: "seventy thousand bearing a burden and eighty thousand stonecutters." (1 Kings 5:15) [...] (Psalm 8:1) (Psalm 81:1) (2 Chronicles 2:2) (2 Chronicles 2:18).

1.60[...] we have come out. And accordingly there are also other things showing that the Passover has been legislated to be sacrificed in the first month on the fourteenth of the month in the midst of the evenings, when the light of the moon has become full and perfect (Exodus 12:6).

1.61For the sheep was sacrificed on the fourteenth of the month in the midst of the evenings, when, as the fifteenth begins, the circle of the moon becomes most full, as those who study these things hold (Exodus 12:6).

1.62And we too, unless the true light rises for us perfectly and we see that our ruling faculty has been perfectly illumined, shall not be able to sacrifice and eat the true sheep (John 1:9) (John 8:12).

1.63[The text is damaged here.] For, telling the disciples to have the crowds recline on grass, he advises this: Make them sit down group by group. And so he sets it before them (Mark 6:39) (Luke 9:14) (John 6:10).

1.64For he gathers the crowds not as he gathers those who chew his bread, but the like with the like, and sets it before them. And the next saying that follows is like this, and the same in force as what is being explained (Mark 6:39–41).

1.65And if they are very few in the house, so as not to be enough for a sheep, he shall take with himself his neighbor who is near. According to the number of souls each shall count with him what is sufficient for him toward a sheep. A sheep perfect, male, a yearling, it shall be for you. From the lambs and the kids you shall take. [...] (Exodus 12:4–5).

1.66[The text is damaged here.] he shall take the neighbor so that it is enough for a sheep (Exodus 12:4).

1.67it is reasonably counted toward a sheep. "A perfect male yearling" (Exodus 12:5) sheep. For Christ is perfect in that he lacks nothing and has nothing incomplete through himself. Male makes clear what is firm and manly in him. And it has been called a yearling since the year means a completed number, the sun being restored to its own place through twelve months (Colossians 1:19) (Colossians 2:9).

1.68And those who chew do not chew in the same way, but each differently according to his own power — not all being able to partake of him as of a sheep, but some, and perhaps more, as of a kid (Exodus 12:5).

1.69Those then who are perfect and already straining to be without sin will eat from the lambs, since Christ is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. But those still lying under sin will take from the kids, since the kid is said according to the law to be offered as a victim for sin (John 1:29) (Leviticus 4:23) (Leviticus 4:28) (Leviticus 5:6).

1.70And perhaps the gospel too knows the same difference, when the Savior feeds those who follow him not from like loaves but from different ones. For some of them he breaks five of wheat, and for others seven of barley — so that those who cannot partake of Christ as of a purer wheat loaf, because they still live in a beastlike way and not yet rationally, may partake as of barley (Matthew 14:17–19) (Matthew 15:34–36) (John 6:9).

1.71And since such people are more, the barley loaves are seven, since this is also the full number and the number of idleness — according to which number the greatest crowd, the one that has idle hands and does not work while it is day, also lives (John 9:4) (Matthew 20:6).

1.72But the wheat ones are five, as also the senses, which the rational do not starve, but they possess them always fed with the rational bread, as it is written: "They shall not hunger nor thirst, nor shall their eyes grow drowsy," (Isaiah 49:10) and what follows (Revelation 7:16) (Isaiah 5:27).

1.73And it shall be kept for you until the fourteenth of this month, and all the multitude of the congregation of the sons of Israel shall slaughter it toward evening, and they shall take of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel in the houses in which they eat them (Exodus 12:6–7).

1.74And we are commanded to slaughter the sheep toward evening, since it was also at the last hour that our true sheep, the Savior, came into the world (Exodus 12:6) (1 John 2:18) (Hebrews 1:2) (1 Corinthians 10:11).

1.75[The text is damaged here.] which we sacrifice, and we anoint our houses with blood — I mean our body. That anointing is the faith in him, through which we believe that the destroyer's power is being abolished (Exodus 12:7) (Exodus 12:23) (Hebrews 2:14).

1.76And after we have been anointed — that is, have believed in Christ — then we are also commanded to come to the eating of Christ, as the next words show: And they shall eat the meats this night, roasted with fire, and unleavened bread on bitter herbs they shall eat. You shall not eat of them raw, nor boiled in water, but roasted with fire, the head with the feet and the inwards (Exodus 12:8–9).

1.77And if the sheep is Christ, and Christ is the Word, what are the fleshes of the divine words if not the divine scriptures? Just as it is not fitting to chew them either raw or boiled in water (Exodus 12:9) (John 1:1) (John 1:14).

1.78If then some use the bare words themselves, these would be chewing the flesh of the Savior raw. And partaking of his flesh raw they will procure death for themselves and not life, eating his flesh in a beastlike way and not as humans — since the apostle teaches us that the letter kills, but the Spirit makes alive (2 Corinthians 3:6) (John 6:53–54).

1.79And if the Spirit is given us from God, and God is a consuming fire, the Spirit itself is also fire — which the apostle, knowing, exhorts us to be boiling in the Spirit (Deuteronomy 4:24) (Hebrews 12:29) (Romans 12:11) (Acts 2:3–4).

1.80Rightly then is the Holy Spirit called fire, which we must take up and then converse with the flesh of Christ — I mean the divine scriptures — so that through this spiritual fire we may roast them and eat them roasted with fire. For by such a fire the words will be changed, and we shall see what is sweet and nourishing in them, not boiling them with worse water (Exodus 12:9).

1.81For there is a better water, which Christ promised he would give to the Samaritan woman (John 4:10) (John 4:14).

1.82[...] those who drink the water [...] he will have rivers from the belly of water leaping up into eternal life (John 4:14) (John 7:38).

1.83But the Savior finds fault with the water of the Samaritan woman, saying: "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again," (John 4:13–14) and he praises this water, saying: "But whoever drinks of the water which I shall give him will never thirst."

1.84[...] With such water then we are commanded not to boil the Savior's flesh, I mean the words of the scriptures, nor to mix with the sayings another matter that can water them down through the boiling, but to partake of them cooking them with the fire alone — that is, with the divine Spirit — neither chewing them raw nor boiled in water (Exodus 12:9) (John 4:14).

1.85For the Jews partake of them raw, leaning on the words of the scriptures alone. But if through the Spirit they see the true circumcision, for example, and the true sabbath, and they work while it is day before the night comes, when no one can work any longer, they already eat the saying boiled through the Spirit (John 9:4) (Romans 2:28–29) (Colossians 2:16–17).

1.86[...] in firmness [...] watery so that [...] thus by the Spirit [...] with the flame and [...] they burned together [...] of those partaking [...] of those chewing [...].

1.87some partake of his head, some of hands, some of breast, others also of his inwards, others also of the thighs, and some even of the feet, where there is not more flesh, each partaking from him according to his own power (Exodus 12:9).

1.88So then we partake of a corresponding part of the true sheep, as we are able, partaking of the Word of God (John 1:1) (Hebrews 4:12).

1.89And there are some who partake of the head and, if you will, of each of the parts of the head — for example of ears, as those who have ears may be able to hear his words. Those who have tasted of the eyes will see clearly, their feet not stumbling. Those of the hands who are workers, no longer having hands hanging down nor drawn back from giving, grasp instruction before the Lord is angry. And others, having leaned on his breast, will know through this eating also who the betrayers of Christ are (Matthew 11:15) (Psalm 2:12) (John 13:23) (John 13:21–26) (Psalm 119:105) (Hebrews 12:12).

1.90And those who chew the inwards, laboring at it, these will also see the depths of God — for the inwards have a kind of intricate folding and effect the whole life of the body. Such also is the one being initiated in mysteries. Or rather, the Word of the incarnation, hidden and as it were in the middle — if we should take the head as the godhead (1 Corinthians 2:10).

1.91And those who partake of the thighs keep the flesh undefiled, following wherever Christ goes. Those of the feet, no longer being sluggish, run with zeal toward the prize of the upward calling of Christ. And the head would be the faith, and the feet the works, without which faith is dead (Revelation 14:4) (Romans 12:11) (Philippians 3:14) (James 2:17) (James 2:26).

1.92And the eating of those who eat the Passover is varied, but they are all toward the same, and the one who eats the head with the one who chews the feet, since the head cannot say to the feet: I have no need of you. For the things chewed are many members, but one body of Christ. But as far as we can let us keep the harmony of the members, lest we be accused of tearing apart the members of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:21) (1 Corinthians 12:12) (1 Corinthians 6:15) (1 Corinthians 1:13).

1.93You shall not leave any of it until morning, and you shall not break a bone of it; and what is left of it until morning you shall burn with fire (Exodus 12:10) (Exodus 12:46) (Numbers 9:12).

1.94The Greek is lost. Victor of Capua preserves this in Latin.

As the mysteries of the Passover, which used to be celebrated in the old testament, have been taken away by the truth of the new testament, so the mysteries of the new testament, which we must likewise now celebrate, will not be needed in the resurrection — which time "morning" (Exodus 12:10) signifies — in which nothing will be left, and what remains of it will be burned with fire (1 Corinthians 13:10) (Hebrews 8:13).

1.95we partake of the flesh of Christ, that is of the divine scriptures [...] (John 6:53).

1.96let us search the true sheep. The apostle confesses that the sheep of our Passover is Christ, saying: "For our Passover also has been sacrificed, Christ," (1 Corinthians 5:7) whose flesh and bones and blood, as was shown before, are the divine scriptures, which if we eat, we have Christ,

1.97the words becoming his bones, and the thoughts from the wording the flesh — on which, as is likely, we step and see the things after these in a riddle and through a mirror — and the blood the faith of the gospel of the new covenant, as the apostle bears witness: "And having counted the blood of the covenant a common thing." By this blood, by faith, having been anointed, we shall escape the destroyer (Hebrews 10:29) (Exodus 12:23) (Hebrews 9:20).

1.98Even if a private person [...].

1.99[...] "for we know in part and we prophesy in part," (1 Corinthians 13:9–10) as the same apostle teaches, "but when the perfect comes, what is in part will be done away," which he says is to be burned until morning.

1.100And the night is taken of the present world, and the day of the one to come, as the same apostle bears witness, saying: "The night has advanced, and the day has drawn near." (Romans 13:12)

1.101And very few indeed are those who have senses trained for the discernment of both good and evil and who partake of solid food — who will also be able to leave none of the meats until morning, as he says: perhaps one out of a thousand and two out of a myriad, of whom the blessed apostles also were (Hebrews 5:14) (Ecclesiastes 7:28) (Deuteronomy 32:30).

1.102And he also writes that those who chew the Passover are to have such a posture, through the next words: And you shall eat it this way: your loins girded, and your shoes on your feet, and your staffs in your hands. And you shall eat it in haste. It is a Passover to the Lord (Exodus 12:11).

1.103What it is to have the loins girded we shall be taught from other sayings of Scripture. The apostle, recounting the things from the loin of Abraham who was blessed by Melchizedek, says: "And Levi, who receives tenths, has been tithed; for he was still in the loin of the father when Melchizedek met him." (Hebrews 7:9–10) And elsewhere he says: "Though they had come out of the loin of Abraham." (Hebrews 7:5) And in Job he says of the devil: "And his strength is in loin and in the navel of belly." (Job 40:16)

1.104For especially through this desire he is able both to overturn and to wrestle down human beings — the loin being understood, as of the man, and the navel of the belly decently as of the woman — so that it may be shown that through such desire he most of all overpowers both the male and the female (Job 40:16).

1.105Since then Scripture bears witness that the loin is used of intercourse, we come onto a path of considering what it wants concerning the Passover: that we eat with loins girded according to families. We are commanded, when we chew the Passover, to become clean from bodily coming-together — the girding of the loin signifying this. It teaches us to bind round the seed-place and commands us to stop up the motions of mixing, when we partake of the flesh of Christ (Exodus 12:11) (Exodus 19:15).

1.106For if someone is athletic [...] competing and looking to those who are continent for the sake of a perishable contest, that they may receive a perishable contest, while he himself pursues an imperishable one to receive. For if someone should so gird the loin, he will also be able to leave none of the meats until morning (1 Corinthians 9:25) (Exodus 12:10).

1.107Perhaps for this reason John the Baptist too, since he was perfect, had a leather belt around his loin — it being shown that he had put to death there all his seed-motion. The leather shows deadness: deadness had filled his whole nature (Matthew 3:4) (Mark 1:6) (Colossians 3:5).

1.108And even the one who chews the Passover in marriage will gird his loin. For blessed are those who have wives as not having them, the apostle has said (1 Corinthians 7:29).

1.109He also says that those who chew the Passover are to have the shoes on their feet — which might seem to some a contradiction of what was used toward Moses. For since Moses was treading on holy ground, he is commanded to loose the shoe from his feet. How then, when the Passover too is holy, are those who chew it commanded to have their shoes bound on (Exodus 12:11) (Exodus 3:5) (Acts 7:33) (Joshua 5:15)?

1.110But these things are not at war. They are taken according to one thought and another. For when someone treads holy ground, he is commanded to have no deadness in himself, no longer about to cover any deadness of his. But when he chews the Passover, he is commanded to eat in haste for the sake of being ready, as the apostle also teaches, saying: "Having shod your feet in readiness of the gospel." (Exodus 12:11) (Ephesians 6:15)

1.111So that, when day has come, he may be able to go out unhindered, he is commanded to be shod. And in this it also shows something clearer about the resurrection of flesh, it too coming out with us as we go out of Egypt. For we must put to death the members that are on the earth — fornication, uncleanness, wantonness, idolatry, and the rest — and so come out of Egypt (Colossians 3:5).

1.112And so that we may see the likeness of the law to the gospel, we shall set beside the things said according to the law also things from the gospel. Moses, about to lead the people out of Egypt in order to bring them into the holy land, receiving commandments of God, is commanded not to have a shoe. And the apostles, being sent to lead the people from the nations out of intelligible Egypt, are commanded not to take a staff for the road, nor a bag, nor to have sandals bound on (Exodus 3:5) (Matthew 10:10) (Luke 9:3) (Luke 10:4) (Mark 6:8).

1.113As there those who eat the Passover in haste are commanded to have the shoes on their feet, likewise also in the gospel: those already able to sacrifice and eat the Passover, as has been shown, the apostle commands — as already having the loin girded in truth and putting on the breastplate of righteousness and having taken the helmet of salvation — already also to shoe themselves in readiness of the gospel, and already to have the staffs in their hands as already having shared in instruction. For the staff is a sign of instruction (Exodus 12:11) (Ephesians 6:14–17) (Proverbs 13:24).

1.114For the one who spares his staff hates his own son, but the one who loves disciplines carefully — we have read in Proverbs (Proverbs 13:24).

2.1The sacred service and the sacred sacrifice were completed, in a mystery, in Moses' former time, as God commanded, for the salvation of the firstborn of the sons of Israel, because wrath was being brought upon Pharaoh and those under his rule who disobey the word of God (Exodus 12:12–13) (Exodus 11:4–7).

2.2Now we ask whether it was completed only in their time, the deed having been fulfilled, so that it need not be received in another sense for the times that complete things among us, into which the ends of the ages have come (1 Corinthians 10:11).

2.3We have found the sacred and lawful scriptures not silent, but compelling us to the fulfillment of the commandments that were given, commandments now being completed in us, according to what was said: "Search the scriptures, in which you have life in them, and they bear witness about me." (John 5:39)

2.4And the witness from them does not lie in a prophetic voice only. Knowledge has been written in the things that were done, which the great prophet arranges with knowledge for the race of the Hebrews, looking to the taking and the keeping, and further also the sacrificing and the eating by fire, and the posture of clothing, and the haste toward using up what has been sacredly offered, and the reducing to ash of what was left, and the lawful commandment being completed for their generations until the age as a memorial for them and for their sons. For he confesses that it holds not only of history but also of [The text is damaged here.] anagogy, as it is written: "Comparing spiritual things with spiritual." (1 Corinthians 2:13)

2.5The spiritual sense, then, I try to set out by the grace of God, so that the salvation completed in Christ — God's effective salvation — may become clear to those who love to learn, as it is written: "As many as received him, he gave them authority to become children of God, who were born not of bloods nor of the will of flesh nor of the will of a man, but of God." (John 1:12–13)

2.6For the adoption in Christ has become for us authority of so great a salvation — we who have come to be not of bloods and of the will of man and woman, whom he also confesses to be his brothers, saying: "I will declare your name to my brothers." (Hebrews 2:12) (Psalm 22:22)

2.7For to these the salvation has come about through his blood, of Christ as of an unblemished lamb. For "as a sheep he was led to slaughter, and as a lamb before the one who shears it is voiceless, so he does not open his mouth. Who will recount his generation, because his life is taken from the earth, and from the lawlessness of his people he was led to his death. And I will give the poor in return for his death and the rich in return for his burial, because he did no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth." (Isaiah 53:7–9) (1 Peter 1:19) (Acts 8:32–33) (1 Peter 2:22)

2.8For his death did not come from sin, but he himself bears our sins and is in pain for us, and by his bruise we all were healed (Isaiah 53:4) (Isaiah 53:5) (1 Peter 2:24).

2.9For as those were prefigured in a male sheep, so we in a human being who is as a lamb. As in a perfect one, so we in his fullness, he having completed the Father's will. As in a yearling, so at the end of ages — for as the year is a completing of months, so he too is a completing of law and prophets. As in an unblemished one, so in one without sin. As in the first month, so in the beginning of all creation, in which all things have been created. On the tenth, in the fullness of monarchy (Colossians 1:16) (Exodus 12:3–5) (John 1:29) (Colossians 1:19) (Colossians 2:9) (John 17:4) (Matthew 5:17) (1 Corinthians 10:11) (Galatians 4:4).

2.10And until the fourteenth — of a second week — signifies a rest of two weeks, which from a first creation, that is an unseen one, has come upon a second, a visible one (Exodus 12:6) (Genesis 1:1) (Colossians 1:16).

2.11And all the multitude of the sons of Israel shall slaughter him toward evening. And "all multitude" (Exodus 12:6) is of the sons of a human being who sees God — that is, of God's power. Toward evening: toward the ends of the ages (1 Corinthians 10:11) (Genesis 32:28).

2.12And they shall anoint of his blood on the lintel and on both the doorposts. Lintel: the things above the head of all lambs. Doorposts: their bounds, through which they go in and go out in them — some enter in them, some go out from them — in which they are grasped as dwelling in them (Exodus 12:7).

2.13And the sacrificing takes place in Egypt, under Pharaoh's rule — the rule that is according to earth and pressed by darkness, which is ignorance. And those under the rule of this ruler of Egypt are in much ignorance of blindness. He himself, having settled in, is held by the glory of his lifting-up, as he said: "Who is the Lord? I do not know, and I will not send Israel away," (Exodus 5:2) confessing the same as "I will set my throne above the clouds; I will go up into heaven; I will be equal to the Most High." (Isaiah 14:13–14) (2 Corinthians 4:4)

2.14Those then who have listened to the prophet will complete this, being sojourners to him, having come to be under his tyranny in a time of famine, as having received from their fathers the most ancient oath-promise that their seed would be a sojourner — as toward father Abraham (Genesis 15:13) (Genesis 12:10) (Acts 7:6).

2.15For the sacrificing of this one, which was through them, was taking place in ignorance, because they did not know what they were doing — hence it is also forgiven them. For it is good that one human being die for the whole people. For it is not permitted that a prophet die outside Jerusalem — that is, of those who try to dwell in peace and righteousness (Luke 23:34) (John 11:50) (Luke 13:33) (Acts 3:17) (Hebrews 7:2).

2.16As they were under the law and, not having completed the very things according to the law, they fell from the salvation that is by nature through the law (Romans 9:31–32) (Romans 10:3).

2.17[...] and that it has been completed in deed, they having received it lawfully, who in haste of faith and a tightening of bodily thoughts and a ready shoeing toward preparation of a good-working journey, staffs being handled in their hands, live in fear the life from this, which becomes salvation for them — and "unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no share with me." (John 6:53)

2.18These things the true sheep, the true lamb who takes away the sin of the world, the only one dying so that the whole nation of human beings may be saved — according to the high priest of that year, who was speaking without knowing (John 1:29) (John 11:49–51).

2.19For the sacrifice is ready for the salvation of those sojourning according to the infancy of love of the nurse that has come to be for them, of the land that reared them — which nurse they had and used as a mother, not knowing the true mother, having been reared with a letting-go of flesh for bodies and with this world, sweeter for a time according to pleasure, held by ignorance of their paternal world — being called Hebrews (Galatians 4:26) (Galatians 4:1–3).

2.20For so he says: "The God of the Hebrews has called us." (Exodus 3:18) For as a crossing world is crossed over into the established paternal age, the turning of the children takes place, being effectively completed in the name of the Passover, which is called a going-over (Exodus 5:3) (Exodus 7:16).

2.21For they go over through the name of this mystery, having partaken of it, having procured for themselves salvation: not to be destroyed together with the firstborn of the Egyptians from Pharaoh, who sits on his throne, even to the maidservant at the mill — that is, of those who are in a lifting-up of wealth and tyranny, in ignorance, and have not recognized the one who raises kings from a dunghill and seats them on royal thrones (Exodus 11:5) (Exodus 12:29) (1 Samuel 2:8) (Psalm 113:7–8).

2.22For he has given back [...] being held by ignorance to the bounds according to them — some by fate, some by chance, some by the rule of the ruler — because of the rearing toward him in a time of infancy, as they were reared, having forgotten the mother according to nature and the true Father who said: "Seeing I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry and I have come down to deliver them from the taskmasters and to deliver them from the slavery of Pharaoh and from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them into the land of the fathers, which I swore to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob to give them as an inheritance," (Exodus 3:7–8) (Exodus 3:17)

2.23which he also did, having come at the completion of the ages for the putting away of sin through his flesh, having killed the enmity. Having come he preached good news to us who were far and to those near, having redeemed us from the authority of the darkness and having transferred us in his light (Hebrews 9:26) (Ephesians 2:14–17) (Colossians 1:13) (Colossians 1:21–22).

2.24For it is confessed that he transferred us from Egypt and from its rulers, whom he nailed to the cross, having made a show of them triumphing in openness over them in it. For this reason "Behold I have come — for it is written in the heading of a book about me —, O God, to do your will," (Hebrews 10:7) having said beforehand: "Sacrifice and offering you did not want, but a body you prepared for me; burnt offering and offering for sin you did not take pleasure in," (Hebrews 10:5–7) (Psalm 40:6–8)

2.25through which offering of his a wandering world is being cleansed, coming to turning, and he makes peace of all things in the blood of his cross, the enmity having been killed, which is wrath for the destruction of those who disobey (Colossians 1:20) (Ephesians 2:16) (Hebrews 10:10) (Romans 1:18).

2.26For if these rushed to obey the legislation according to what was said, having completed it in a bunch of hyssop — that is, in an exhalation of thoughts toward turning — which for them the true Passover has been completed, Christ who said: "I sanctify myself for these, and not for these only, but also for all who believe in you." (Exodus 12:22) (John 17:19–20)

2.28For if those too were making this haste, to bring him to the sacred service for their sanctification — which for them the commandment fulfilled: "You shall eat it in haste; it is a Passover to the Lord," (Exodus 12:11) which is a going-over of the Lord.

2.29For the one who has gone over the divine bounds — the bounds that were there through the disobedience in Adam — this one is Lord, who blunted the sting of death and took down its power, having given a leaping-over through good news to the spirits kept in Hades, and otherwise also having provided an upward road of travel into heaven through his own going up, doors and gates being lifted for his entrance: "Lift up gates, you rulers of yours, and be lifted, everlasting gates, and the king of glory will come in." (1 Peter 3:19) (Psalm 24:7)

2.30And when it was heard a second time by the powers standing by, and they were examining who it is, they heard: "The Lord, mighty and powerful in war, the Lord of powers, this is the king of glory" (Psalm 24:8–10) — for king of the Father's glory, in which the Father is glorified, having reconciled a world to himself, not counting its trespasses against it, but having wiped out the handwriting against it, which was contrary, and he has taken it out of the midst (2 Corinthians 5:19) (Colossians 2:14).

2.31And these things were being completed in Christ, as he says: "For God was in Christ reconciling a world to himself," (2 Corinthians 5:19) and the reconciliation was taking place in the "as an innocent lamb being led to be sacrificed he did not know." (Jeremiah 11:19) For they reckoned a wicked reckoning against him, having known that "the Son of man must suffer many things and be killed and on the third day rise." (Mark 8:31) (Matthew 16:21) (Luke 9:22)

2.32And of those who heard and were in a way grieved, he said: "It is to your advantage that I go away; for unless the grain of wheat dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit," (John 16:7) which he confesses with: "Behold I and the children whom God has given me." (John 12:24) (Isaiah 8:18) (Hebrews 2:13)

2.33Since then the children have shared in blood and flesh, he too likewise partook of the same, so that through death he might abolish the one who has the power of death — that is, the devil — and might set free these, as many as through fear of death were subject to slavery through all their living (Hebrews 2:14–15).

2.34For the true sheep, which is Christ Jesus, of whom the sheep slaughtered in Egypt became a type, has set free from the slavery of the world-ruler of this darkness of this age, having delivered the Hebrews of that time from the authority of the then ruler of Egypt, which is called darkness, and Pharaoh "scatterer," (Ephesians 6:12) who scatters the works that are in the light of virtue through his ruling authority — that is, of a mind of those living in darkness (Colossians 1:13) (Exodus 12:21) (John 1:5).

2.35Let this be enough from me for now. I have sown fruitful seeds through these marks, so that what we have said in little, and incompletely, may be filled out at large by those who are willing and love to learn — as the Word has set it before us, so also to them, according to the same grace that is in Christ, may God grant it.