Peri Pascha

[7] In terms of literary genre, the original editor, the Michigan University papyrologist Campbell Bonner advanced the view, somewhat anachronistic, that it exhibited features of a Good Friday sermon.

[8] Accepting the text as representing a homily, some have argued that it was initially pronounced during Easter festival night celebrated, according to the custom of Quartodecimans, together with Jewish Passover on the 14th of Nissan.

typos), eternal because of grace; perishable because of the slaughter of the sheep, imperishable because of the life of the Lord; mortal because of the burial in earth, immortal because of the rising from the dead.

The text here appears to be inspired by the Jewish Haggadah of Pesach, especially the following antitheses:[10][11] It is he /Jesus/ that delivered us from slavery to liberty, from darkness to light, from death to life, from tyranny to eternal royalty.

Which of these reading proves more persuasive depends on several factors, such as the identification of the author as the Melito of Sardis, where archaeological excavations have brought to light remains of a vibrant Jewish community for this period.

In such a context, it may reflect Christian fears of confident proselytizing by Jews, or a deep sense of their insecurity in the midst of a Jewish majority.

These interpretations rest of somewhat frail assumptions, about the extent, for example, of attempts by Jews to press for conversion, and occasional Jewish persecutions were both sporadic and highly localized, as often as not instances of infra-communal bickering.

It is argued that this is a modern misreading of the text, and that, since the author espoused Quartodeciman beliefs, it is hard to imagine why he should be an advocate of any form of antisemitism.