5
would be in step with other second century apologists who used mystery
language to invite comparison and commend Christianity,
13
and with Clement of
Alexandria, who used mystery language for the Christian initiation rite
--
baptism.
14
(4)
In PP 30, while expounding Israels salvation, Melito says Israel was
"illuminated together (
sunephotizeto
) with the shed blood." So, for Melito, the
lambs blood experience was
also an "illumination." While it is possible that
Melito believed the blood of Passover lamb merely "brought to light" (made
known) who the people to be saved were, we should, once more, be open to the
possibility that Melito is invoking some salvation-historical fulfillment in baptism.
This reading would align Melito with Justin Martyr and Clement of Alexandria,
who both use the Greek word photizo and its derivatives in reference to
baptism.
15
It would also explain the sun-prefix before ephotizeto, since baptism
is depicted in the NT as a uniting and corporate experience (Rom 6:3-4; 1 Cor
12:13; Eph 4:5).
To summarize, for Melito, the smearing of the Passover lambs blood on the
doorpost was an anointing, a sealing, a mystery and an illumination. While a few
Melito scholars have denied that these four terms are baptismal allusions,
16
the
majority of scholars have assumed it,
17
as we do here. But many readers of
Exod 12 today would not find this typological meaning obvious. Our interest now
lies in answering the question, From where did this interpretation come?
13
See Justin Apology 29.2; Diognetus 7.1
14
See Protrepticus 12.118.4; 12.120.1; Paedagogus 3.11.80.1; Stromateis 5.4.19.1-2;
Stromateis 4.22.140.2; Stromateis 7.4.27.6; 7; Stromateis 7.18.110.4. By the fourth century,
mysterion, teleo and mueo were regular baptismal terms.
15
Justin 1 Apology 61.13; 1 Apology 65.1; Clement of Alexandria Protrepticus 10.94.1;
Paedagogus 1.6.26.1; Paedagogus 1.6.27.3-1.6.28.1; Paedagogus 1.6.30.1.
16
See W. C. van Unnik, "An Unusual Formulation of the Redemption in the Sermon on
the passion by Melito of Sardis," in
Sparsa Collecta, part 3 (Leiden: Brill, 1983), 159; Gerald F.
Hawthorne, "Christian Baptism and the Contribution of Melito of Sardis Reconsidered," in
Studies
ub the New Testament and Early Christian Literature, ed. by D. Aune (Leiden: brill, 1972) 241-
251, and Alistair Stewart-Sykes, The Lamb
's High Feast
. (Supplement to Vigilae Christianae 72.
Leiden, et. al.: Brill, 1998), 178.
17
See, for example, J. Ysebaert, Greek Baptismal typology: its Origins and Early
Development (Nijmeen: Dekker & Van De Vegt, 1962), 347, 424; Josef Blank, Vom Passa: Die
alteste christliche Osterpredigt (Freiburg: Lambertus, 1963), 57f, 75f, 93; Otto Perler, Meliton de
Sardes, Sur la Paque et Fragments (Sources Chretiennes 123; Paris: Cerf, 1966),145-
46,151,173, 205; Geoffrey W. H. Lampe, The Seal of the Spirit, 2
nd
ed. (London:SPCK, 1967),
116; Raniero Cantalamessa,
L'Omelia `In S. Pascha' Dello Pseudo
-Ippolito Di Roma: Recheche
Sulla Teologia Dell'Asia Minore Nelia Seconda meta Del II Secolo (
Milan: Vita e Pensiero, 1967),
321-22; Richard C. White, Melito of Sardis: Sermon on the Passover (Lexington: Lexington
Theological Seminary Library, 1970), 59, 61, 69.