Melito of Sardis

In his own words on John

• John 1:29

  First of all, the Scripture about the Hebrew Exodus has been read and the words of the mystery have been explained as to how the sheep was sacrificed and the people were saved. Therefore, understand this, O beloved: The mystery of the passover is new and old, eternal and temporal, corruptible and incorruptible, mortal and immortal... The sheep was corruptible, but the Lord is incorruptible, who was crushed as a lamb, but who was resurrected as God. For although he was led to sacrifice as a sheep, yet he was not a sheep; and although he was as a lamb without voice, yet indeed he was not a lamb. The one was the model; the other was found to be the finished product. For God replaced the lamb, and a man the sheep; but in the man was Christ, who contains all things... For the one who was born as Son, and led to slaughter as a lamb, and sacrificed as a sheep, and buried as a man, rose up from the dead as God, since he is by nature both God and man. He is everything... in that he is begotten he is Son, in that he suffers he is sheep, in that he is buried he is man, in that he comes to life again he is God. Such is Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever. Amen.

  On the Passover 1-2, 4-5, 8-10

• John 18:38

  Who is this God? It is he who is himself truth and whose word is truth. And what is truth? That which is not fashioned or made or represented by art, that is, that has never been brought into existence and is on that account called truth. If, therefore, someone worships that which is made with hands, it is not the truth that he worships or yet the word of truth.

  A Discourse Which Was in the Presence of Antoninus Caesar