Stirling Bartholomew
Active member
I am having some difficulty tracking down the original language of this citation from Melito of Sardis.
I've been back translating portions of this into Greek and searching for it without success. It's quite possible that the source text isn't in Greek but so far I haven't been able to Identify either the language or the source. There's a different translation in the 19th-century library of the fathers edited by Schaff and others. Navigating this library on the web typically gives you the English text you are looking for without telling you much about the source other than the reference in the English version. I know that Eusebius of Caesare is one source. I know there is a Syriac source but it was discovered more recently than the English translation in the Schaff library. The fragments are in a collection but I searched the Greek fragments collection without results. I searched everything Greek I had access to which is a lot.
I found some similar language in Chrysostom.
Thou slewest thy Lord, and He was lifted up upon the tree; and an inscription was fixed above, to show who He was that was slain. And who was this? (that which we shall not say is too shocking to hear, and that which we shall say is very dreadful: nevertheless hearken, and tremble.) It was He because of whom the earth quaked. He that hung up the earth in space was Himself hanged up; He that fixed the heavens was fixed with nails; He that bore up the earth was borne up on a tree; the Lord of all was subjected to ignominy in a naked body-God put to death! the King of Israel slain with Israel's right hand! Alas for the new wickedness of the new murder! The Lord was exposed with naked body: He was not deemed worthy even of covering; and, in order that He might not be seen, the luminaries turned away, and the day became darkened because they slew God, who hung naked on the tree. It was not the body of our Lord that the luminaries covered with darkness when they set, but the eyes of men. For, because the people quaked not, the earth quaked; source
I've been back translating portions of this into Greek and searching for it without success. It's quite possible that the source text isn't in Greek but so far I haven't been able to Identify either the language or the source. There's a different translation in the 19th-century library of the fathers edited by Schaff and others. Navigating this library on the web typically gives you the English text you are looking for without telling you much about the source other than the reference in the English version. I know that Eusebius of Caesare is one source. I know there is a Syriac source but it was discovered more recently than the English translation in the Schaff library. The fragments are in a collection but I searched the Greek fragments collection without results. I searched everything Greek I had access to which is a lot.
I found some similar language in Chrysostom.
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