Died c. A.D. 180

Melito

bishop of Sardis

Worth knowing

Bishop of Sardis in Asia Minor, and one of the first Christians we know of to travel to Palestine specifically to establish which books belonged in the Old Testament.
On the Pascha, his Easter sermon, was lost for roughly seventeen centuries and recovered from papyri in the twentieth. It is the earliest surviving Christian Easter homily.
It is also an early source for the charge that the Jewish people killed God. Later Christians have had to face that part of the tradition honestly.

In Scholar’s Dream, Melito has one book

On the PaschaMelito of Sardis, On the PaschaChristology

Melito’s quotes in the game

Every quotation from Melito that a player meets in Scholar’s Dream, attached to the move that says it. Or see them as a plain list →

In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other, and each thing a book can do in a debate is called a move. Every quote below is spoken by one of those moves. Open “How it works in the game” under a quote to see the move, which books learn it, and which arguments it answers best.

“He who hung the earth is hanging, he who fixed the heavens has been fixed.”
Melito of Sardis, On the Pascha 96 (trans. S. G. Hall, Oxford, 1979) — quoted under fair use; no public-domain translation of this work exists.in copyright · fair use

How it works in the game: the move Passover Fulfilled

ChristologyArgument · power 55 · 100% accurate

In the gameMelito: the type in Egypt, the truth in Christ. The Creator’s own attributes read back as the sentence of his execution.

Learned byOn the Pascha (Lv 1)

Strong against

×2Alien Godan argument · why?

Melito preached the Passover as the pattern and Christ as what it was patterned on. Cut the pattern and nothing is fulfilled.

×2Letter to Floraan argument · why?

Melito reads the very Law Ptolemy assigns to a lesser god, and finds Christ in it — the lamb, the blood, the firstborn spared.

×2Moses or Jesus?an argument · why?

Melito shows that Moses and Jesus tell one story. The Passover lamb in Egypt pointed ahead to Christ, the Lamb who was killed.

Passages you can read in the game

Longer excerpts the Scriptorium holds on screen for a player to sit and read, word for word.

“He who hung the earth is hanging, he who fixed the heavens has been fixed.”
Melito of Sardis, On the Pascha 96 (trans. S. G. Hall, Oxford, 1979) — quoted under fair use.

from On the Pascha

“It is he that made heaven and earth and fashioned man in the beginning, who is proclaimed through the law and prophets, who was enfleshed in a virgin.”
Melito of Sardis, On the Pascha 104 (trans. S. G. Hall) — quoted under fair use.

from On the Pascha

Words Melito’s books borrow from others

Moves these books can learn whose quotation comes from somebody else. The citation on each one names who actually said it.

“He who pleads his cause first seems right; until another comes and questions him.”
Proverbs 18:17 (WEB).

How it works in the game: the move Question the Premise

RationalityType shift

In the gameChallenge the foundation of an argument before it can be pressed. Lowers the foe’s Contend.

Learned byOn the Pascha (Lv 5)

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said.”
Acts 17:28 (WEB) — Paul at the Areopagus, quoting the Athenians’ own poets back to them.

How it works in the game: the move Affirm

Status

In the gamePick the part of the opponent’s case that is true and affirm it. That point can no longer be used against you, and the opponent’s Defend falls sharply. It deals no damage. Affirm something false and you have only agreed with an error.

Learned byOn the Pascha (Lv 12)

Who else was alive

Melito against everyone else in the game.

A.D. 1A.D. 50A.D. 100A.D. 150A.D. 200A.D. 250A.D. 300A.D. 350A.D. 400A.D. 450

Matthew Paul John Mark Pliny the Elder Clement of Rome Ignatius An early Christian community Polycarp Claudius Ptolemy Hermas Justin Martyr Aristides Quadratus Melito Unknown authors writing under borrowed names Irenaeus The author of the Epistle to Diognetus Athenagoras Clement of Alexandria Tertullian Marcus Minucius Felix Origen Cyprian Plotinus Lactantius Eusebius Athanasius Eustathius of Sebaste Apollinaris of Laodicea Cyril of Jerusalem Epiphanius of Salamis Gregory of Nazianzus Basil of Caesarea Eunomius of Cyzicus Gregory of Nyssa Ambrose of Milan Jovinian Augustine The Macedonians Helvidius

Solid bar = firm dates · faded = approximate61 authors sit outside this window