Origen on the Christian Festival of Unleavened Bread in Alexandria Within a Generation of Secret Mark (Part 3)

This is another proof that the first addition to Secret Mark reflects the existence of a Christian Festival of Unleavened Bread at Alexandria in the late second century.

It is necessary for us to sacrifice the true lamb - if we have been ordained priests, or like priests have offered sacrifice - and it is necessary for us to cook and eat his flesh. But if this does not take place in the Passion of the Savior, then the antitype of the Passover is not his suffering; rather the passover (i.e. the whole festival) becomes the type of Christ himself sacrificed for us. For each one of us first takes the lamb (12.5), then dedicates it, then sacrifices it, and thus after roasting it (12.9) eats it and after eating it leaves nothing until the morning (12.10), and then celebrates the Feast of Unleavened Bread (12.17) after having come out of Egypt. To show that the Passover is something spiritual and not this sensible passover he himself says "Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you (cf. John 6:53). Are we then to eat His flesh and drink His blood in a physical manner? But if this is said spiritually then the Passover is spiritual not physical. [Peri Pascha 13:10 - 35)