From a sermon by St. Aphraates of Persia (+345) 

The Passover of the Jews is celebrated on the fourteenth day during the night and on the following day. Our Passover is celebrated on the day of the passion, the Great Friday, on the fifth day, with its night and daytime. At Passover, the Jews escaped from slavery to the Pharaoh; on the day of the crucifixion we were delivered from captivity to Satan. They slaughtered a lamb from the flock and by means of its blood were kept safe from the destroyer; by the blood of the well-beloved Son we have been rescued from the corrupt works we used to do. They had Moses as their leader; we have Jesus as leader and Saviour. For their sake, Moses parted the sea and brought them across; our Saviour opened up the lower world and broke down its gates when he made his way into the depths of the abyss, opened its approaches and cleared a way for those who believed in him. To the Jews manna was given; to us the Saviour has given his body to eat. For them water gushed from a rock; for us the Saviour causes floods of living water to gush from his bosom. To them the land of Canaan was promised as an inheritance; to us the Lord has promised to give the land of Life. 

For the sake of the Jews Moses set up the bronze serpent in order to heal from serpents’ bites those who gazed on it; for our sake, Jesus nailed himself to the Cross in order that looking at it we might be saved from the wound of the serpent, that is, Satan. For them Moses set up the tent of covenant, in order that by offering sacrifices and oblations there they might be cleansed of their sins; Jesus, for his part, by rising from the dead raised up the fallen tent of David. He had told the Jews: When you have destroyed this temple which you see, I will raise it up in three days. The disciples understood him to be speaking of his body: when the Jews would destroy it, he would raise it up in three days. In this Tent he promised us Life, for in it our sins have been expiated. He called the tent of the Jews a ‘temporary tent’, since it was useful only for a short time; ours he called a temple of the Holy Spirit, and an everlasting one. 

As for the Passover lamb, listen to the Most Holy One ordering that it be eaten in a single house and not in several. This single house is the Church of God. In it, we eat the Passover lamb in haste, with fear and trembling, while remaining standing, for we are hastening to eat the Life given by the Spirit we have received. 

According to the prophecy of Jeremiah the people would be given a new covenant: I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah. It will not be like the covenant which I made with their ancestors on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt; it was they who broke that covenant of mine, therefore I rejected them! The God who promised to give a new covenant is the same God who called Abraham and gave this promise and blessing: Instead of being called Abram, as you have been until now, your name henceforward will be Abraham, for I will make you the father of a great number of people. Then he added: In your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed.