When it is said
It is read at the end of Matins on the night of Pascha, after all have greeted one another with “Christ is risen!” and a kiss.
Everyone stands to hear it.
Then the choir sings the troparion of St John Chrysostom, “The grace of your mouth, shining like a torch”.
Where it comes from
Author doubtful
Who wrote it?
The service books give it as St John Chrysostom’s, and Orthodox Christians hear it as his every Easter. Scholars have said for centuries that the name must be a mistake. The earliest surviving text that gives it to him comes from Theodore of Stoudios, an abbot in Constantinople in the 800s.
Mark Huggins, thesis on the Catechetical homily, University of Edinburgh (2021); Wikipedia, Paschal Homily
Read at Easter for a thousand years
Theodore began the custom of reading it at the Easter night service, and it has been read there for more than a thousand years since. It became one of the most copied works under Chrysostom’s name. Theodore and, around 1200, Neophytos the Recluse on Cyprus each worked its words into Easter sermons of their own.
Mark Huggins, thesis on the Catechetical homily, University of Edinburgh (2021)
What the words mean
The workers of the eleventh hour
Its opening follows Jesus’s parable of the workers in the vineyard. A landowner hired men at dawn and at the third, sixth, ninth and eleventh hours, and at evening he paid each of them a denarius, starting with the last (Matthew 20:1-10). The homily’s “wage” is that same coin in the Greek. On Easter night it welcomes everyone, whether they kept the fast well or not.
Matthew 20:1-10
Hades “embittered”
The line from Isaiah comes from the Greek Old Testament, where it is said of the king of Babylon going down to the dead. Brenton’s English gives it as “Hell from beneath is provoked to meet thee” (Isaiah 14:9), and the Greek word means made bitter. The homily hears it of Christ, Whose body Hades took in, only to come face to face with God.
“O death, where is your sting?”
Its cry near the end is Paul’s, from his chapter on the resurrection: “Where, O Death, is your victory? Where, O Death, is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55). Its last line is Paul’s too. Christ has been raised from the dead, “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20).
The Scripture in it
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. ‘You also go into my vineyard,’ he said, ‘and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ he asked. ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. So he told them, ‘You also go into my vineyard.’ When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, starting with the last ones hired and moving on to the first.’ The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when the original workers came, they assumed they would receive more. But each of them also received a denarius. On receiving their pay, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.’ But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Did you not agree with me on one denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give this last man the same as I gave you. Do I not have the right to do as I please with what is mine? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master!’
Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let us feast and celebrate.
Sheol beneath is eager to meet you upon your arrival. It stirs the spirits of the dead to greet you—all the rulers of the earth. It makes all the kings of the nations rise from their thrones.
“Where, O Death, is your victory? Where, O Death, is your sting?”
But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Greek
Εἴ τις εὐσεβὴς καὶ φιλόθεος ἀπολαυέτω τῆς καλῆς ταύτης καὶ λαμπρᾶς πανηγύρεως, Εἴ τις δοῦλος εὐγνώμων, εἰσελθέτω χαίρων εἰς τὴν χαρὰν τοῦ Κυρίου αὐτοῦ.
Εἴ τις ἔκαμε νηστεύων, ἀπολαυέτω νῦν τὸ δηνάριον.
Εἴ τις ἀπὸ τῆς πρώτης ὥρας εἰργάσατο, δεχέσθω σήμερον τὸ δίκαιον ὄφλημα.
Εἴ τις μετὰ τὴν τρίτην ἦλθεν, εὐχαρίστως ἑορτασάτω.
Εἴ τις μετὰ τὴν ἕκτην ἔφθασε, μηδὲν ἀμφιβαλλέτω· καὶ γὰρ οὐδὲν ζημιοῦται.
Εἴ τις ὑστέρησεν εἰς τὴν ἐνάτην, προσελθέτω, μηδὲν ἐνδοιάζων.
Εἴ τις εἰς μόνην ἔφθασε τὴν ἑνδεκάτην, μὴ φοβηθῇ τὴν βραδύτητα· φιλότιμος γὰρ ὢν ὁ Δεσπότης, δέχεται τὸν ἔσχατον, καθάπερ καὶ τὸν πρῶτον.
Ἀναπαύει τὸν τῆς ἑνδεκάτης, ὡς τὸν ἐργασάμενον ἀπὸ τῆς πρώτης.
Καὶ τὸν ὕστερον ἐλεεῖ, καὶ τὸν πρῶτον θεραπεύει, κᾀκείνῳ δίδωσι, καὶ τούτῳ χαρίζεται.
Καὶ τὰ ἔργα δέχεται, καὶ τὴν γνώμην ἀσπάζεται.
Καὶ τὴν πρᾶξιν τιμᾷ, καὶ τὴν πρόθεσιν ἐπαινεῖ· οὐκοῦν εἰσέλθετε πάντες εἰς τὴν χαρὰν τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν, καὶ πρῶτοι καὶ δεύτεροι τὸν μισθὸν ἀπολαύετε.
Πλούσιοι καὶ πένητες μετ' ἀλλήλων χορεύσατε.
Ἐγκρατεῖς καὶ ῥάθυμοι τὴν ἡμέραν τιμήσατε.
Νηστεύσαντες καὶ μὴ νηστεύσαντες, εὐφράνθητε σήμερον.
Ἡ τράπεζα γέμει τρυφήσατε πάντες, ὁ μόσχος πολὺς μηδεὶς ἐξέλθῃ πεινῶν.
Πάντες ἀπολαύετε τοῦ συμποσίου τῆς πίστεως.
Πάντες ἀπολαύσατε τοῦ πλούτου τῆς χρηστότητος.
Μηδείς θρηνείτω πενίαν· ἐφάνη γὰρ ἡ κοινὴ βασιλεία.
Μηδεὶς ὀδυρέσθω πταίσματα· συγγνώμη γὰρ ἐκ τοῦ τάφου ἀνέτειλε.
Μηδεὶς φοβείσθω θάνατον· ἠλευθέρωσε γὰρ ἡμᾶς τοῦ Σωτῆρος ὁ θάνατος.
Ἔσβεσεν αὐτόν, ὑπ' αὐτοῦ κατεχόμενος.
Ἐσκύλευσε τὸν ᾍδην, ὁ κατελθὼν εἰς τὸν ᾍδην.
Ἐπίκρανεν αὐτόν, γευσάμενον τῆς σαρκὸς Αὐτοῦ, καὶ τοῦτο προλαβὼν Ἡσαΐας, ἐβόησεν· ὁ ᾍδης, φησίν, ἐπικράνθη συναντήσας Σοι κάτω.
Ἐπικράνθη, καὶ γὰρ κατηργήθη.
Ἐπικράνθη, καὶ γὰρ ἐνεπαίχθη.
Ἐπικράνθη, καὶ γὰρ ἐνεκρώθη.
Ἐπικράνθη, καὶ γὰρ καθῃρέθη.
Ἐπικράνθη, καὶ γὰρ ἐδεσμεύθη.
Ἔλαβε σῶμα, καὶ Θεῷ περιέτυχεν.
Ἔλαβε γῆν, καὶ συνήντησεν οὐρανῷ.
Ἔλαβεν, ὅπερ ἔβλεπε, καὶ πέπτωκεν, ὅθεν οὐκ ἔβλεπε.
Ποῦ σου θάνατε τὸ κέντρον;
ποῦ σου ᾍδη τὸ νῖκος;
Ἀνέστη Χριστός, καὶ σὺ καταβέβλησαι.
Ἀνέστη Χριστὸς καὶ πεπτώκασι δαίμονες.
Ἀνέστη Χριστός, καὶ χαίρουσιν Ἄγγελοι.
Ἀνέστη Χριστός, καὶ ζωὴ πολιτεύεται.
Ἀνέστη Χριστός, καὶ νεκρὸς οὐδεὶς ἐπὶ μνήματος.
Χριστὸς γὰρ ἐγερθείς ἐκ νεκρῶν ἀπαρχὴ τῶν κεκοιμημένων ἐγένετο.
Αὐτῷ ἡ δόξα καὶ τὸ κράτος εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων, Ἀμήν.
From the Greek service of Pascha, on the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America’s liturgical texts site.