him, “Come, O our brother, we will set thee free from this servitude, even as thou hast set us free from the slavery of heathenism.” Then he answered and said unto them, “Since God hath helped [me], and your souls have been set free and they have life, I will tell you my story (or thing) and my contending. I undertook this kind of work in order that your souls might have life. By race I am an Egyptian, and a free man [but] I am a monk [vowed] to self-denial and poverty, and for the sake of our Lord I sold myself to you in order that your souls might be set free from the impurity of this world; since now our Lord hath worked through my meekness, and your souls live, take your gold, and I will go to another place, so that I may be able to benefit others also.” And they begged and entreated him, saying, “Remain with us, and thou shalt be unto us a father and a master, and a director”; but he would not hearken unto their entreaty. And again they answered and said unto him, “Give the gold to the poor, and let it be a pledge of life for us; and we entreat thee to see us if it be only once a year.”
Then, this man having gone round about came to Hellas, and stayed in Athens three days, and no man gave him a morsel of bread; now he carried nothing with him, neither purse, nor wallet, nor head-cloak, nor anything whatsoever. And when the fourth day had come, he waxed exceedingly hungry, and he went and stood up upon a certain high place where all the free men of the city were gathered together, and he began to clap his hands, and to cry out with a loud voice, saying, “O men of Athens, send [help].” And at [the sound of] his voice they all marvelled, and the free men and the soldiers ran to him, and said unto him, “What aileth thee? Whence comest thou? What hath happened unto these?” Then he answered and said unto them, “By race I am an Egyptian, and being a long way from my true country I have fallen into the hands of three creditors; now two of these have departed from me, having taken that which was theirs, and now they have no debt against me about which to chide me, but the third will not leave me.”
And the philosophers made enquiries of him who these creditors were, and they said unto him, “Shew us who thy creditors are, and who it is that is afflicting thee, and we will entreat them [to desist]; shew us who they are, so that we may help thee.” And he answered and said unto them, “From my youth up the love of money, and fornication, and the appetite of the belly have oppressed me; from the first two of these, that is, the love of money and fornication, I have been freed, and they no longer oppress me, but I am
