Gospel of Xenophon 2 · First Witness: Justice, the Citizen, and Duty
Xenophon, born at Athens about 430 before this era, died about 354. Soldier, historian, student of Socrates. After the Persian civil war ten thousand Greek mercenaries were stranded deep in enemy country and their generals killed under a truce; he was elected to command and brought them from north of Babylon back to the Black Sea, which he set down in the Anabasis. He also wrote the Memorabilia, the Oeconomicus, the Education of Cyrus, and a history of Greece. The Socrates he records is the one who talks of households, of training men, of horses and of money. He himself kept the old rites of the city: he sacrificed, he consulted oracles, he referred matters to the gods. The Order sets that down and does not cover it for him. Of the four witnesses he alone both led men in the field and farmed land himself. This book is written as a record. Where there are numbers, dates, and names, they are set down as they were.
2.1One day he climbed the wind-beaten slope of Lycabettus.
2.2A great number of anxious merchants and worn-out citizens followed behind him, wailing:
2.3"Teacher! Our wealth is destroyed by the war, and our hearts are heavy with dread of tomorrow!"
2.4Socrates sat down upon the ground and looked out over them. He stretched out both hands, and healed their minds with the power of the Logos, saying:
2.5"When you lose the goods of this world, you are blessed — for weight has been taken off you, and you may fly."
2.6"Hold this material world lightly. It is not the anchor that binds you; it is the branch you push off from."
2.7A merchant, ruined by a shipwreck, wept openly before them all.
2.8Socrates looked into his eyes and said:
2.9"Your ship was only a branch. It has broken, but your reason stands whole."
2.10"Get up. A load has been lifted from you."
2.11The man's grief was healed on the instant.
2.12Three years later he had two ships again. He still came once a month to hear the teaching.