gekannt habe. Was nun Gott mit jme für habe / das er jhn ſo lang in diſem elenden Leben herumb führe / ob er jn villeicht biß am Jüngſten tag / als ein lebendigen zeugen des Leyden Chriſti zu meh⸗ rer überzeigung der Gottloſen vnd vngleubigen alſo erhalten wolle / ſey jm vnwiſſent / ſeines theils möchte leiden / das jn Gott auß dieſem Jamer⸗ thal zur ruhe abforderte. Auff diſes / habe er Pau⸗ lus von Eitzen / bey neben dem Rector der Schu⸗ len zu Hamburg / welcher ein gelerter vnd in Hi⸗ ſtoriis erfarner Mann geweſen / mit jme von allerhand geſchichten / ſo ſich in den Orientaliſchẽ Landen / nach Chriſti zeiten hero verloffen / confe⸗ riert: Da hab er jnen alle vmbſtändt vnd gnug⸗ ſamen bericht davon gegeben / das ſie ſich darü⸗ ber nicht gnugſam verwundern können. In ſei⸗ nem leben ſey er ſtill vnd eingezogen geweſen / nit geredt / als wann man jn gefragt / wann man jn zu Gaſt geladen ſey / erſchienen / doch wenig geſſen vnd getruncken / da man jm Gelt verehret / hab er nit vber 2. ſchilling genommen / doch alſo bald wi⸗ der vnder die Armen getheilt / mit vermelden / er bedörffe es nicht / Gott werde jn wol verſorgen. So hab man jn die zeit über / weil er zu Hamburg geweſen / nie ſehen lachen: In welches Landt er kommen / deſſelbigen ſprach hat er geredt / wie er dann damahl die Sächſiſche ſprach als wol ge⸗ redt /
Kurtze beſchreibung vnd Erzehlung /
von einem Juden / mit Namen Ahaſverus:
Image 10
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transcript
English
translation
—recognized it. He did not know what God intended for him by leading him about for so long in this wretched life, or whether God perhaps wished to preserve him in this way until the Last Day as a living witness to Christ’s passion, for the greater conviction of the godless and unbelieving. For his own part, he would willingly suffer God to summon him out of this vale of misery into rest.
Thereupon Paul von Eitzen, together with the rector of the schools at Hamburg, who was a learned man experienced in history, conferred with him about various events that had occurred in the Eastern lands since Christ’s time. He gave them every circumstance and so sufficient an account that they could not marvel at it enough.
In his manner of life he was quiet and withdrawn. He did not speak unless questioned. When invited as a guest, he appeared, but ate and drank little. When money was presented to him, he accepted no more than two schillings and immediately distributed even that among the poor, saying that he did not need it and that God would provide for him. During the time he was at Hamburg, he was never seen to laugh. In whatever country he entered, he spoke that country’s language; at that time he spoke the Saxon language as well—
Analysis
The pamphlet casts the figure’s wandering as misery and suggests that God may keep him alive as a witness to Jesus’s suffering. It also portrays him as quiet, charitable and able to speak many languages. These details serve the Christian story; the page does not verify Eitzen’s alleged conversation or the man’s existence. A sentence about language crosses into image 11.