Parables about the Auditors
A Manichaean Text in Parthian.
... And like the highway robber who killed those sons, so you all who stretch out your hands against the earth ... and harm it in every manner ... And with your whole body you trample and injure the earth ... And you martyr and ill-treat this Living Soul from which you were born, and it cries out and laments constantly because of your hands that mistreat it.
You auditors who stand there laden with so much sin and guilt, you need absolution and grace once and for all for your many sins. Therefore ask the elect day after day for conventions(?) and absolution so that they ... may bring grace upon you.
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They (the perfect auditors) are like a man who is ... healthy in his whole body and free from pain, and who has no pain or illness of any kind.
Yet he scratches himself a little at some limb, and he stands up
restlessly and turns to it (that limb) again and again, and wonders when this sore will be healed, so that his whole body will be well and free from pain.And again, they are comparable to a rich man who ... is not used to borrowing anything from anyone. And the necessity for something arises and he borrows a drachma from someone else. Thereafter, he constantly thinks, "When will I pay back the drachma to my creditor according to ... " Similar to that ...