Next day Griffin again visited the British Museum, in order to make further researches, and on entering, his friend the assistant-keeper exclaimed:
“Oh! Professor! That foreign old gentleman, who is interested in Ezekiel, was here again yesterday afternoon.”
“Here again!” echoed Griffin. “Have you found out who he is?”
“No—except that he is evidently a scholar.”
“What manuscripts did he consult?”
“Only one—the early fragment of Deuteronomy,” was the assistant-keeper’s reply.
“May I see it?”
“Certainly,” and the official gave orders for the precious piece of faded parchment to be brought.
It proved to be a Hebrew manuscript of a portion of the fifth chapter of Deuteronomy beginning at the twenty-third verse, and ending at the thirty-first Griffin who read Hebrew as he did English, glanced through it, and saw that in English, the first verse could be translated as, “And it came to pass, when ye heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, (for the mountain did burn with fire), that ye came near unto me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders; And ye said, ‘Behold the Lord our God hath shewed us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God doth talk with man, and He liveth.’”
As he read rapidly the Hebrew words his face brightened. Something was revealed to him. The stranger was evidently following an exactly similar line to himself, and had, by copying that Biblical fragment, advanced a stage nearer the truth!