der
to mankind a priceless benefit in a more perfect rendition of the Word
of God. Why could not men come together now in that same generous
spirit of love? But no, Rome would never yield her assumptions. But
when the lad rose and followed his guides from the room, it was with a
new-born conviction, and a revival of his erstwhile firm purpose to
translate for himself, at the earliest opportunity, the Greek
Testament, if, perchance, he might find thereby what his yearning soul
so deeply craved, the truth.

That the boy was possessed of scholarly instincts, there could be no
doubt. His ability had immediately attracted his instructors on
entering the seminary. And, but for his stubborn opposition to
dogmatic acceptance without proofs, he might have taken and maintained
the position of leader in scholarship in the institution. Literature
and the languages, particularly Greek, were his favorite studies, and
in these he excelled. Even as a child, long before the eventful night
when his surreptitious reading of Voltaire precipitated events, he had
determined to master Greek, and some day to translate the New
Testament from the original sources into his beloved Castilian tongue.
Before setting out for Rome he had so applied himself to the worn
little grammar which the proprietor of the bookstall in Seville had
loaned him, that he was able to make translations with comparative
fluency. In the seminary he plunged into it with avidity; and when he
returned from his journey with the Papal Legate he began in earnest
his translation of the Testament. This, like so much of the boy's work
and writing, was done secretly and in spare moments. And his zeal was
such that often in the middle of the night it would compel him to rise
and, after drawing the shades carefully and stopping the crack under
the door with his cassock, light his candle and dig away at his
Testament until dawn.

This study of the New Testament in the Greek resulted in many
translations differing essentially from the accepted version, as could
not but happen when a mind so original as that of the boy Jose was
concentrated upon it. His first stumbling block was met in the prayer
of Jesus in an attempt to render the petition, "Give us this day our
daily bread," into idiomatic modern thought. The word translated
"daily" was not to be found elsewhere in the Greek language.
Evidently the Aramaic word which Jesus employed, and of which this
Greek word was a translation,