Next on the docket will be the
> mispronunciation of the old Oxford master, Benjamin Jowett (most famed for
> his [mis]translations of Plato). (Anyone know the grafitto about his name?)
>
> Edward Hobbs
> Wellesley
Jeffrey Gibson responded:
I believe the grafitto runs something like:
My name is Benjamin Jowett.
I'm master of Baliol College.
I know everything that there is to know
and what I don't know isn't knowledge.
Not NT Greek indeed. But Oxford lore and therefore (tangentally) related.
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Delightful! The version I heard and learned had a different third line,
which was in fact emphasized as a major clue to how his name was pronounced
at Oxford. It went:
My name is Benjamin Jowett;
I'm master of Balliol College.
If there's ought to know, I know it,
And what I don't know isn't knowledge.
This was often quoted as a correction to Americans who insisted on calling
him JOWett, rhyming with HOW-it, whereas his name was JOE-ett, long O.
But here we are doing FormCriticism, while on the Biblical Greek List.
I slap my own fingers for that.
Edward Hobbs