Benjamin Jowett

Benjamin Jowett , 1817-93, English educator and Greek scholar, b. London. Jowett was a Church of England clergyman, master of Balliol College, Oxford (1870-93), and vice chancellor of Oxford. His influence on his pupils was profound. Jowett's translation of the dialogues of Plato (1871) is an outstanding work both of English literature and of classical scholarship.

Bibliography: See biography by G. C. Faber (1957).

Jowett, Benjamin (1817–93), Master of Balliol College, Oxford, from 1870. He was a keen liberal in theology. His essay on ‘The Interpretation of Scripture’ in Essays and Reviews (1860) was one of the most debated items in the book; his orthodoxy was henceforth suspect and he ceased to write on theological subjects. His most important work was his translation of Plato (1871).

Jowett, Benjamin (1817–93), one of the legendary figures of late Victorian Oxford, was professor of Greek from 1855 and master of Balliol College from 1870. A Broad Churchman in the tradition of T. Arnold, he outraged the Tractarians with the common sense of his Epistles of Paul (1855), came near to being charged with heresy before the vice-chancellor because of his contribution to Essays and Reviews (1860), and was successful in promoting the Act that abolished religious tests for university degrees (1871). His translations of Plato (1871), Thucydides (1881), and Aristotle's Poetics (1885), criticized by scholars, charmed the public.