Oxford Inscriptions: Divinity School
εὗρον |
 |
ἐν μέσῳ |
This text from the Greek New Testament (Luke 2:46) is above Wren’s 1669 door in the Divinity School (opposite the Sheldonian Theatre). It is in seventeenth-century Greek script, but even allowing for this, some of the letters appear oddly formed.
It reads It reads εὗρον αὐτὸν καθεζόμενον ἐν μέσῳ τῶν διδασκάλων, which means “They found him [Jesus] sitting in the middle of the doctors [teachers]”, and refers to the time when Jesus went missing in Jerusalem for three days at the age of twelve, and Mary & Joseph found him in the temple listening to the doctors there and interrogating them.
The Divinity School (built between 1427 and 1483) was originally used for lectures, oral exams, and discussions on theology, so the quotation is apposite here.