Benjamin Hall Kennedy

Benjamin Hall Kennedy was born near Birmingham on November 6, 1804. Educated at Shrewsbury School and St John's College, Cambridge, he distinguished himself in Greek and Latin, became a fellow of St John's, and was ordained in the Church of England. He served as headmaster of Shrewsbury School from 1836 to 1866, building a formidable reputation as a classical educator. In 1867 he became Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge and a canon of Ely Cathedral, offices he retained until his death at Torquay on April 6, 1889. He also served on the New Testament revision company from 1870 to 1880 and supported expanded higher education for women at Cambridge.

Kennedy published The Psalter in English Verse in 1860 and edited the large anthology Hymnologia Christiana in 1863. No. 620 of that collection introduced his six-stanza English rendering of Schwedler's Wollt ihr wissen, was mein Preis? Hymnological authorities describe its first five stanzas as translations of the first five German stanzas and its conclusion as suggested by the German sixth stanza. Later editors frequently shortened the English text. Kennedy's hymn work was only one part of a career better known for classical scholarship and influential Latin textbooks, but this translation gave English-speaking congregations a durable confession centered on Christ crucified.