Interpreter say in Oxford college finishing early (7)
I believe the answer is:
exegete
'interpreter' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'say in oxford college finishing early' is the wordplay.
'say' becomes 'eg'.
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'oxford college' becomes 'exeter' (I've seen this before).
'finishing early' means to remove the last letter.
'exeter' with its last letter removed is 'exete'.
'eg' put into 'exete' is 'EXEGETE'.
(Other definitions for exegete that I've seen before include "commentator" , "scriptural interpreter" , "Interpreter of scripture" .)