Bruce M.

Metzger 1

Bruce M. Metzger
Bruce Manning Metzger (9 February 1914 13 February 2007) was
an American biblical scholar and textual critic who was a longtime
professor at Princeton Theological Seminary and Bible editor who
served on the board of the American Bible Society and United Bible
Societies. He was a scholar of Greek, New Testament, and New
Testament Textual Criticism, and wrote prolifically on these subjects.
Metzger is widely-considered to be one of the most influential New
Testament scholars of the 20th century.[1][2]

Biography
Metzger was born in Middletown, Pennsylvania, and earned his B.A. Bruce Metzger in 2003
(1935) at Lebanon Valley College. Metzger had strong academic
training in Greek before enrolling in Princeton Seminary, and in the summer prior to entering the Seminary, he
completed reading through the entire Bible consecutively for the twelfth time.[3] He received his Th.B. in (1938) at
Princeton Theological Seminary, and in the autumn of 1938 began teaching at Princeton as a Teaching Fellow in
New Testament Greek. On April 11, 1939, he was ordained in the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.[4] which after
mergers is now known as the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). In 1940, he earned his M.A. from Princeton University
and became an Instructor in New Testament. Two years later, he earned his Ph.D. ("Studies in a Greek Gospel
Lectionary (Greg. 303)"), also from Princeton University.

In 1944, Metzger married Isobel Elizabeth Mackay, daughter of the third president of the Seminary, John A.
Mackay. The marriage connected him to his wife's Scottish heritage.[5] That year, he was promoted to Assistant
Professor. In 1948, he became Associate Professor, and full Professor in 1954. In 1964, Metzger was named the
George L. Collord Professor of New Testament Language and Literature. In 1971, he was elected president of both
the Studiorum Novi Testimenti Societas and the International Society of Biblical Literature. The following year, he
became president of the North American Patristic Society. Metzger was visiting fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge in
1974 and Wolfson College, Oxford in 1979. In 1978 he was elected corresponding fellow of the British Academy,
the Academy's highest distinction for persons who are not residents in the United Kingdom. At the age of seventy,
after teaching at Princeton Theological Seminary for a period of forty-six years, he retired as Professor Emeritus. In
1994, Bruce Metzger was honoured with the Burkitt Medal for Biblical Studies by the British Academy. He was
awarded honorary doctorates from Lebanon Valley College, the Findlay College, the University of St Andrews, the
University of Mnster and Potchefstroom University.
Shortly after his 93rd birthday, Metzger died in Princeton, New Jersey. He was survived by his wife Isobel and their
two sons, John Mackay Metzger and James Bruce Metzger.

Books and commentaries

Metzger edited and provided commentary for many Bible translations and wrote dozens of books. He was an editor
of the United Bible Societies' standard Greek New Testament, the starting point for nearly all recent New Testament
translations. In 1952, he became a contributor to the Revised Standard Version (RSV) of the Bible, and was general
editor of the Reader's Digest Bible (a condensed version of the RSV) in 1982. From 1977 to 1990, he chaired the
Committee on Translators for the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible and was "largely responsible
for ... seeing [the NRSV] through the press."[6] He considered it a privilege to present the NRSV which includes
the books referred to as Apocrypha by Protestants, though Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox consider them
Bruce M. Metzger 2

deuterocanonical to Pope John Paul II and Patriarch Demetrius I of Constantinople.[6]

Central to his scholarly contribution to New Testament studies is his trilogy: The Text of the New Testament: Its
Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration (1964; 2nd ed., 1968; 3d enlarged ed., 1992); The Early Versions of the
New Testament: Their Origin, Transmission, and Limitations (1977); The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin,
Development, and Significance (1987).[7] The first volume of a series that he founded and edited, New Testament
Tools and Studies, appeared in 1960.
Metzger's commentaries often utilize historical criticism and higher criticism, which attempt to explain the literary
and historical origins of the Bible and the biblical canon. For instance, Metzger argues that the early church which
assembled the New Testament did not consider divine inspiration to be a sufficient criterion for a book to be placed
in the canon. Metzger says that the early church saw it as very important that a work describing Jesus' life be written
by a follower of or an eyewitness to Jesus, and considered other works such as The Shepherd of Hermas and the
Epistles of Clement to be inspired but not canonical.[8]
In discussing the canon, Metzger identifies three criteria for acceptance of particular writings as sacred,
authoritative, and worthy of being read in services of worship These criteria were generally adopted during the
course of the second century, and were never modified thereafter namely, orthodoxy (conformity to the rule of
faith), apostolicity, and consensus among the churches.[9] He concludes that, In the most basic sense neither
individuals nor councils created the canon; instead they came to recognize and acknowledge the self-authenticating
quality of these writings, which imposed themselves as canonical upon the church.[10]

List of Books and Publications

Apostolic Letters of Faith, Hope, and Love: Galatians, 1 Peter, and 1 John (2006)
The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, And Restoration (1964). 2005 4th edition with Bart
D. Ehrman, ISBN 0-19-516122-X
The New Testament: Its Background, Growth and Content (2003, James Clarke & Co., Cambridge; ISBN
978-0-227-17025-0)
The Oxford Essential Guide to Ideas and Issues of the Bible (2002 with Michael D. Coogan)
The Oxford Guide to People & Places of the Bible (2001 with Michael D. Coogan)
The Bible in Translation, Ancient and English Versions (2001)
Greek New Testament (2000 with B. Aland)
Breaking the Code: Understanding the Book of Revelation: Leader's Guide (1999)
Reminiscences of an Octogenarian (1997)
The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance (1997)
Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (1994)
The Oxford Companion to the Bible (1993 with Michael D. Coogan)
The Reader's Bible (1983)
Manuscripts of the Greek Bible: An Introduction to Palaeography (1981).
Lexical Aids for Students of New Testament Greek (1969)
List of Words Occuring Frequently in the Coptic New Testament (Sahidic Dialect) (1961) note: "occuring" is
misspelled in the published title
Introduction to the Apocrypha (1957)
The Oxford Concise Concordance to the Revised Standard Version of the Holy Bible (1962 with Isobel M.
Metzger)
The Making of the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible (1991 with Robert C. Denton and Walter
Harrelson)
Bruce M. Metzger 3

List of Translations
The NRSV Bible with the Apocrypha, Compact Edition (2003)
New Revised Standard Version (1989)
Oxford Annotated Apocrypha: Revised Standard Version (1977)
The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha, Revised Standard Version, Expanded Edition (1977 with
Herbert G. May)
Oxford Annotated Apocrypha: The Apocrypha of the Old Testament (1977)

Festschriften
New Testament Textual Criticism: Its Significance for Exegesis: Essays in Honour of Bruce M. Metzger, ed.
Eldon Jay Epp and Gordon D. Fee (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981)
A South African Perspective on the New Testament, Essays by South African New Testament Scholars Presented
to Bruce Manning Metzger during His Visit to South Africa in 1985, ed. J.H. Petzer and P.J. Hartin (Leiden: Brill,
1986)
The Text of the New Testament in Contemporary Research: Essays on the Status Quaestionis, ed. Bart D. Ehrman
and Michael W. Holmes, (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1989)

Selected Articles
The Meaning of Christs Ascension, Christianity Today, vol. 10, no. 17 (May 27, 1966): 3-4.
Names for the Nameless in the New Testament: A Study in the Growth of Christian Tradition, in Patrick
Granfield & Josef A. Jungmann (eds.), Kyriakon: Festschrift Johannes Quasten, 2 vols. (Mnster, Verlag
Aschendorff, 1970) vol. 1: 79-99.
Patristic Evidence and Textual Criticism of the New Testament, New Testament Studies, vol. 18, pp.379400.
Presidential Address, Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, delivered August 24, 1971 at Noordwijkerhout, The
Netherlands.
Literary Forgeries and Canonical Pseudepigrapha, Journal of Biblical Literature, vol. 91, pp.324. (1972).
Presidential address, Society of Biblical Literature, delivered October 29, 1971 in Atlanta, Georgia.

References
[1] http:/ / www. pres-outlook. com/ news-and-analysis3/ 1-news-a-analysis/ 4073. html
[2] http:/ / www. ncccusa. org/ news/ 070214metzger. html
[3] Bruce Manning Metzger, Reminiscences of an Octogenarian (1997), 12.
[4] Bruce Manning Metzger, Reminiscences of an Octogenarian (1997), 42.
[5] Bruce Manning Metzger, Reminiscences of an Octogenarian (1997), 32.
[6] Obituary (http:/ / www. sbl-site. org/ Article. aspx?ArticleId=638) from Society of Biblical Literature
[7] James A. Brooks, "Bruce Metzger as Textual Critic," Princeton Seminary Bulletin, vol. 15, no. 2, new series (1994), 157.
[8] The Fathers did not consider inspiration to be a unique characteristic of canonical writings. Bruce M. Metzger, The Canon of the New
Testament (Oxford: Clarendon, 1997), 256, and see 211, n. 6.
[9] Bruce M. Metzger, The New Testament: Its Background, Growth, and Content, 3rd ed., rev. and enlarged (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003),
317-8. And see the detailed discussion in Metzger, The Canon of the New Testament (Oxford: Clarendon, 1997), 251-4.
[10] Bruce M. Metzger, The New Testament: Its Background, Growth, and Content, 3rd ed., rev. and enlarged (Nashville: Abingdon Press,
2003), 318. Also see Metzger, The Canon of the New Testament (Oxford: Clarendon, 1997), 287-8.
Bruce M. Metzger 4

External links
Obituary (http://www.sbl-site.org/Article.aspx?ArticleId=638) from Society of Biblical Literature
Tribute (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/februaryweb-only/107-42.0.html) from Ben
Witherington
Tribute (http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=4862) from Daniel B. Wallace
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