Bruce M. Metzger: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|American biblical scholar (1914-20071914–2007)}}

| notable_students = [[MichaelGreg J.Boyd Gorman(theologian)|Greg Boyd]], [[Bart D. Ehrman]], [[JamesMichael MontgomeryJ. BoiceGorman]],

'''Bruce Manning Metzger''' (February 9, 1914 – February 13, 2007) was an American [[biblical scholar]], [[Bible translator]] and [[textual critic]] who was a long timelongtime 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 was one of the mostan influential New Testament scholarsscholar of the 20th century.<ref name="NYT2007">{{cite news |author=Margalit Fox |author-link=Margalit Fox |title=Bruce Metzger, Scholar and Bible Translator, Dies at 93 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/16/obituaries/16metzger.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=February 16, 2007}}</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130728083543/http://www.pres-outlook.com/news-and-analysis3/1-news-a-analysis/4073.html New Testament Scholar and Bible Translator Bruce Metzger Dies]</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ncccusa.org/news/070214metzger.html|title=Bruce Metzger dies at 93|url-status=bot: unknown|archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/3831/20130820184059/http://www.ncccusa.org/news/070214metzger.html|archive-date=August 20, 2013|df=mdy-all}}</ref> He was elected to the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 1986.<ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Bruce+M.+Metzger&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2022-05-12 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>

Metzger was born on February 9, 1914, in [[Middletown, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania|Middletown, Pennsylvania]], and earned his BA (1935) at [[Lebanon Valley College]].<ref>{{citation|url=https://www.ptsem.edu/index.aspx?id=25769807030|title=A Centennial Tribute to Bruce Metzger: Remembering His Achievements, Influence, and Legacy|date=24 January 2014|publisher=Princeton Seminary|access-date=12 February 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140209021650/http://ptsem.edu/index.aspx?id=25769807030|archive-date=February 9, 2014|df=mdy-all}}</ref> 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.<ref>Bruce Manning Metzger, ''Reminiscences of an Octogenarian'' (1997), 12.</ref> He received his [[Bachelor of Theology|ThB]] in 1938 at [[Princeton Theological Seminary]], and in the autumn of 1938 began teaching at Princeton as a [[Fellow|Teaching Fellow]] in [[Koine Greek|New Testament Greek]]. On April 11, 1939, he was [[ordination|ordained]] in the [[United Presbyterian Church of North America]],<ref>Bruce Manning Metzger, ''Reminiscences of an Octogenarian'' (1997), 42.</ref> which has since merged with the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA) and is now known as the [[PCUSA|Presbyterian Church (USA)]]. In 1940, he earned his [[Master of Arts|MA]] from [[Princeton University]] and became an instructor in [[New Testament]]. Two years later, he earned his PhD ("Studies in a Greek Gospel Lectionary ([[Lectionary 303|Greg. 303]])"), also from Princeton University.

In 1944, Metzger married Isobel Elizabeth Mackay, daughter of the third president of the Seminary, the Scot, [[John A. Mackay]].<ref>Bruce Manning Metzger, ''Reminiscences of an Octogenarian'' (1997), 32.</ref> 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 1969, he was elected to membership in the [[Catholic Biblical Association]]. In 1971, he was elected president of both the [[Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas]] and the [[Society of Biblical Literature]]. The following year, he became president of the North American Patristic Society.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://patristics.org/about/|title=About - NAPS – The North American Patristics Society|first=NAPS – The North American Patristics|last=Society}}</ref> 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. In 1986, Metzger became a member of the [[American Philosophical Society]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=&title=Princeton+Theological+&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |website=American Philosophical Society |access-date=October 7, 2022}}</ref> 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 doctorate]]s from [[Lebanon Valley College]], [[University of Findlay|Findlay College]], the [[University of St Andrews]], the [[University of Münster]] and [[Potchefstroom Campus|Potchefstroom University]]. "Metzger's unrivaled knowledge of the relevant languages, ancient and modern; his balanced judgment; and his painstaking attention to detail won him respect across the theological and academic spectrum."<ref>James H. Moorhead, ''Princeton Seminary in American Religion and Culture'' (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2012): 434.</ref> Conservative evangelical scholar [[Daniel B. Wallace]] described Metzger as "a fine, godly, conservative scholar, although his view of biblical authority is not quite the same as many other evangelicals."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://bible.org/article/inerrancy-and-text-critical-problem-romans-51|title=Inerrancy and the Text-Critical Problem in Romans 5:1}}</ref>

Shortly after his 93rd birthday, Metzger died in [[Princeton, New Jersey]], on February 13, 2007. He was survived by his wife Isobel, andwho would die at the age of 98 on July 27, 2016, in Princeton, New Jersey,<ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-09-07|title=Obituary of Isobel M. Metzger {{!}} The Mather-Hodge Funeral Home, Prin...|url=https://matherhodge.com/tribute/details/889/Isobel-Metzger/obituary.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210907152527/https://matherhodge.com/tribute/details/889/Isobel-Metzger/obituary.html|archive-date=2021-09-07|access-date=2021-09-07}}</ref> as well as their two sons, John Mackay Metzger (b. 1948){{citation needed|date=August 2023}} and Dr. James Bruce Metzger (1952–2020).<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.newcomertoledo.com/Obituary/191161/Dr-James-Metzger/Toledo-OH | title=Newcomer Family Obituaries - Dr. James B. Metzger 1952 - 2020 }}</ref>

[[File:Kurt Aland - AmricanAmerican BiblBible Society.jpg|left|thumb|Left to right: unidentified, Bruce Metzger, [[Kurt Aland]] (center), [[Allen Wikgren]], [[Matthew Black]]<!-- Who is the figure to Metzger's right? There are clearly five people in this photo. -->]]

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 [[biblical inspiration|divine inspiration]] to be a sufficient criterion for a book to be placed in the canon.{{dubious|reason=That this was Metzger's view is not in dispute, but isn't this a generally accepted "given" in historical scholarship on the formation of the canon? That's how it's treated by Dale Martin (https://cosmolearning.org/video-lectures/from-stories-to-canon-6796/), who attributes the idea that "inspiration" is an important criterion to "modern people", apparently implying that this is a modern misconception on the part of Christian popular culture, but was Metzger the progenitor of the idea that inspiration WASN'T the most important criterion? If not, it probably doesn't belong in this article, or should not be written the way it is so as to imply that other scholars disagree or disagreed with this view. The quotation provided in the citation for the following sentence, if that is all there is to it, indicates that associating this idea specifically with Metzger is indeed a weak form of OR. The cited source was published late in Metzger's life, only 12 years before the Martin lecture cited above.|date=September 2016}} 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 [[Shepherd of Hermas|''The Shepherd'' of Hermas'']] and the ''[[Epistles of Clement (disambiguation)|Epistles of Clement]]'' to be inspired but not canonical.<ref>"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.</ref>

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…”worship...”, criteria which 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.<ref>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.</ref> 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.”<ref>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.</ref>

*{{cite book |author1-last=Metzger |author1-first=Bruce M. |author-mask=3 |title=Lexical Aids for Students of New Testament Greek |location=Princeton, NJ |publisher=Princeton University Press |date=19551946 |oclc=2132643 }}

*{{cite book |author1-last=Metzger |author1-first=Bruce M. |author-mask=3 |title=List of Words Occur{{not a typo|Occ|uring}}<!--AWB don't fix this!-->ing Frequently in the Coptic New Testament (Sahidic Dialect) |location=Leiden |publisher=Brill |date=1961 }} – note: "occur{{not a typo|occ|uring}}<!--AWB don't fix this!-->ing" is misspelled in the published title

*{{cite book |author1-last=Metzger |author1-first=Bruce M. |author-mask=3 |title=The Reader's Bible: condensed from the Revised Standard Version Old and New Testaments |location=Pleasantville, NY |publisher=ReadersReader's Digest Association |date=1983 |isbn=978-0-895-77106-3 |oclc=8817548 }}

*{{cite book |author1-last=Metzger |author1-first=Bruce M. |author-mask=3 |author2-last=DentonDentan |author2-first=Robert C. |author3-last=Harrelson |author3-first=Walter |title=The Making of the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible |location=Grand Rapids, MI |publisher=Eerdmans |date=1991 |isbn=978-0-802-80620-8 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/makingofnewrevis0000metz }}

*{{cite journal |author1-last=Metzger |author1-first=Bruce M. |author-mask=3 |title=Patristic Evidence and Textual Criticism of the New Testament |journal=New Testament Studies |volume= 18 |issue=4 |date=1972 |pages=379–400|doi=10.1017/S0028688500023705 |s2cid=170833089 }} - Presidential Address, Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, delivered August 24, 1971, at Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands.

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