Bruce Manning Metzger: His Life, Work, and Passing (1914-2007)

I found out last night, to my great sorrow, that the great Bruce Metzger died on 13 February at the age of 93 at his residence in Princeton. Metzger was born on 9 February in Middleton, PA and raised in that rural part of Pennsylvania, where he finished his primary schooling and moved on to take a bachelor's degree at Lebanon Valley College in 1935. He continued his studies at Princeton Theological Seminary where he received his Th.B. (1938), Th.M. (1939), and then at Princeton University, where he received his MA (1940), and his Ph.D (1942). In 1939, he was ordained by the Presbytery of New Brunswick. In 1944 Metzger married Isobel Elizabeth Mackay.

Metzger taught at Princeton Theological Seminary from 1938 to 1984, a period of 46 years. Perhaps one of the highlights of this long and fruitful professorial career was Metzger's appointment in 1964 as George L. Collard Professor of New Testament Language and Literature, a position he retained until his retirement in 1984.

But perhaps Metzger's most significant contributions to the world of biblical scholarship were the many and magnificent works he wrote or edited. My personal favourite of his works is his The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration, which, in its several revisions and editions since its original publication in 1964, has served as a basic beginner's text on the scholarly discipline of New Testament textual criticism. This is probably my favourite book on New Testament textual criticism to date, and is the one that really got me deeply interested in the field. It is easy to understand, but wonderfully informative. Another useful tool of his is A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, which Metzger prepared as a companion volume to the United Bible Society's The Greek New Testament (edited by Metzger et al. and perhaps the standard critical Greek NT). The Textual Commentary explains the decision of the committee on most of the main textual variants. Often when I am examining the textual evidence of a variant and find it quite evenly divided, I will turn to Metzger's Textual Commentary for an explanation of the committee's decision. A famous work of Metzger's and one aimed more at the beginning student than the 'mature' scholar is his Lexical Aids for Students of the Greek New Testament. Among his other works are The Early Versions of the New Testament (1977), The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance (1987), The Oxford Annotated Bible (1962), The New Testament: Its Growth, Background, and Context, Introduction the the Apocrypha (1957), The Bible in Translation, &c.

Anyway, the loss of this brilliant scholar is a blow to the scholarly community. It is sad to see such a passing, but wonderful to see the results of a life well spent.