Bruce M. Metzger
Bruce M. Metzger | |
---|---|
Born | Bruce Manning Metzger February 9, 1914 |
Died | February 13, 2007 Princeton, New Jersey, US | (aged 93)
Spouse |
Isobel Metzger (m. 1944) |
Academic background | |
New Testament canon | |
Notable works |
|
Bruce Manning Metzger (February 9, 1914 – February 13, 2007) was an American
Biography
Metzger was born on February 9, 1914, in
In 1944, Metzger married Isobel Elizabeth Mackay, daughter of the third president of the Seminary, the Scot,
Shortly after his 93rd birthday, Metzger died in Princeton, New Jersey, on February 13, 2007. He was survived by his wife Isobel, who would die at the age of 98 on July 27, 2016, in Princeton, New Jersey,[13] as well as their two sons, John Mackay Metzger (b. 1948)[citation needed] and Dr. James Bruce Metzger (1952–2020).[14]
Books and commentaries
Metzger edited and provided commentary for many Bible translations and wrote dozens of books. He was an editor of the
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).[16] The first volume of a series that he founded and edited, New Testament Tools and Studies, appeared in 1960.
Metzger's commentaries often utilize
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...”, 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.[18] 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.”[19]
He served on the advisory board for Peake's Commentary on the Bible (1962), and contributed an article on "The Early Versions of the New Testament." He was co-editor for The Oxford Companion to the Bible (1993).
Works
List of books
- Metzger, Bruce M. (1942). Studies in a Greek Gospel Lectionary (Greg. 303) (Ph.D.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University.
- ——— (1946). Lexical Aids for Students of New Testament Greek. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. OCLC 2132643.
- ——— (1957). Introduction to the Apocrypha. New York: Oxford University Press. OCLC 361082.
- ——— (1961). List of Words Occuring Frequently in the Coptic New Testament (Sahidic Dialect). Leiden: Brill. – note: "occuring" is misspelled in the published title
- ———; Metzger, Isobel M. (1962). The Oxford Concise Concordance to the Revised Standard Version of the Holy Bible (1st ed.). London: Oxford University Press.
- ——— (1963). Chapters in the History of New Testament Textual Criticism. New Testament Tools and Studies. Vol. 4. Leiden: Brill.
- ——— (1964). The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, And Restoration (1st ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- ——— (1965). The New Testament: Its Background, Growth and Content (1st ed.). New York: Abingdon Press. OCLC 341779.
- ——— (1968). Historical and Literary Studies: Pagan, Jewish, and Christian. Leiden: Brill.
- ——— (1977). The Early Versions of the New Testament: Their Origin, Transmission, and Limitations. Oxford: Clarendon Press. OCLC 3155516.
- ——— (1980). New Testament Studies: Philological, Versional, and Patristic. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-9-004-06163-7.
- ——— (1981). Manuscripts of the Greek Bible: An Introduction to Palaeography. New York: Oxford University Press. OCLC 6943206.
- ——— (1983). The Reader's Bible: condensed from the Revised Standard Version Old and New Testaments. Pleasantville, NY: Reader's Digest Association. OCLC 8817548.
- ——— (1987). The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance. Oxford: Clarendon Press. OCLC 14188714.
- ———; Dentan, Robert C.; Harrelson, Walter (1991). The Making of the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-802-80620-8.
- ———; OCLC 27895183.
- ——— (1994). Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament: a companion volume to the United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament (third ed.). London ; New York: United Bible Societies. OCLC 683422.
- ——— (1997). Reminiscences of an Octogenarian. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers. ISBN 978-1-5656-3264-6.
- ——— (1999). Breaking the Code: Understanding the Book of Revelation (Leader's ed.). Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press. ISBN 978-0-6874-9779-9.
- ———; ISBN 978-3-438-05110-3.
- ———; OCLC 45439956.
- ——— (2001). The Bible in Translation, Ancient and English Versions. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic. OCLC 47100891.
- ———; OCLC 47074788.
- ——— (2002). The New Testament: Its Background, Growth and Content (Reprint ed.). Cambridge: James Clarke & Co. OCLC 227928641.
- ———; ISBN 0-19-516122-X.
- ——— (2006). Apostolic Letters of Faith, Hope, and Love: Galatians, 1 Peter, and 1 John. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books. ISBN 978-1-5975-2501-5.
List of translations
- Oxford Annotated Apocrypha: The Apocrypha of the Old Testament. Translated by Metzger, Bruce M. 1977.
- The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha, Revised Standard Version, Expanded Edition. Translated by Metzger, Bruce M.; May, Herbert G. 1977.
- Oxford Annotated Apocrypha: Revised Standard Version. Translated by Metzger, Bruce M. 1977.
- New Revised Standard Version. Translated by Metzger, Bruce M. 1989.
- The NRSV Bible with the Apocrypha, Compact Edition. Translated by Metzger, Bruce M. 2003.
Selected articles and chapters
- ——— (May 27, 1966). "The Meaning of Christ's Ascension". Christianity Today. 10 (17): 3–4.
- ——— (1970). "Names for the Nameless in the New Testament: A Study in the Growth of Christian Tradition". In Granfield, Patrick; Jungmann, Josef A. (eds.). Kyriakon: Festschrift Johannes Quasten. Vol. 1. Münster: Verlag Aschendorff. pp. 79–99.
- ——— (1972). "Patristic Evidence and Textual Criticism of the New Testament". New Testament Studies. 18 (4): 379–400. S2CID 170833089. - Presidential Address, Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, delivered August 24, 1971, at Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands.
- ——— (1972). "Literary forgeries and canonical pseudepigrapha". Journal of Biblical Literature. 91 (1): 3–24. JSTOR 3262916. - Presidential address, Society of Biblical Literature, delivered October 29, 1971, in Atlanta, Georgia.
- ——— (November 1984). "How Well Do You Know the Apocrypha?". Guideposts. pp. 28–31.
Selected interviews and writings about Bruce M. Metzger
- Minear, Paul S. (January 1983). "A Scholar's Scholar". S2CID 170746359.
- ISBN 978-0-310-29604-1.
Festschriften
- ISBN 978-0-198-26175-9.
- Petzer, Jacobus H.; ISBN 978-9-004-07720-1.
- ISBN 978-0-802-84824-6.
References
- ^ Margalit Fox (February 16, 2007). "Bruce Metzger, Scholar and Bible Translator, Dies at 93". The New York Times.
- ^ New Testament Scholar and Bible Translator Bruce Metzger Dies
- ^ "Bruce Metzger dies at 93". Archived from the original on August 20, 2013.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved May 12, 2022.
- ^ A Centennial Tribute to Bruce Metzger: Remembering His Achievements, Influence, and Legacy, Princeton Seminary, January 24, 2014, archived from the original on February 9, 2014, retrieved February 12, 2014
- ^ Bruce Manning Metzger, Reminiscences of an Octogenarian (1997), 12.
- ^ Bruce Manning Metzger, Reminiscences of an Octogenarian (1997), 42.
- ^ Bruce Manning Metzger, Reminiscences of an Octogenarian (1997), 32.
- ^ Society, NAPS – The North American Patristics. "About - NAPS – The North American Patristics Society".
- ^ "Member History". American Philosophical Society. Retrieved October 7, 2022.
- ^ James H. Moorhead, Princeton Seminary in American Religion and Culture (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2012): 434.
- ^ "Inerrancy and the Text-Critical Problem in Romans 5:1".
- ^ "Obituary of Isobel M. Metzger | The Mather-Hodge Funeral Home, Prin..." September 7, 2021. Archived from the original on September 7, 2021. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
- ^ "Newcomer Family Obituaries - Dr. James B. Metzger 1952 - 2020".
- ^ a b "SBL Publications".
- ^ James A. Brooks, "Bruce Metzger as Textual Critic," Princeton Seminary Bulletin, vol. 15, no. 2, new series (1994), 157.
- ^ "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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
External links
- Obituary from Society of Biblical Literature
- Tribute from Ben Witherington
- Tribute from Daniel B. Wallace