Bruce Metzger pictured on the cover of his autobiography Reminiscences of an Octogenarian

Bruce Manning Metzger (born 1914) is a professor emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary and Bible editor who serves on the board of the American Bible Society. He is a respected scholar of Greek, New Testament and Old Testament Bible, and has written prolifically on these subjects. Image File history File links Metzger_-_Reminiscences_of_an_Octogenarian. ... Image File history File links Metzger_-_Reminiscences_of_an_Octogenarian. ... An autobiography, from the Greek auton, self, bios, life and graphein, write, is a biography written by the subject or composed conjointly with a collaborative writer (styled as told to or with). The term dates from the late eighteenth century, but the form is much older. ... 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... The steeple of Alexander Hall Princeton Theological Seminary is a theological seminary located in Princeton Township, New Jersey in the United States. ... For other uses, see Bible (disambiguation). ... The American Bible Society (ABS) is a group, founded in 1816, that publishes, distributes, and translates the Bible. ... John 21:1 Jesus Appears to His Disciples--Alessandro Mantovani: the Vatican, Rome. ... NOTE: Judaism commonly uses the term Tanakh, but not Old Testament, because it does not recognize the New Testament as a continuation or completion of the Jewish bible. ...

Metzger has edited and provided commentary for many Bible translations and has written dozens of books. He was a contributor to the Apocrypha of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, editor of the Reader's Digest Bible (a condensed version of the RSV) and general editor of the New Revised Standard Version. He was also one of the editors of the United Bible Societies' standard Greek New Testament, the starting point for nearly all translations of the New Testament in recent decades. Apocrypha (from the Greek word απόκρυφα meaning those having been hidden away[1]) are texts of uncertain authenticity or writings where the authorship is questioned. ... The Revised Standard Version (RSV) is an English translation of the Bible that was popular in the mid-20th century and posed the first serious challenge to the King James Version (KJV) owing to its aim to be both a readable and literally accurate modern English translation of the Bible. ... The Revised Standard Version (RSV) is an English translation of the Bible that was popular in the mid-20th century and posed the first serious challenge to the King James Version (KJV) owing to its aim to be both a readable and literally accurate modern English translation of the Bible. ... The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible, released in 1989, is an update of the Revised Standard Version (RSV). ... A Bible society is a non-profit organization (usually ecumenical Protestant in makeup) devoted to translating, publishing and distributing the Bible for free or at subsidized low cost. ...

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 primitive church which assembled the New Testament did not consider divine inspiration to be a sufficient criterion for a book to be canonized and in fact considered other works such as The Shepherd of Hermas and the Epistles of Clement to be inspired but not canonical. Because of such views, he has been criticized by some evangelicals who believe Metzger's views contradict the idea that the Bible is inerrant in its original manuscripts.^[1] Historical criticism is an approach to literature that uses history as a means of understanding a literary work more clearly. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with The Historical-Critical Method. ... The Biblical canon is an exclusive list of books written during the formative period of the Jewish or Christian faiths; the leaders of these communities believed these books to be inspired by God or to express the authoritative history of the relationship between God and his people (although there may... Biblical inspiration is the doctrine in Christian theology concerned with the divine origin of the Bible and what the Bible teaches about itself. ... The Shepherd of Hermas is a Christian work of the first or second century which had great authority in ancient times and was considered by some as one of the books of the Bible. ... The Epistles of Clement often referred to as 1 Clement and 2 Clement were not accepted in the canonic New Testament but they are part of the Apostolic Fathers collection. ... The word evangelicalism usually refers to a tendency in diverse branches of conservative Christianity, typified by an emphasis on evangelism, a personal experience of conversion, biblically-oriented faith, and a belief in the relevance of Christian faith to cultural issues. ... Biblical inerrancy is the belief that the Bible is without error. ... A manuscript (Latin manu scriptus, written by hand), strictly speaking, is any written document that is put down by hand, in contrast to being printed or reproduced some other way. ...

Books and commentaries

• The Text Of The New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, And Restoration (2005, with Bart D. Ehrman)
• New Testament: Its Background, Growth and Content (2003)
• 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)
• Greek New Testament (2000 with by B. Aland)
• Breaking the Code: Understanding the Book of Revelation : Leader's Guide (1999)
• Revelation 6-16 (Word Biblical Commentary 52b) (1998, with David E. Aune)
• Reminiscences of an Octogenarian (1997) ISBN 1-56563-264-8
• 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)
• The Reader's Bible (1983)
• Lexical Aids for Students of New Testament Greek (1969)
• List of Words occurring Frequently in the Coptic New Testament (Sahidic Dialect) (1961)
• Introduction to the Apocrypha (1957)
• The Oxford Concise Concordance to the Revised Standard Version of the Holy Bible (with Isobel M. Metzger)

Bart D. Ehrman is an historian of religions. ...

Translations

• The NRSV Bible with the Apocrypha, Compact Edition (2003)
• 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)

References