27/02: Bruce Metzger, R.I.P.
Category: From the Heart
Posted by: an okie gardener
A giant in New Testament studies died this month. Dr. Metzger was an internationally famous scholar of Greek and of the New Testament. A partial list of his accomplishments is here taken from the tribute on the Princeton Theological Seminary website (link here):
Dr. Bruce Manning Metzger, New Testament professor emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary and one of the preeminent American New Testament critics and biblical translators of the twentieth century, died February 13, 2007, at the University Medical Center at Princeton, at the age of 93.
. . .
He served as Chair of the Committee on Translation of the American Bible Society 1964–70, and as Chair of the Committee of Translators for the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible 1977–90. The impact of this work is incalculable and Bruce Metzger saw it through the press almost single-handedly.
. . .
Bruce Metzger cared about and provided for his students. Generations have been grateful for his Lists of Words Occurring Frequently in the Coptic New Testament, and his Lexical Aids for Students of New Testament Greek (first published in 1946) became a standard study tool. He edited The Oxford Annotated Bible in 1962, and in 1966, along with Kurt Aland, Matthew Black, and Allen Wikgren, edited the United Bible Societies' edition of the Greek New Testament. This text, especially adapted to meet the needs of Bible translators, with its beautiful original font and indication of the relative degree of certainty for each variant adopted in the text, proved to be an enduring landmark. The editors were later joined by Carlo Martini (the Cardinal Archbishop of Milan from 1980 to 2002).
. . .
There were other honors. In 1994, Bruce Metzger was awarded the Burkitt Medal for Biblical Studies by The British Academy in London (of which he had been a Corresponding Fellow since 1978). This is only awarded in recognition of a lifetime of distinguished biblical study. Bruce Metzger was elected president of Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas (1971), the International Society of Biblical Literature (1971), and was the first president of the North American Patristic Society (1972). He was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (1969 and 1974) and visiting fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge (1974) and Wolfson College, Oxford (1979).
There were many other books, among which the classic studies The Text of the New Testament, Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration (1964, and translated into German, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Italian and Russian) and The Early Versions of the New Testament, Their Origin, Transmission, and Limitations (1977) have been particularly influential. Bruce Metzger's last publication before his death was Apostolic Letters of Faith, Hope, and Love: Galatians, 1 Peter, and I John (2006).
Dr. Metzger was one of my teachers in seminary and my personal reflections are below.
Dr. Metzger was a Christian gentleman. My first meeting with him was a social blunder. Before classes began the incoming seminary students met for a retreat in a Presbyterian camp in the Poconos. Prior to lunch two faculty members were introducted. Since they were on the other side of the crowded cafeteria I did not get a good look at them. Standing in line to get my food, I noticed an older man behind me who, I thought, was one of the faculty members introduced. I greeted him, told him my name, and confessed that I had not gotten a good look during the introductions and so did not know if he were Mr. Butler or Dr. Metzger. He smiled and answered that he was Bruce Metzger and proceeded to chat with me as we moved down the line. I was so green that I did not know I was in the presence of greatness; I had not heard of Bruce Metzger and confused his name with that of a junior faculty member. He showed no displeasure and made me feel at ease. The response of a Christian gentleman.
Dr. Metzger respected his office of teacher to ministry students. The lecture rooms were old and large, with platforms in the front and lecturns that looked like pulpits. My first semester I took Exegesis of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Greek text) taught by Metzger. I sat by a student a year to two ahead of me. He told us first-year guys (Juniors) to pay special attention to the end of class, when Dr. Metzger stepped down from the podium--that's when it would get really interesting. Following a brilliant lecture (a word easy to overuse with regard to this man) Dr. Metzger closed the folder of his lecture notes and stepped down to the floor, then took off his glasses; "I have wondered . . ." he began, and then engaged in carefully reasoned speculation on some issue related to the text under discussion. This was his daily pattern. Dr. Metzger so respected his office that he lectured from the podium and speculated from the floor.
Dr. Metzger was a careful scholar. My last year of seminary I took his Introduction to New Testament Studies Seminar with a few other M.Div's and the first-year N.T. Ph.D. students. We learned to be careful: never overstate conclusions, carefully match our level of certainty to the solidity of the evidence. Rarely were we allowed to say "It is certain that . . ." Instead, we spoke in terms of strongly supported, supported, may be supported, the evidence suggests, . . . depended on the level of confidence afforded by evidence.
I am better for having been a student of Dr. Bruce Metzger. Thank you, sir.
Dr. Bruce Manning Metzger, New Testament professor emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary and one of the preeminent American New Testament critics and biblical translators of the twentieth century, died February 13, 2007, at the University Medical Center at Princeton, at the age of 93.
. . .
He served as Chair of the Committee on Translation of the American Bible Society 1964–70, and as Chair of the Committee of Translators for the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible 1977–90. The impact of this work is incalculable and Bruce Metzger saw it through the press almost single-handedly.
. . .
Bruce Metzger cared about and provided for his students. Generations have been grateful for his Lists of Words Occurring Frequently in the Coptic New Testament, and his Lexical Aids for Students of New Testament Greek (first published in 1946) became a standard study tool. He edited The Oxford Annotated Bible in 1962, and in 1966, along with Kurt Aland, Matthew Black, and Allen Wikgren, edited the United Bible Societies' edition of the Greek New Testament. This text, especially adapted to meet the needs of Bible translators, with its beautiful original font and indication of the relative degree of certainty for each variant adopted in the text, proved to be an enduring landmark. The editors were later joined by Carlo Martini (the Cardinal Archbishop of Milan from 1980 to 2002).
. . .
There were other honors. In 1994, Bruce Metzger was awarded the Burkitt Medal for Biblical Studies by The British Academy in London (of which he had been a Corresponding Fellow since 1978). This is only awarded in recognition of a lifetime of distinguished biblical study. Bruce Metzger was elected president of Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas (1971), the International Society of Biblical Literature (1971), and was the first president of the North American Patristic Society (1972). He was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (1969 and 1974) and visiting fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge (1974) and Wolfson College, Oxford (1979).
There were many other books, among which the classic studies The Text of the New Testament, Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration (1964, and translated into German, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Italian and Russian) and The Early Versions of the New Testament, Their Origin, Transmission, and Limitations (1977) have been particularly influential. Bruce Metzger's last publication before his death was Apostolic Letters of Faith, Hope, and Love: Galatians, 1 Peter, and I John (2006).
Dr. Metzger was one of my teachers in seminary and my personal reflections are below.
Dr. Metzger was a Christian gentleman. My first meeting with him was a social blunder. Before classes began the incoming seminary students met for a retreat in a Presbyterian camp in the Poconos. Prior to lunch two faculty members were introducted. Since they were on the other side of the crowded cafeteria I did not get a good look at them. Standing in line to get my food, I noticed an older man behind me who, I thought, was one of the faculty members introduced. I greeted him, told him my name, and confessed that I had not gotten a good look during the introductions and so did not know if he were Mr. Butler or Dr. Metzger. He smiled and answered that he was Bruce Metzger and proceeded to chat with me as we moved down the line. I was so green that I did not know I was in the presence of greatness; I had not heard of Bruce Metzger and confused his name with that of a junior faculty member. He showed no displeasure and made me feel at ease. The response of a Christian gentleman.
Dr. Metzger respected his office of teacher to ministry students. The lecture rooms were old and large, with platforms in the front and lecturns that looked like pulpits. My first semester I took Exegesis of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Greek text) taught by Metzger. I sat by a student a year to two ahead of me. He told us first-year guys (Juniors) to pay special attention to the end of class, when Dr. Metzger stepped down from the podium--that's when it would get really interesting. Following a brilliant lecture (a word easy to overuse with regard to this man) Dr. Metzger closed the folder of his lecture notes and stepped down to the floor, then took off his glasses; "I have wondered . . ." he began, and then engaged in carefully reasoned speculation on some issue related to the text under discussion. This was his daily pattern. Dr. Metzger so respected his office that he lectured from the podium and speculated from the floor.
Dr. Metzger was a careful scholar. My last year of seminary I took his Introduction to New Testament Studies Seminar with a few other M.Div's and the first-year N.T. Ph.D. students. We learned to be careful: never overstate conclusions, carefully match our level of certainty to the solidity of the evidence. Rarely were we allowed to say "It is certain that . . ." Instead, we spoke in terms of strongly supported, supported, may be supported, the evidence suggests, . . . depended on the level of confidence afforded by evidence.
I am better for having been a student of Dr. Bruce Metzger. Thank you, sir.
