Bruce Metzger (1914-2007) was a professor emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary (New Jersey) and a Bible editor who served on the board of the American Bible Society. He was a scholar of Greek, New Testament and Old Testament Bible, and wrote extensively on these subjects. He also served as president of the International Society of Biblical Literature.
Metzger edited and provided commentary for many Bible translations and wrote dozens of books. He was 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. His book, A Textual Commentary of the Greek New Testament (1994), is the standard work on the subject.
Metzger was involved, front and center, and often as a leading figure, in many of the major Biblical projects of the 20th century. Much of what we now know, from extra-Biblical sources, about the text of the Bible, have been studied, organized, and presented by Dr. Metzger. His is the sort of scholarly work to which we owe much today, although — for the most part — we scarcely recognize his name.
In 1997, Metzger published his autobiography, Reminiscences of an Octogenarian, in which he told, often in amusing fashion, but also with great insights, behind-thescenes stories and anecdotes of his work on various translation committees.
While we recognize that there will be areas of scholarship in which his conclusions will most likely differ from ours, there are good reasons to pause for a moment and give thanks for the labors of such men — who have given us better tools for understanding the Word of God.
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