07097
February 16, 2007

New Testament scholar and Bible translator Bruce Metzger dies

by Communications/Publications Office
Princeton Theological Seminary

PRINCETON, NJ — 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 20th century, died Feb. 13 in a local hospital. He was 93.

     Metzger was born in Middletown, PA, on Feb. 9, 1914. After graduating from Lebanon Valley College in 1935, he entered Princeton Theological Seminary, graduating with a Th.B. in 1938. So began a life‑long association with the seminary during which Metzger became not only a legend but also one of the school’s greatest intellectual ornaments.

     He was ordained in the former United Presbyterian Church in the USA in 1939. In 1944 he married Isobel Elizabeth, the elder daughter of John Alexander Mackay, the third president of the seminary who rebuilt and revitalized the school after the theological divisions of the 1920s.

     Metzger taught while he continued to study, earning a Master of Arts in 1940 and a Ph.D. in the classics in 1942, both from Princeton University. He serving as teaching fellow in New Testament Greek from 1938‑40 and as instructor in New Testament  from 1940‑44.

      He was appointed assistant professor 1944, associate professor in 1948 and professor in 1954‑84. Metzger retired in 1984 and was named professor emeritus.

     A preeminent New Testament scholar and committed ecumenist, Metzger was known internationally for his work in biblical translation and the history of the Bible’s versions and canonization. He was a world leader in textual study of the New Testament, the Apocrypha and the Pseudepigrapha. He served as chair of the Committee on Translation of the American Bible Society from 1964‑70, and as chair of the Committee of Translators for the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible from 1977‑90. He almost single-handedly saw the NRSV through to publication and in 1993 presented a copy of the NRSV, Catholic Edition, to Pope John Paul II at the Vatican. Earlier, in 1976, he had personally presented a copy of the expanded RSV to His All Holiness Demetrios I, patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church.

     Metzger was revered by 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 for seminarians. He edited The Oxford Annotated Bible in 1962, and in 1966 co-edited the United Bible Societies’ edition of the Greek New Testament.

     Metzger and his work were honored countless times. The honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from St. Andrews University in Scotland was bestowed on him in 1964. He also received honorary degrees from Lebanon Valley College, Findlay College, the University of Münster, and Potchefstroom University in South Africa.

     In 1994, he was awarded the Burkitt Medal for Biblical Studies by The British Academy in London. He 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).

     Metzger cared passionately about the Bible, and in 1982 became the general editor of the Reader’s Digest Condensed Bible. He lectured throughout the nation and the world, in North and South America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Japan, and South Africa, often at churches and universities where his former students ministered and taught.

     Princeton Theological Seminary President Iain R. Torrance said that, “despite all his distinctions, Bruce Metzger never lost his modesty, or his courteous welcome, genuine interest in and encouragement for much younger scholars. He was a warm and supportive colleague within the seminary and beloved by many scholars and lay people in Princeton and throughout the world.”