Bruce Butcher

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Bruce Butcher

Bruce Manning Metzger (born February 9, 1914 in Middletown , Pennsylvania , † February 13, 2007 in Princeton ) was an American biblical scholar . He was Professor of New Testament Language and Literature at Princeton Theological Seminary . Metzger was a leading expert on textual criticism of the New Testament and has contributed to several translations of the Bible. He was one of the editors of the Novum Testamentum Graece by Nestle and Aland.

Life

Bruce Metzger graduated from Lebanon Valley College with a Bachelor of Arts in 1935 and graduated from Princeton Seminary with a Bachelor of Theology in 1938 . In 1939 he was ordained pastor of the Presbyterian Church . In 1942 he received his doctorate in classical philology from Princeton University . In 1938 he began teaching at Princeton Theological Seminary. He was part of the New Testament Department there for 46 years. In 1978 he was elected a corresponding member of the British Academy . Since 1986 he was a member of the American Philosophical Society .

Bruce Metzger married Isobel Mackay Metzger, who supported him in his work throughout his life. Her father, John Mackay, was President of Princeton Seminary .

Works

Bruce Metzger published for eight decades, his first article in 1938 and his last book in 2006.

Metzger published numerous commentaries on Bible translations and wrote many books. He has worked on various new Bible translations, including the New Revised Standard Version and the Reader's Digest Bible . He was also one of the editors of the Greek New Testament of the United Bible Societies and of Nestle-Aland , the most important text editions of the Greek New Testament in recent decades.

Metzger's comments often contain critical comments that are intended to explain the literary and historical background of the Bible to the reader . For his view that the collection of the New Testament writings was not so much a role for the early Church as divine revelation , but the fact that the texts were written by eyewitnesses of the time or by their students, he was supported by strongly criticized fundamentalist groups.

English

  • The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, And Restoration (2005)
  • New Testament: Its Background, Growth and Content (2003)
  • The Oxford Essential Guide to Ideas and Issues of the Bible (2002)
  • The Oxford Guide to People & Places of the Bible (2001)
  • Greek New Testament (2000 with by Barbara Aland)
  • Breaking the Code: Understanding the Book of Revelation: Leader's Guide (1999)
  • Revelation 6-16 (Word Biblical Commentary 52b) (1998)
  • Reminiscences of an Octogenarian (1997) ISBN 1565632648 (autobiography)
  • 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

German

  • Fascinating world of the Bible. Of people and fates, locations and events , 1995, ISBN 3-451-23975-2
  • The New Testament Canon. Origin, development, importance , 1993, ISBN 3-491-71104-5
  • The text of the New Testament. An introduction to the New Testament. Text review , Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1966

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)
  • Oxford Annotated Apocrypha: The Apocrypha of the Old Testament (1977)

Awards

  • On November 16, 2000, he received the Bible Translation and Utilization Award from the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA .

Trivia

Bruce Metzger's students and employees are familiar with numerous anecdotes that highlight his hard work, knowledge and friendliness:

Ben Witherington tells of a Eusebius lecture given by Metzger, which was interrupted by an excited man waving a manuscript and shouting, “I have the oldest copy of the Gospel of Mark in Syriac !” Metzger kindly asked if he could have a look . After less than a minute he returned the manuscript and said: “Really very interesting, but not a Syrian copy of Markus. It is a Bohairian manuscript from the 6th century, which is not particularly remarkable. "

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Deceased Fellows. British Academy, accessed July 7, 2020 .
  2. ^ Member History: Bruce M. Metzger. American Philosophical Society, accessed January 8, 2019 .
  3. ↑ http://ncccusa.org/news/2000GA/metzger.html
  4. ↑ Ben Witherington: Revisiting a Non-Standard Scholar , Christianity Today, February 2007

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Butcher, Bruce
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Butcher, Bruce Manning
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American New Testament scholar, theologian, text critic, and Bible translator
DATE OF BIRTH February 9, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Middletown , Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH February 13, 2007
Place of death Princeton