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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 scholar of Greek, New Testament and Old Testament Bible, and has written prolifically on these subjects.

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.

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 early church which assembled the New Testament did not consider divine inspiration to be a sufficient criterion for a book to be canonized. Metzger says that for the early church, it was very important that a work describing Jesus' life be written by a follower of or an eyewitness to Jesus, 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. However, Metzger does believe in the bodily Resurrection of Jesus Christ, Christ as God Incarnate, and salvation by grace alone. He holds to biblical infallibility but not to biblical inerrancy.

Metzger has adopted a similar approach to viewing scripture to that of Brook Foss Westcott, who said, "I find the presumption of absolute truth – I reject the word infallibility – of Holy Scripture overwhelming," and "No one now, I suppose, holds that the first three chapters of Genesis, for example, give a literal history – I could never understand how anyone reading them with open eyes could think they did – yet they disclose to us a Gospel." He, like Westcott and Hort, believes that the "pure text" of the Bible has been lost. Moreover, he suggests that much of the Old Testament is a 'matrix' of myths and legends; that the Book of Job is an ancient folk tale; and that the scriptures should not be taken as actual history. He further questions that Moses was the sole author of the Pentateuch or that the story of Jonah should be taken literally. Metzger, Co-editor of the New Oxford Annotated Bible RSV</ref> Adopting a similar view of the scriptures with Westcott and Fenton John Anthony Hort, often called the fathers of the modern Bible versions, Metzger has often drawn similar criticism from some conservatives.

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 (sic!) Frequently in the Coptic New Testament (Sahidic Dialect) (1961) available online
• Introduction to the Apocrypha (1957)
• The Oxford Concise Concordance to the Revised Standard Version of the Holy Bible (with Isobel M. Metzger)

Translations

• The NRSV Bible with the Apocrypha, Compact Edition (2003)
• New Revised Standard Version (1989)
• 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

1. One rather vitriolic example is Editors of the UBS Greek New Testament, by David W. Cloud, Way of Life Literature 2001, in which Metzger is labelled "an unbeliever", "a false teacher", "apostate" and "a heretic".
2. The Life and Letters of Brook Foss Westcott by Arthur Westcott, The Macmillan Co. (1903) vol. I, p. 207 as digitized by Google Book Search
3. The Life and Letters of Brook Foss Westcott by Arthur Westcott, The Macmillan Co. (1903) vol. II, p. 69 as digitized by Google Book Search

• 1914 births
• Biblical scholars
• Living people