Abit late, given that the death date I have read was 13. Feb. 2007.
A man I have come to know through his Biblical knowledge, a renowned scholar of Greek, New Testament and Old Testament Bible, who wrote prolifically on these subjects.
Allah gave him a grand ripe life of 93 years and 4 days if I am not mistaken, and his reckoning is with Allah. Nevertheless;
Verily! You (O Muhammad SAW) guide not whom you like, but Allāh guides whom He wills. And He knows best those who are the guided.
:laugh:
May Allah grant us the mercy of dying upon Islaam.
The path is long but I hope we meet,
After the grave and the Day, in paradise in bliss upon a reclined seat.
A traveler traveling - travelled from shirk to tawheed,
If I'm remembered for anything - let it be the Mercy I seek.
From what I can find he had some unusual beliefs for todays Christians. He seems to have had non-trinitarian beliefs and did not place much value on the works of Paul. Although much of the translations he did are used in Todays many of todays Bibles he does not appear to believe the Bible was the work of God or that it is error free.
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.[1]
Well according to another source who recalled his witty humour:
During our conversation, he showed me an urn in his office. I was curious as to what was in it; bizarre notions flashed through my head. He said, “This urn contains the ashes of a Revised Standard Version Bible.” Metzger had been on the translation committee for the RSV, and a zealous fundamentalist preacher torched the Bible from the pulpit one Sunday, declaring it the work of the devil. He then sent the ashes to the committee chairman. Metzger became the chairman of the committee for the NRSV (published in 1990) and was bequeathed the urn and ashes. He commented sadly, “Isn’t it a tragedy what people sometimes do to the Word of God!” Then, with keen wit (something I would learn over the years was vintage Metzger) he quipped, “I’m so glad to be a translator in the 20th century. They only burn Bibles now, not the translators!” I left his office in awe of this great man who obviously loved the Lord and loved the Bible.
The path is long but I hope we meet,
After the grave and the Day, in paradise in bliss upon a reclined seat.
A traveler traveling - travelled from shirk to tawheed,
If I'm remembered for anything - let it be the Mercy I seek.
Well according to another source who recalled his witty humour:
During our conversation, he showed me an urn in his office. I was curious as to what was in it; bizarre notions flashed through my head. He said, “This urn contains the ashes of a Revised Standard Version Bible.” Metzger had been on the translation committee for the RSV, and a zealous fundamentalist preacher torched the Bible from the pulpit one Sunday, declaring it the work of the devil. He then sent the ashes to the committee chairman. Metzger became the chairman of the committee for the NRSV (published in 1990) and was bequeathed the urn and ashes. He commented sadly, “Isn’t it a tragedy what people sometimes do to the Word of God!” Then, with keen wit (something I would learn over the years was vintage Metzger) he quipped, “I’m so glad to be a translator in the 20th century. They only burn Bibles now, not the translators!” I left his office in awe of this great man who obviously loved the Lord and loved the Bible.
That is typical Metzger from what I have read of him.
But it is a very valid point in the early days of Christianity any person who wrote a translation that did not meet the "Official" meaning of the Pope was viewed as a heretic. I do not know if any were burned at the stake, but it sounds plausible.
It was an ideal way to get a Bible that agreed with the teachings of the Church.
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Getting entirely fed up with the foolishness
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