Remembering Dr. Metzger

He has died at 92 years of age.
Dr. Bruce Manning Metzger has died.

Though I never knew him, I have admired and used his works since seminary, and now he is gone.

I had bought his autobiography, Reminiscences of an Octogenarian, and was reading it when the news came through the Christianity Today website. Of course no secular news source cared that one of the brilliant minds of our age has died, when there are such important things to cover as Anna Nicole Smith (Who was she? ANC was not her real name) passing.

Like so many books by great people that write autobiographies, there was not so much personal about the book as there was about his professional life and accomplishments. Dr. Manning accomplished many things, but surely there are personal insights and interesting incidents to write about as well. I found the same kind of thing in Billy Graham's autobiography, Amazing Grace.

When I finished Dr. Manning's autobiography, I went to my library and pulled out his early book, The New Testament, It's background, growth, and content. I happen to have a first edition of the book, and there have been several, three I think, newer editions. This is a good introduction to the New Testament; it has some information that I knew, but for which I did not have a source. I think I will pick up a more technical book of his next, about the transmission of the Sacred text, how it was almost lost, and then restored. I have also enjoyed his The Bible in Translation.

I have also been reading Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology as a bed time text. Because I pick it up when I am tired and sleepy, I tend to not read more than about 5 pages at a time. His defense of the Trinity is good, but everything he says is slanted by his Calvinism. I found out that there is a downloadable version of the entire book available as a PDF document that is searchable by topic and by word/phrase. Thing is, the download is the same price as the hardback! Ah well.

I will miss that faithful scholar of God's Word. I hope, and believe, that he has entered into the rest provided by his Lord. Rest in Peace, Dr. Metzger.