Justin Taylor has linked to a couple of articles on Bruce Metzger that I'd recommend reading, one by John Piper and another by Ben Witherington. Contrast the little attention Metzger's death is receiving with the coverage of Anna Nicole Smith's death.
Though I disagreed with Metzger on some issues, and I'm generally more conservative than he was, he was a scholar of the highest rank, and he accomplished a lot. I don't have any stories of personal contact with him, as John Piper and Ben Witherington do, but one of my most positive memories of him is his participation in Lee Strobel's highly influential The Case For Christ (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1998). Metzger had to have known that Strobel is an Evangelical, and he had to have known that the book was being written for evangelistic purposes. He not only agreed to be interviewed, but also went out of his way to emphasize his confidence in the historical credibility of Christianity.
His death probably won't receive much attention from the mainstream media, but he lived a highly significant life by any reasonable standard. I'm grateful for that life.
I wonder what he thought of the apostasy of his student, Bart Ehrman?
ReplyDeleteThese links led me to this link on Ben Witherington III blog:
ReplyDeletehttp://benwitherington.blogspot.com/2007/01/was-lazarus-beloved-disciple.html
If you read the comments box after the excellent article, you can see Edward T. Babinski get owned by Witherington!
Jason, I learned of Bruce Metzger's death from an article in Christianity Today online. (I get a daily email from them).
ReplyDeleteI only have a couple of books from the Word Biblical Commentary series (for which he was a general editor or something like that), but I believe that this kind of work will be a lasting treasure for the church.