Loading...THIS POST RESUMES MY RECOLLECTIONS OF MY INTERACTIONS WITH BRUCE METZGER, MY MENTOR.
When I entered my PhD program at Princeton Theological Seminary, I knew already that I wanted to specialize in the study of the Greek manuscript tradition of the New Testament. As I indicated in my earlier posts, that’s why I went there, because Metzger was the country’s leading expert in this field, and one could argue the leading expert in the world (some Germans would contest the point!).
While doing my Master’s thesis for Metzger I read widely in the secondary literature on textual criticism, and came to be highly influenced by a scholar named Gordon Fee. Fee is an interesting and important figure. As it turns out, he is a very committed Pentecostal Christian, who preaches and evangelizes. But when he’s not doing that, he’s doing scholarship, and he’s an amazing scholar. He is also the author of How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth and Discovering Biblical Equality, among other works. At the time of my master’s work, he was one of the top textual critics in the country, right behind Metzger (the generation, or so, behind him).
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Bruce Metzger is the author of several books including The Early Versions of the New Testament and The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, And Restoration.
Bart, interesting entry. I am currently looking into patristics and am wondering what introductory volume or volumes you prefer? I’m not at the point for advanced volumes on individual church fathers yet.
By the way, I enjoy cracking open your NT textbook from time to time when I need a refresher. I’m looking forward to your Bible textbook.
You might start with my collection of texts, organized topically, called After the New Testament. I include bibliography at the end of each topical entry, to give more places to get started.
Is it unusual for a top biblical scholar to be a pentecostal? Pentecostals are better known for their expressive worship than for scholarship. How would you rate Gordon Fee’s scholarship on Paul?
In a 2010 letter to SBL, Ronald Hendel objected to the affiliation of fundamentalist groups like the Society of Pentecostal Studies (www.bib-arch.org/bar/article.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=36&Issue=4&ArticleID=9).
Yup, it’s pretty unusual. But he’s an unusual guy. His scholarship is top notch, although his conclusions tend to be far more conservative (when dealing with interpretive issues) than mine. But in textual criticism he is one of the best.
Segueing from two previous posts into this, what does it indicate that Didymus used a scribe (a secretary) but that it was unlikely that the apostles had them as a means? Is it simply the progression of civilization, or is it the increase in wealth that the church had that made it happen, or is something else going on there?
I think the apostles did indeed use scribes/secretaries! But they used them as Didymus did: to take dictation.