This is the third and final post I’ll do on my dissertation the Gospel quotations in the writings of Didymus the Blind, advised by great New Testament scholar Bruce Metzger.

Bruce Metzger is the author of The Early Versions of the New Testament and The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, And Restoration.

 

Different dissertation advisors have different approaches to supervising a dissertation. Some are extremely hands on, to the point of working over every thought and every sentence. Not too many are like that, because if they were, they would never do anything else with their life. Plus, the idea is for the student to figure it out and get good at it. That takes some trial and error. Other advisors go for the big picture and like to talk over the big ideas. Others basically don’t give a rip how the dissertation is coming along – they want to see it at the end, and when it’s done, they’ll tell the student whether it’s good enough or not. Others … well, there are lots of other approaches. Sometime I’ll explain mine, which is not quite any of the above.

Metzger took an approach that other students may have found frustrating, but that was absolutely perfect for me.  He basically let me do my own thing.   He would graciously read the chapters as I gave them to him.  He would answer any questions I had.  He would indicate where I made grammatical (and related) mistakes (he could spot a misplaced semicolon from twelve pages away).   And he did not get very involved in the whole process.  As I said, that approach could be frustrating for students who wanted a lot of guidance.   But I was very independent minded and really wanted just to get on with it without interference.  So Metzger was perfect.

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