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Loading...I often get asked about my relationship with my Doktor Vater Bruce Metzger, an unbelievably knowledgeable textual scholar and Bible translator. In response I’ve started re-posting some recollections I have. I was his final PhD student and, I daresay, had a closer relationship with him than probably any other. In this post I talk about the most famous anecdote about him that floated around Princeton for decades.
As with all great men, Metzger was widely talked about among those who knew and revered him. There were lots of stories told about Metzger at Princeton Seminary. Someone should probably collect and publish them. I was especially interested in the stories, since I came to Princeton in order to study with him. Most of the stories were meant to be funny, and we always wondered which, if any of them, were “true” (in the sense that they really happened).
Far and away the most commonly told and best known story was the one I heard when I first arrived at the seminary in 1978. It is the story of Metzger and the Squirrel.
Before telling the story and explicating it a bit, I need to stress that it is hard to
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Now I want to know what the Greek word for squirrel is.
Skiouros. An animal that lives in the “shadow” (skia) of its “tail” (oura).
Hahahaha!! I nearly choked with that story! 🤣🤣🤣 That abrupt end! 🤣🤣
By the way, I happen to KNOW the Greek word for ‘squirrel’, since, you know, I’m Greek and all this stuff… It is actually ”σκίουρος”!
So there you go, that’s the word that, according to the legend, flashed in Bruce Metzger’s mind when he saw the dead animal!
Mr. Ehrman, unexpectedly enough though, I also do have a question: what’s a legendary story that’s been floating around about Bart Ehrman in Chapel Hill?
THat’s right: Skiouros. An animal that lives in the “shadow” (skia) of its “tail” (oura).
Ha! For a while there were stories of my religious affiliation: Jewish? Closet fundamentalist?
I know the three Hebrew words for cockroach.
A bit off topic – where might I access some of your scholarly work, such as your scholarly papers, etc? I enjoy reading your popular books and your textbooks, but I’d like to see behind the curtain an know more about the professional NT history that you do.
If you look at my website, http://www.bartdehrman.com, you’ll find my C.V. that has a full listing.
If you look at my website, http://www.bartdehrman.com, you’ll find my C.V. that has a full listing.
Thanks! I was able to access the documents through the Virginia Tech Library System. Fascinating stuff! Would it be appropriate to ask you questions about some of it through blog comments?
Yup. But one at a time! And make sure you ask in such a way that other readers understand what you’re talking about and what the issue is.
In “Studies in the Textual Criticism of the New Testament”, 13. “The Use and Significance of Patristic Evidence for Textual Criticism” you discuss at length various issues relating to the writings of Church Fathers and how they are applied in a search for “the original texts”. Since Patristic writings got so much wrong about Gnostic Christianity (as evidenced by what was actually found in the Nag Hammadi texts) how reliable do you think such Patristic writings are for establishing accurate text examples for early manuscripts? Are they considered on the same level of importance as actual manuscripts? How likely are the quotations of the Church Fathers regarding their opponents to represent what their opponents actually wrote, given that we don’t have actual texts of these opponents?
Good question. I would say that these are two different kinds of data that one draws from the Patristic sources. There quotaitons of the NT are simply that: they are citing passages of Scripture as they have seen/heard/read/know them from teh manuscripts of these books available to them, just as you might quote a poem you’ve learned. THe discussions of the GNostics are their polemical discussions of their enemies, much like you might talk about a politician whom you think is a corrupt miscreant. In that case you are not simply quoting, say, his writings but are discussing his views. See the diff?
Yes, I see the difference. Given that in their attacks on ‘enemies’ they sometimes distorted their comments on the positions of, for example (but not exclusively) the Gnostics, do we have any evidence that they also may have made wording adjustments to their quotations of passages of Scripture to support their views?
They were certainly accused of that. Sometimes these accusations, though, appear to be based on the fact that the “opponents” actually used manuscxripts that were simply worded differently in places.
In my graduate program everyone was required to take a class from truly the most boring instructor in the world. The professor stood with his back to a window. Being good graduate students, we felt we had to at least appear interested, but we truly were watching the back drop behind this lecturer. The classroom was located on the third floor of an old building. It overlooked the roof of an adjacent building. Often we watched the squirrels jump from branch to branch. (This was much more entertaining than the professor). One day we were watching the squirrels frolic. One jumped for a low hanging branch and missed. The animal fell, but was able to grab a metal gutter with his front paws. His back legs kicked furiously as he tried to pull himself up. The student to my right gave an audible gasp when he saw this. The teacher thought that finally after all these years a student had an inspiration said, “Please Don share with us!” To my knowledge, the boring professor never knew that his greatest classroom revelation occurred when a gray squirrel was able to pull himself up on to the gutter.
Ha!!
Thanks for this, Bart. Oddly, I think it’s one of your best posts ever. Maybe that’s because Chris Beker truly engaged my mind with his NT courses like no one before or after him could do. Or maybe it’s because your squirrel story captures the ‘real’ Bruce Metzger so simply and elegantly. But mostly because the squirrel story brings home the natural roots of all biblical story telling. It’s hard to overstate the impact of squirrel stories in the forming of 3 major world religions, all of which have millions of believers who swear that each is historically accurate and that God personally wrote all of them! Incidentally, your description of Beker is pitch perfect. He was a wild doomsday genius whose observations on Christianity and the human condition I can still quote verbatim. Were he alive today I think he’d be 100% supportive of your position on theodicy and the supernatural. Count me with both of you.
Yeah, Beker always saw me as a Metzger-guy and was convinced thorughout my entire PhD program that I was a fundamentalist! He was a brilliant scholar. ANd there are lots of funny stories about him, even true ones!
Ooooooh. Since this is the 3rd telling of the squirrel story could we get some stories of Beker and other scholars during your time in Princeton?
Do you mean stories *about* Beker?
Precisely! Even the true ones! haha
OK, I’ll come up with one and post it.
What are your positions on theodicy and the supernatural?
I read Metzger’s book on Revelation. Good chance you’ll peruse through it to write your book?
Oh yes, I know it well. It won’t be anything like mine! (Or not a lot like mine, anyway; I agree with man of his interpretations, of course)
Does this story pass the criterion of dissimilarity?
It fails miserably.
I love this example of how stories change over even relatively short periods of time. When the canonical version of the Gospel of Metzger is written I hope they stick with the version featuring you as the disciple whom Metzger loved.
That’s a brilliant story, and a perfect illustration of how urban myths develop. Skiouros (by the way). Sorry if I’ve spoiled the ending of the story but you can always edit my comment Dr Ehrman 🙂
Yup! An animal that lives in the “shadow” (skia) of its “tail” (oura).
Sounds a lot like stories in the New Testament…
Another embellished oral tradition.
Surely you must have looked it up back then… What IS the greek (and aramaic) word for squirrel?
Actually, I didn’t for years . It is only the Greek word that would matter, and it’s an intersting one: skiouros, an animal that lives in the “shadow” (skia) of its “tail”(oura).
That’s interesting. Back in the days of Wilhelm Röntgen, the word for radiography was “skiagraphy” – shadow writing. An x-ray technician was called a “skiagrapher” up until WWI, something I never fail to mention when I teach classes i industrial radiography at KTH here in Stockholm. Since I love etymology, I’ve got to include the squirrel now as an example.
Wow! I had no idea. THanks.
This is a funny example of how texts become corrupted! (Including “THE Text” — of course!)
Yep, The Gospels (of Bruce) according to Bart, Beth, Dan, and David.
Every single telling of these stories are heresies by apostates who suppress the truth of The Lord within their hearts.
The scriptures that haven’t been written yet, but will be by me, while directed by the Holy Spirit CLEARLY state that St Bruce of Princeton resurrected the squirrel while praying in the Holy Liturgical language of English, proving to his disciple St Bart of Chapel Hill that he’s the reincarnated Messiah 🙄
We eagerly await your revelation!
Interesting share Prof Ehrman, couldn’t help laughing. An interesting depiction of ‘Jesus Before The Gospels’.
There may be a dead squirrel involved in the story but pretty sure it didn’t miss a leap and fall splat. Excepting some serious interference, squirrels do not miss. And should the target branch give way, they are so acrobatic they will land on their feet. Good story nonetheless.
See the following post. ANd yes, I”ve seen squirrels miss. And yes, they do not go splat!
Now apply this empirical study of how stories develop orally to the stories about Jesus in the New Testament…
As my long suffering children and friends know, I myself am guilty taking literary license with stories I tell about my life and friends, as such that I now am not really sure if they ever really happened at all, but the merit of the story justifies its telling. I swear to God.
I feel rather silly asking this question, but is anyone else seeing this post cut off after the words “I need to stress that it is hard to…” I am logged in as a member, but the rest of the post (and much of the other one about the squirrel) are just not showing. Is that content perhaps for only a subset of members? Thanks!
I”m not sure if others did or not. For queries like this, go to Help and click on Contact Support; someone will get back to you and figure out the problem!
When, in the recorded history of humanity, has a squirrel ever missed a jump and fell to its death?
Never in any recorded history that I”ve read. THen again, I haven’t read too many recorded histories of squirrels….
Don’t know about the squirrels but when the fat rats jump from the bird feeder they go splat on the ground–but they don’t slow down!
Ha! sure enough! no squirrel splat either!