New Testament Its Background, Growth and Content

The New Testament Study, by Bruce M. Metzger is a very informative book that has helped me tremendously with my knowledge and understanding of the history behind the Bible.

Surprisingly, this particular work of Metzger's is not as impressive as most of his other scholarly works. However, it must be acknowledged it is designed more as an introduction to the New Testament, giving only brief overview to NT issues. It is primarily concerned with the background and content, giving little attention to the growth of the NT. The first section goes over the background -- the politics, social life, religious life, etc of New Testament era Palestine (not quite called that at that point in history). The rest of the book is taken up with giving an overview of every book in the New Testament, tedious reading if one has already read it several times, as Metzger rarely adds anything new. He has a short chapter at the end about the canon, which is a brief synopsis of his book on the subject (The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance), and includes an appendix about transmission and translation, both synopses of two books he has written on those subjects (The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration, and The Bible in Translation: Ancient and English Versions). It is better to read those books than merely rely on the small attention given in this book. The main impression one gains from an impartial reading is that Metzger is definitely not impartial in the writing of this book. He is not so in any of his books, but in this book in particular, it is obvious he takes an apologetic slant in several instances. One thing that struck me as just a little intellectual dishonesty was on page 105: he talks about the many statements and insights given by Paul as one of the most influential forces by Christianity and states that NOT ONCE has any of those things made it into the Gospels as sayings of Jesus. Then on page 117, he talks about the "large number of allusions to sayings of Jesus, so many that some scholars have thought it likely that Paul may have had in his hands a collection of Jesus' sayings," and puts a note (14) with many examples where it appears Paul has quoted Jesus. It is very possible that Paul has quoted Jesus in all of those instances. He never mentions it is just as possible since Paul wrote all of those letters before any of the Gospels were written, the gospels may have been quoting Paul. There is just no way to know, but it is obvious which way the sequence of writing points. While he acknowledges (as appropriate for a scholar such as he) there are many problems -- discrepancy after contradiction after difficulty after inaccuracy, as well as plenty of adjustments by the church over the centuries, for good measure -- he nevertheless shows his faith in the truth of the New Testament. He has more faith than possible for many scholars in the position of knowing as much truth about the New Testament as he does. One may still respect Metzger for immense scholarship in his real specialty of textual criticism of the NT.

I purchased this book for my online religion class. Metzger's book is very informative for all of my class needs.

This is one of the few college textbooks I did not have to use my highlighter to read. Metzger is extremely easy to understand; he structures his book chronologically, covering, albeit briefly given the spatial limitations of a short introductory text, most every topic the reader must understand to gain a basic knowledge of the context of the NT's development. The reader first will gain a basic understanding of the cultural context from which the New Testament arose, then will learn about the life of and sources for understanding of Jesus Christ, then finally will see the same for the apostolic age. His prose is lucid and lacks the pedantry of much New Testament scholarship, which will assist the reader in understanding such scholarship. In assessing Metzger's positions, the reader must keep in mind that, as he plainly states in his preface, Metzger writes as a Christian. As such, he does not dispute traditional authorship for the majority of the New Testament (with the notable exception of 2 Peter), and argues that the evidence for Christ's resurrection is "overwhelming." Readers looking for the consensus of scholars on issues so contentious to conservatives will not find this book to their liking. That said, Metzger generally does well, given how little space he has, of presenting most sides of various debates and leaving it up to the reader to do further research necessary for finding his own opinion. Since this must be the objective of an introductory text, the text succeeds.

Purchased as a text book for a College religion class. A text book I actually enjoy reading.