The twentieth century's leading textual critic
Metzger taught at Princeton Theological Seminary for forty-six years and was the foremost authority on the text of the Greek New Testament. He chaired the committee behind the United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament — the critical text underlying nearly every modern translation — and chaired the NRSV translation committee.
He knew the manuscript evidence better than almost anyone who has ever lived, including all of the variants sceptics cite. His verdict is therefore worth more than most: the variants are overwhelmingly trivial, none affects a single article of Christian belief, and the New Testament is by an enormous margin the best-attested text of the ancient world.
Bart Ehrman, the best-known contemporary sceptic of the New Testament text, was Metzger's doctoral student — and continues to say his teacher was right about the facts, while drawing different conclusions from them.
How the canon was actually formed, what was excluded and on what grounds, and why the "Constantine chose the books" story fails on the documentary evidence.
Nag Hammadi, Thomas, Judas, Mary and Philip: what these texts actually are, when they were written, what they teach, and why the early church read them and said no — long before Constantine.
Why each part of the Bible was written in its language, what is lost in translation, and the handful of words worth knowing to read Scripture better.
How the Bible travelled from Jerusalem to Alexandria to Rome to England, the theological battles fought over it, and the people who died to make it available.
The spectrum from word-for-word to thought-for-thought, an honest assessment of the major English versions, and how to choose for study, for reading and for giving away.
What manuscript variants actually are, why 400,000 of them is a good sign rather than a bad one, and how scholars decide what the original said.
What the deuterocanonical books are, why Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants differ, and how to discuss it without misrepresenting anyone.