Excellent introduction to New Testament studies

Very little needs to be said about this book. It's an excellent introduction to the manuscript history of the New Testament. The work is well-written, relatively easy to read, and could be used by introductory college classes in the subject. Indeed, it was probably written for that specific purpose. As a side note, Bruce Metzger is a Christian, while Bart Ehrman is an atheist. Metzger even makes an appearance in Lee Strobel's infamous "The Case for Christ", while Ehrman is the author of the bestselling atheist book "Misquoting Jesus". A piquant combination!

The first chapter of "The Text of the New Testament" deals with the making of ancient books in general, to give the students a feeling for the purely technical problems involved when the New Testament was written down, "published" and re-copied. The next chapter presents the most important ancient NT manuscripts. The oldest fragment of any NT text is known as P52, contains a few verses from the Gospel of John, and has been dated to the first half of the second century. Naturally, the famous Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Alexandrinus and Codex Vaticanus are all discussed. Apart from the Greek manuscripts, Metzger and Ehrman also mention translations into Syriac, Latin, Gothic and other ancient languages. There are even fragments of a Nubian translation.

The next two chapters give an overview of the history of textual criticism. For centuries, the dominant version of the New Testament was the Textus Receptus , based on medieval Byzantine manuscripts. Today, this manuscript tradition is considered inferior and is no longer used in Bible translations. Only a few fundamentalists still cling to it, usually in the King James Version. The last five chapters of the book are more technical. They deal with the methods used by modern textual critics. Of particular interest are the causes of errors in ancient NT manuscripts, including intentional changes. The notion that doctrinal changes caused Christian scribes to change the New Testament is a particularly contentious one.

I warmly recommend this work for serious students.