This is an excellent book for those yearning to know more about the background of the New Testament. Bruce Metzger is an excellent teacher, knowledgeable and amply able to express exactly as he intends to do. I highly recommend this book to the student of the New Testament. ( )

My son’s gone back to college. He left this book lying around on his bedroom floor, so I decided to read it. After all, I’m leading a Bible study on the book of Mark on Tuesday mornings. Knowing more about the New Testament, Its Background, Growth and Content, can only help.

Since the book was clearly a college text book I wasn’t sure how far I’d get. After all, college texts can be really slow to read. But I actually finished the book in two days and could scarcely put it down.

Since I grew up with a “Catholic” Bible, I was fascinated to learn more about the history of intertestament times and the Maccabean revolt. The insights into all the different groups of people in Judea at the time of Christ help bring a lot of the Gospel stories and Christ’s teachings to life. And the information on local customs, in action and in speech, are truly amazing.

Interesting examples included the use of Judean overstatement (as opposed to British understatement I suppose), and picturesque speech (logs and specks in peoples’ eyes). Rhythm and puns that we miss in translation were quite fascinating too. And the insights into how texts were collected, combined, used and preserved make the whole question of where our New Testament comes from much more interesting and well-grounded, besides providing a logical background to modern arguments about “hidden” and “lost” books.

I liked the fact that the author didn’t shy away from difficulties. He doesn’t assume that every word in some favorite translation is perfectly preserved, but instead looks at how the translations were made, how changes crept in, and how well-researched the analysis of those changes is. I’ve always known that the historical evidence for the Bible rivals and probably beats that for the Roman documents I studied in Latin in school, but it was nice to see the arguments so clearly laid out.

I really enjoyed this book. I don’t know that I’m ready to take an exam on it, and I probably don’t want to go back to college to find out. But I’m glad my son left it lying around. ( )

The first book I ever read that went through the N.T. in a scholarly fashion.

This text is a classic by one of America's most widely respected New Testament scholars. It provides a clear and comprehensive introduction to the New Testament. In a straightforward and understandable style--without distortion or oversimplification--Prof. Metzger closely examines the historical background and content of the New Testament and details the role of scribes and translators in handing the Scriptures down through the centuries. Utilizing the finest modern scholarship, Dr. Metzger looks at the people, societies, and events that produced the New Testament. Palestinian Judaism, Greco-Roman paganism, sources of our knowledge of Jesus Christ, essential aspects of Christ's teaching, sources and chronology of the apostolic age, the work of Paul, the general letters, and the Book of Revelation are all clearly illuminated. The Second edition of this book added an appendix on the formation of the canon of the New Testament and the work of scribes. The third edition will represent a substantial update of the 1965 text based on the New Revised Standard Version. In addition to stylistic changes, the author updates the text regarding research on the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi tractates. This edition adds a glossary, 30 graphics and photos, and is resized to a larger 6x9 page.