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Born at Middletown, Pa., on Feb. 9, 1914, he was the son of Maurice and Anna Metzger.
Dr. Metzger received his bachelor’s degree at Lebanon Valley College in 1935, his bachelor of theology degree from Princeton Seminary in 1938, and his Ph.D. degree in the classics from Princeton University in 1942.
He began to teach at the Seminary in 1938-39, and continued in the New Testament department for 46 years. He was ordained to the ministry of the Presbyterian Church USA in 1939.
During his teaching career he developed 25 courses bearing on the English and Greek text of books of the New Testament.
Among his graduate courses on the text and canon of the New Testament he offered instruction on the grammar and patristic literature in Syriac and Coptic.
Besides presenting Bible studies at a wide variety of churches, Dr. Metzger also was invited to give academic lectures at more than one hundred universities, colleges and seminaries on five continents. Over the years he worked with committees in the production of three new editions of the Scriptures.These were the United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament (1966), the Reader’s Digest Condensed Bible (1982), and as chairman of the translation committee, the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible (1990).
Of his many publications, the most widely used are Lexical Aids for Students of New Testament Greek and the Oxford Annotated Bible.
In 1994 the British Academy awarded Dr. Metzger the F.C. Burkitt Medal for his contributions to biblical studies.
Dr. Metzger was given a number of honorary degrees from universities at home and abroad.Among the latter were the D.D. from St. Andrews, Scotland, the D. Theol. from Muenster, Germany, and the D. Litt. from Potchefstroom, South Africa.
In 1986 he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in the class devoted to the Humanities. He was also a corresponding fellow of the British Academy.
He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Isobel Mackay Metzger, their two sons, John Mackay Metzger, an attorney, and James Bruce Metzger, a physician, and a sister, Edith Metzger Booser, of Middletown, Pa.
Memorial Services will be held 2 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2007 at Nassau Presbyterian Church, 61 Nassau St. in Princeton.
Arrangements are under the direction of The Mather-Hodge Funeral Home Princeton.
