Metzger the deceiver (Text. Crit.)

[yuku]

Greetings, all,

Here's now Part 2 of my article about Dr. Bruce Metzger, and about the sorts of misrepresentations that he engaged in in regard to the ancient Aramaic gospels.

Let's take a look at some other things that Metzger said that day, besides the ones that I've already commented upon. Actually, some of his other comments are no less objectionable than the ones that I've already cited...

Because, in his other comments, Metzger insulted George Lamsa and his translation of the Aramaic Peshitta as "frauds". While I certainly don't agree with Lamsa on everything, the Peshitta priority theory is no more a "fraud" than the Byzantine priority theory (after all, these two theories happen to have a lot in common). And the last time I looked, the Byzantine Greek prioritists like M. Robinson were treated quite respectfully by their Text Critical colleagues. So then why is the Peshitta priority theory supposed to be a fraud? This is not fair at all to Lamsa and his work. The comments by Metzger were mean and vindictive.

Also, Metzger misrepresented Lamsa's translation of the NT by claiming as follows,

[quote from Metzger]

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.bibletexts.com/qa/qa023.htm">http://www.bibletexts.com/qa/qa023.htm</a><!-- m -->

He [Lamsa] said that 'the whole of the New Testament was written in Aramaic,' and he 'translates it from the Aramaic,' but he never would show anybody the manuscripts that he translated from.

[end quote]

But this is yet another misrepresentation by Metzger, and a blatant one at that. In actual fact, according to page ii of the Lamsa Bible, Lamsa used the Mortimer-McCawley manuscript of the Aramaic Peshitta for his New Testament.

Thus, quite a sordid performance all-in-all from Dr. Bruce Metzger, one of the major stalwarts of mainstream Textual Criticism today.

Speaking about Jesus the Greek Cult... So these are the sorts of methods that these big mainstream authorities use in defence of their Greek First dogma.

Frankly, I didn't expect to see such behaviour on Metzger's part, and I was quite surprised to find these comments on the Net. I've read some of Metzger's books before (and even cited him in my own book), and I've always considered him as a respectable source, although undoubtedly biased towards Greek priority. My only explanation for his bizarre comments is that he made them in front of a semi-private audience, and didn't expect them to get out to the larger public. I guess he only has the Internet to blame for this... <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!-- s -->

I suppose that these are the sorts of things that the biblical scholars always say off record. But now his comments are on record, and they illustrate quite well the culture of deception that is so prevalent in the biblical studies today.

Shlama,

Yuri.