Sorry. I Just Cannot Bring Myself to Pull the Trigger

As much as I have wanted to obtain Metzger's The Text of the New Testament in Logos, I just cannot/will not. The absolute temerity of Ehrman and Oxford University Press to "integrate recent research findings and approaches into the body of the text (as opposed to previous revisions, which compiled new material and notes into appendices)" is appalling, imo. Why would anyone ever write a book knowing that one of your students (good or bad) could step in after your death and update "thoroughly revise" it by melding his or her comments and thoughts into the text by simply declaring a postmortem co-authorship, is beyond me. If this is the direction of book publishing in the future, count me out - my library remains frozen as it stands.

FL and OUP, provide an earlier edition with Ehrman's thoughts contained separately in footnotes or appendices and I will buy it - but not this publishing Frankenstein.

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

Kiyah

I'm actually glad Logos is finally producing this, well past due. Thanks for the heads-up. I already have it in print and I'm looking forward to adding it to my print library in Logos.

EastTN

I suspect the approach was driven by marketing considerations. Ehrman and Oxford University Press likely felt it was time for a new textbook on the topic but believed that maintaining the Metzger "brand" would result in more sales than issuing a completely new Ehrman text with a new title.

Personally, I think the later approach would have been more honorable, but that's just me.

DMB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1239346#Comment_1239346

I suspect the approach was driven by marketing considerations. Ehrman and Oxford University Press likely felt it was time for a new textbook on the topic but believed that maintaining the Metzger "brand" would result in more sales than issuing a completely new Ehrman text with a new title.

Personally, I think the later approach would have been more honorable, but that's just me.

Well, let's see. It's being offered as a new resource; no one has to actually buy it. The old one is old, and Metzger can't be resurrected yet, to update it. Imagining OUP feelings seems curious. And I suspect (feelings imagining) this is just 'Ehrman' ... there's quite a few authors in ones library that think like he does ... are they dishonerable? Indeed Metzger didn't support complete inerrancy ... hmmm.

But good post anyway .. I signed up. The older volume was getting old.

(‾◡◝)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1239349#Comment_1239349

The problem is not with Ehrman. The problem is a bad, very bad, publishing decision.

Simply put, provide a copy of Metzger's text with Ehrman's comments/updates in separate footnotes or appendices and I will buy it. Declaring Ehrman to be a "co-author" after Metzger is dead and gone by blending his work into Metzger's is an unforgivable publishing sin. It is a form of bowdlerization (just ask Banner of Truth how well that works out as a publishing policy - cf. Pink's Sovereignty of God).

I now declare myself to be a student and co-author of Calvin/Augustine/Aquinas/Luther/Beza/Pope/Shakespeare/whoever and I will "thoroughly revise" their work by blending my thoughts into their original work in order to update or correct. How many generations of "co-authors" will it take until the original author's work is totally unrecognizable and is, in fact, exactly the opposite of what he intended?

Kiyah

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1239363#Comment_1239363

Bruce Metzger died in 2007, this book was published in 2005. Perhaps they got his permission/blessing before he died.

In fact, I'm looking at the preface of the 4th edition in print. It's signed Bruce M. Metzger and Bart D. Ehrman and dated November 2004.

EastTN

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1239367#Comment_1239367

Bruce Metzger died in 2007, this book was published in 2005. Perhaps they got his permission/blessing before he died.

If they did, then that's a different matter. Either way, I suspect the (likely correct) marketing calculation was that an update of this book would outsell a completely new work by Ehrman alone.

Kiyah

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1239372#Comment_1239372

Bruce Metzger died in 2007, this book was published in 2005. Perhaps they got his permission/blessing before he died.

If they did, then that's a different matter. Either way, I suspect the (likely correct) marketing calculation was that an update of this book would outsell a completely new work by Ehrman alone.

Ehrman books actually sell pretty well. lol

Or maybe Metzger and the publisher felt it was time to revise the book but Metzger was too old to do it and enlisted Ehrman. Or maybe Ehrman wanted an updated edition for his students and went to Metzger with the idea. Although revisions after so many years are usually driven the by publisher. There doesn't have to be some sinister plot here. All three parties could have agreed that it was time to update the volume and Ehrman did the heavy lifting because of Metzger's age.

Let's hear from Metzger and Ehrman themselves and maybe we can stop "suspecting":

[quote]

Preface

During the 40 years that have elapsed since the initial publication of this book in 1964, not only have many additional Greek and versional manuscripts of the New Testament come to light but also a quite considerable amount of text-critical research has been published in Europe and North America. Furthermore, fresh interest in the subject matter as well as the methodology has opened up, such as the contribution of computer technology in the collection and evaluation of manuscript evidence and the bearing of social and ideological influences upon the work of scribes.

Room for the addition of important bibliographical items, along with expanded information on the making and copying of books in antiquity and on the history of the transmission of the text of the New Testament, has been gained by the elimination of materials that seemed to be of peripheral interest to present-day readers. English translation of passages of the Greek text, given previously in the Revised Standard Version of 1952, have been adjusted to the wording of the New Revised Standard Version of 1990. The individual illustrations, formerly gathered together in one section, now are distributed to appropriate pages throughout the volume.

Among the people who have assisted us in our work, special thanks are due to Carl Cosaert, for helping to prepare the manuscript for publication.

Bruce M. Metzger

Princeton, New Jersey

Bart D. Ehrman

Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Novermber 2004

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1239363#Comment_1239363

The problem is not with Ehrman. The problem is a bad, very bad, publishing decision.

I fail to follow your logic insofar as Metzger approved the project and the project follows very common publishing conventions, especially for works that have established themselves as standard textbooks. I have not seen and would not purchase a resource that relegated current knowledge to the footnotes.

(‾◡◝)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1239416#Comment_1239416

Mea culpa. I retract and apologize for my criticism. Sloppy on my part. I hadn't realized that the volume had been published in 2005 - two years before Metzger's death in 2007.

mab

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1239421#Comment_1239421

I had picked up an earlier edition secondhand in print just a few months back. It was relatively inexpensive and I figured since it was pre-Ehrman, it was a safe bet. When you can't read the innards, it's always a gamble.

This is a standard work and I will likely pony up. It's so much faster to work in Logos.

Kiyah

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1239425#Comment_1239425

A lot of people don't realize Ehrman's work targeted toward a scholarly audience is not bad. He can't get away with all the shenanigans when writing to other scholars. It's his popular work that tends to be the problem.

This is a great reference work. I'd love to have it in Logos (I wish they had produced this sooner, I would have never bought it in print). I don't know if I want to buy it twice, I had to buy it used in print and it still wasn't exactly cheap for a paperback book. But anybody who has the money I suggest they pick this up and not be scared off by the fact that Ehrman's name is on it. It's legitimate textual scholarship.

DAL

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1239448#Comment_1239448

I’ll preorder! I wish Logos had this one:

Metzger, Bruce M. 1965. The New Testament: Its Background, Growth, Content. New York: Abingdon Press.

DMB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1239491#Comment_1239491

I’ll preorder! I wish Logos had this one:

Metzger, Bruce M. 1965. The New Testament: Its Background, Growth, Content. New York: Abingdon Press.

That's a good one. Also:

The Early Versions of the New Testament: Their Origin, Transmission, and Limitations

I wonder why, thru the years, the good Metzger volumes are hard to get in Logos? But they're indeed adding a few. 80 years old book too!

DAL

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1239494#Comment_1239494

I wonder why, thru the years, the good Metzger volumes are hard to get in Logos? But they're indeed adding a few. 80 years old book too!

The publishers are probably not into digital formats. I tried to at least get the one I want in kindle and to my surprise, it was not available.

DAL