The Text of the New Testament

I recently received the new, fourth edition of Bruce Metzger's The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration, revised with the help of Bart Ehrman.

Much of the text is the same, but there are several excellent expansions (and some minor deletions). According to the book's preface, "important bibliographical items" were added, information was expanded "on the making and copying of books in antiquity and on the history of the transmission of the text of the New Testament", and "translations 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." New information on modern methods and the use of computer technology in research is also provided. Illustrations are now near the text that refers to them rather than being collected together at the center of the book as in the previous version.

The cover is a beautiful and much appreciated improvement over the previous edition. The title is in papyrus/parchment tan on a burgundy background with a picture of a gorgeous, multicolored (stained-glass-like) frontispiece of the Gospel of John from the Latin Lindisfarne Gospels.

The new edition is, in my humble opinion, well worth purchasing, especially if you are interested and have never read the work but also if you have read the previous editions many times before.