[4] Metzger was born on February 9, 1914, in Middletown, Pennsylvania, and earned his BA (1935) at Lebanon Valley College.

In 1944, Metzger married Isobel Elizabeth Mackay, daughter of the third president of the Seminary, the Scot, John A.

In 1971, he was elected president of both the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas and the Society of Biblical Literature.

[10] At the age of seventy, after teaching at Princeton Theological Seminary for a period of forty-six years, he retired as Professor Emeritus.

"Metzger's unrivaled knowledge of the relevant languages, ancient and modern; his balanced judgment; and his painstaking attention to detail won him respect across the theological and academic spectrum.

He was survived by his wife Isobel, who would die at the age of 98 on July 27, 2016, in Princeton, New Jersey,[13] as well as their two sons, John Mackay Metzger (b.

[17] In discussing the canon, Metzger identifies three criteria “for acceptance of particular writings as sacred, authoritative, and worthy of being read in services of worship...”, criteria which were “generally adopted during the course of the second century, and were never modified thereafter”, namely, orthodoxy (conformity to the rule of faith), apostolicity, and consensus among the churches.

[18] He concludes that, “In the most basic sense neither individuals nor councils created the canon; instead they came to recognize and acknowledge the self-authenticating quality of these writings, which imposed themselves as canonical upon the church.”[19] He served on the advisory board for Peake's Commentary on the Bible (1962), and contributed an article on "The Early Versions of the New Testament."