Most commentaries on the Bible seek to explain the meaning of words, phrases, and ideas of the scriptural text in their nearer and wider context; a textual commentary, however, is concerned with the prior question: What is the original text of the passage? That such a question must be asked - and answered! - before one explains the meaning of the text arises from two circumstances: (a) none of the original documents of the Bible is extant today, and (b) the existing copies differ from one another.
This work is a companion volume to the fourth edition of the United Bible Societies′ Greek New Testament (UBS4), published by the German Bible Society on behalf of the United Bible Societies early in 1993. It also makes a great companion to the German Bible Society Bundle, which contains the critical apparatus of the NA27 Novum Testamentum Graece, and to Comfort & Barrett′s Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts.
Benjamin Chapman, author of Greek New Testament Insert, says this of Metzger′s Textual Commentary:
"One does not have to be a textual critic to benefit from the results of textual criticism. A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, edited by Bruce M. Metzger, provides concise comments and explanations for the choices among variants made by the editorial committee that produced the United Bible Societies′ The Greek New Testament. The Textual Commentary is in plain English and requires no technical skills of its readers. Every interpreter should at least open this book to his text and read the few paragraphs there concerning whatever variants may be involved."

Contents:

Introduction
The Gospel According to Matthew
The Gospel According to Mark
The Gospel According to Luke
The Gospel According to John
The Acts of the Apostles
The Letter of Paul to the Romans
The First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians
The Second Letter of Paul to the Corinthians
The Letter of Paul to the Galatians
The Letter of Paul to the Ephesians
The Letter of Paul to the Philippians
The Letter of Paul to the Colossians
The First Letter of Paul to the Thessalonians
The Second Letter of Paul to the Thessalonians
The First Letter of Paul to Timothy
The Second Letter of Paul to Timothy
The Letter of Paul to Titus
The Letter of Paul to Philemon
The Letter to the Hebrews
The Letter of James
The First Letter of Peter
The Second Letter of Peter
The First Letter of John
The Second Letter of John
The Third Letter of John
The Letter of Jude
The Revelation to John
Appendix