Museum of the Bible

Hobby Lobby president introduces family’s Green Collection to Northwest Arkansas

NWA Democrat-Gazette/Michael Woods @NWAMICHAELW Steve Green, founder of Hobby Lobby stores, shares the vision of the Museum of the Bible during a talk Wednesday at Central United Methodist Church in Fayetteville. The Washington, D.C., museum to open in 2017 will showcase the 400,000-piece Green Collection, the world’s largest private collection of rare biblical texts and artifacts.
NWA Democrat-Gazette/Michael Woods @NWAMICHAELW Steve Green, founder of Hobby Lobby stores, shares the vision of the Museum of the Bible during a talk Wednesday at Central United Methodist Church in Fayetteville. The Washington, D.C., museum to open in 2017 will showcase the 400,000-piece Green Collection, the world’s largest private collection of rare biblical texts and artifacts.

The line stretched back to the entry doors of the Student Ministries Building at Central United Methodist Church in Fayetteville. Nearly 1,000 church members and city residents waited in the queue to see tablets of cuneiform, the earliest-discovered form of writing.

"I was surprised at how much writing was on those little pieces of clay," said Campbell Rogerson of Fayetteville. "And that was several pages worth." The tablets were smaller than the size of a credit card and held entire contracts related to selling items such as grain.

As the rain and the snow

come down from heaven,

and do not return to it

without watering the earth

and making it bud and flourish,

so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

So is my word that goes out from my mouth:

It will not return to me empty,

but will accomplish what I desire

and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

— Isiah 55: 10-11

“That’s God saying, ‘You take it, and watch what I’m going to do with it.’”

— Cary Summers, president

Museum of the Bible

What they are saying

The artifacts are amazing. The museum will be amazing. But their vision for inviting all people to engage with the Bible is truly inspiring.

— Pam Hayes

It’s not just the artifacts, but the impactfulness that’s at the center. It’s not just for the faith of Christianity. (The Bible) is a book everybody uses.

— Michelle Crippen

This is an enormous endeavor to display the history of the Bible for the world to see. It takes a staggering sum of money, countless hours of work, and many volunteers to show the world the power and influence the Bible has had for hundreds of years. The privilege we had in showcasing this effort to build the Museum of the Bible and to showcase some of their priceless artifacts was an honor for our congregation.

This was a highlight in my ministry here and for many on our church staff. To be a small part of something that can potentially impact the entire world cannot be overstated. Our congregation can be proud that we are the first church to host this kind of event for Museum of the Bible. My favorite moment was the entire presentation about what the Museum of the Bible will look like and the overwhelming volume of artifacts it will house.

— The Rev. John Robbins, senior pastor

Web Watch

Museum of the Bible

museumofthebible.org

An eighth-grader, Rogerson said he studied Mesopotamia and Babylon and their early writing last year in school. "It was cool to see the cuneiform."

He also considered the text of an early "pocket" Bible in the display. "That signature was written so tiny."

The cuneiform tablets along with a leaf from a Gutenberg Bible, a Torah scroll and materials from John Wesley (the founder of the Methodist faith) all belong to the Green Collection, the world's largest private collection of rare biblical texts and artifacts, with 40,000 pieces cataloged. The Museum of the Bible, slated for opening in 2017 in Washington, D.C., is currently under construction to store and share these artifacts.

Steve Green of Oklahoma City, founder and chairman of the board of the museum and president of Hobby Lobby craft stores, introduced the museum to about 300 people at a presentation Wednesday night.

"We want to invite people of all ages to engage in a book that's so important to people," Green said. "We want them to know all about it, and then let them decide what to do. We want them to understand it and make their choices with that knowledge."

Pervasive Passages

The Museum of the Bible will tell three stories of the Bible on three separate floors: the history of the Bible, the narrative of the Bible and the Bible's impact on the world, said Cary Summers, president of the museum.

The story of the Bible is told so that even someone who knows nothing about the Bible can begin a relationship, Green said. He quoted a survey saying 90 percent of the homes in America include a Bible, but it's not being read.

"The Bible touches every area of life," Green continued. "The Founding Fathers built our government on biblical principles."

"The Bible is the cornerstone of Western civilization," introduced a video shown during the event. Universities, hospitals, social services were all started because of the Bible, the film asserts. Martin Luther King Jr. used words from the Bible in his speeches, and Abraham Lincoln quoted the Bible in his Gettysburg Address. "This shows the transforming power of the Bible."

The Bible is the best-selling book of all time, Summers noted. The Guinesss Book of World Records agrees: "Although it is impossible to obtain exact figures, there is little doubt that the Bible is the world's ... most widely distributed book. A survey by the Bible Society concluded that around 2.5 billion copies were printed between 1815 and 1975, but more recent estimates put the number at more than 5 billion."

Green shared a survey published by Life Magazine at the millennium of the 100 most influential events of the last 1,000 years. Above Columbus' journey to America, development of the germ theory and the technology of gun-powder weapons, Johann Gutenberg's printing of the Bible in 1455 ranked No. 1. "And it was not just his printing, but printing of the Bible," Green said excitedly.

He noted a news broadcast in which the reporter labeled a subject as a "Good Samaritan." "She didn't even have to explain it," Green said. "So many phrases from our language come from the Bible.

"The King James Version of the Bible from 1611, the most-printed version of the Bible, is a major source book for literary culture," Green continued. "Even if it's just for the literary background, you should read the book."

Looking Back

"We're not just collectors," Green said of his family. "We just have a love for the Bible."

The artifacts of the Green Collection were purchased -- the first in 2009 -- with a museum in mind. "By 2010, the collection was growing in our closet. But we wanted to tell the Bible story, the most incredible story there is to be told. We were itching to tell it."

The museum started with various traveling exhibits including about 400 pieces. "What you saw in one exhibit, you'd have to travel the world to see," Green related. "You'd have to have the keys to the Vatican, and no one has the keys to the Vatican."

Exhibits were hosted in California, Colorado, Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C., Springfield, Mo., and Oklahoma City. An exhibit at the Vatican led Pope Benedict to encourage sending an exhibition in to Cuba. "This was at a time when the Pope was encouraging the Catholics to read the Bible," Green said.

Green, with his Pentecostal background and beliefs, admitted doctrinal and political differences with the Catholic Church -- in fact, he admitted differences with his own church. "But we had no problem standing back as the Pope said, 'Let's read our Bible. Let's learn about the book.'"

The history floor of the Museum of the Bible will display the Green Collection artifacts -- from the earliest Abrahamic writings to some familiar today. The modern pieces include an imprint of almost every first edition Bible, Babe Ruth's Bible, Elvis Presley's Bible and a Bible that has been on the surface of the moon, Summers listed.

Green's favorite artifact is the Aitken Bible -- one of just 30 copies remaining, he noted. During the colonial period, the British crown permitted only Bibles printed in England to be sold in the colonies. But when the Revolutionary War started, the blockade of goods included the Bible, Green shared.

At the petition and permission of Congress, Robert Aitken printed the first English-language Bible in America.

Another in the Green Collection is an Eliot Bible, the first Bible printed in the American Colonies. The 1663 edition was translated into the Algonquian language for missionary efforts among the Indians, Green shared.

"Many items in the collection need further research," Green said. "And some have never been researched."

The Green Foundation funds teams of scientists and students working together to research the artifacts and publish their findings.

One example is the Codex Climaci Rescriptus, which contains the largest-known pieces of Scripture written in Palestinian Aramaic -- the dialect that would have been closest to Jesus' household language. Yet newer Greek texts were written over the original document, Green explained.

"That was common," Green said. "Velum was not always regularly available. (The Codex) was studied in the 1940s, but new scanning techniques are able to pull out more text by using different stops on the light spectrum. The underlying text pops out."

Green noted the foundation bought the Codex from Cambridge University in England, and the piece will return there for further study.

The foundation currently operates laboratories in Oklahoma City and Washington and will open another this summer in Oxford, England. Kiosks in the museum will feature mobile labs that explains the science behind the research.

In addition, the foundation will fund archaeological excavations at Tel Shimron, a biblical city located at the intersection of ancient roads in Israel's Jezeral Valley. Tel Shimron is noted in the Bible as one of the cities attacked by Joshua, and the biblical description of the conquest of this Canaan town has been mixed with controversy for years, Summers said.

Coming Attraction

Summers, who nodded to his background in theme parks, gave the visitors a fast tour through the vast museum.

The modern, thoroughly interactive museum is currently under construction just three blocks from the National Mall and two blocks from the Smithsonian's popular Air and Space Museum, he began. The 43,000-square-foot museum -- one of the largest in Washington -- rises eight stories (two underground) to the maximum 130-feet building height allowed in the city. Two expansive bronze panels with block-print-style lettering flank the front doors and detail excerpts from two ancient biblical manuscripts -- one from the Dead Sea Scrolls and the other from the 15-century Gutenburg Bible. "You will literally be walking into the Word of God," Summers said.

Estimates show a museum visitor will need nine eight-hour days to see everything the museum has to offer, Summers continued. But an interactive application is available, computing the visitor's interests and time allotment, he shared. Through GPS, the app will lead the visitor to the exhibits that best match his requests. The app will supply more information via email, if requested, and greet the visitor on his return (even years later), guiding him back to where he left off or introducing new exhibits. The app also will send weekly announcements of new studies or lectures.

The Museum of the Bible will house the first auxiliary library of the Vatican's permanent facility in Rome, Summers shared an announcement made Monday. A satellite of the Vatican museum also will be housed in the Washington attraction -- an announcement expected this week, he said.

"It's the first time in history there's ever been a satellite of the Vatican," Summers said. "We've got some of the keys to the Vatican."

The "Disneyesque" Nazarene village on the narrative floor will show why Jesus taught what he did and the way he did through settings of a mikvah, synagogue, olive mill, carpenter shop and more, Summers continued. A simulation ride will fly visitors through the city to see engravings of the Bible on Washington buildings. "We hope you leave and go find them for yourself," he said.

The Bible in America section will tell "stories of the Bible that you don't know," Summers said. "They're not pretty. They are stories of how the Bible survived." The museum also displays a collection of 600 Torah scrolls -- the world's largest. "It shows how God's word survived even the worst evil in the world," Summers concluded.

"The Bible is the most-debated, most-banned, most-loved, most-hated, best-selling book of all time," reads the Museum of the Bible website.

Covering several Washington city blocks, the museum will fill out with a 500-seat theater, a ball room and two restaurants highlighted by panoramic views of the U.S. Capitol. Even the staircases, elevators and roof of the city's Metro stop at the museum will feature ever-changing scenes for visitors.

"Every experience on the walls behind the front door will be a different experience every time you enter -- even if you entered only an hour ago," Summers noted.

"You might not know the stories, but they're important," Summers said of those given voice at the Museum of the Bible. "(The Bible) has had an impact on fashion, government, innovation, science, pop art, film and so much more."

"If we build it and spend all this money to build it, and 3 to 4 million people go through it, and that's it, we've failed," Summers concluded. "We want them to go out and impact the world."

"It's more than just a museum," Summers said. "It's a place to hang out and understand the Bible. God has blessed us."

NAN Religion on 05/02/2015

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