‘I had to be there’: Bible museum opens in Washington D.C.
Exhibits meant to educate not evangelize but billionaire’s critics are skeptical
The world’s most famous book — the one at the centre of three religions and two millennia of conflict — got its own museum last week in the heart of Washington.
The $500 million Museum of the Bible, largely funded by the evangelical billionaires who own the Hobby Lobby craft chain, opened its doors to the public, just blocks from the U.S. Capitol in a city where the separation of church and state remains hotly debated.
Its symbolism — heralded by religious leaders — wasn’t lost on the visitors who walked through the eight-storey, 430,000-square-foot space filled with high-tech exhibits and thousands of religious artifacts. The crowd was not nearly as large as the building could hold, but those who explored the museum expressed tremendous enthusiasm for what they found inside.
Marion Woods, who lives in Greenville, South Carolina, was among the first inside. “Something inside of me just kept telling me I had to be there,” she said. “I feel like this museum is honouring God’s word, and I wanted to be a part of honouring God’s word.”
Inside, some exhibits were bustling with visitors, particularly the walk-through recreation of a village from the time of Jesus. At the Milk & Honey cafe, just a few tables were open at noon as diners bowed their heads in prayer before biting into their chocolate croissants. On the lower floors, a gallery on “Amazing Grace” and another on the Stations of the Cross were could be found. A film about the Bible played to a huge theatre.
As they exited, a few early visitors called the atmosphere inside “peaceful” and “serene,” a marked contrast to the hordes packing many Smithsonian museums on busy weekends.
Artifacts in the museum span history, from ancient writings to Elvis’ personal Bible. Glitzy attractions include a motion ride, a lifesize burning bush and Noah’s ark, and a rooftop garden with Bible-inspired plants.
Nine-year-old Ellie Moiola stood watching New Testament reenactors explain how they use twine as a measurement tool.
“For the kids to be able to walk into the world of Jesus of Nazareth — that’s a really neat experience they can’t get anywhere else,” said her mother Ayron Moiola, of Brawley, Calif.
Eight years ago, Hobby Lobby president Steve Green found a new way to express his Christian faith. His family’s $4 billion arts and craft chain was already known for closing stores on Sundays, waging a Supreme Court fight over birth control and donating tens of millions of dollars to religious groups.
Green also began collecting biblical artifacts that he hoped could become the starting point for a museum. That vision was realized when the 430,000-squarefoot Museum of the Bible opened.
The $500 million U.S. museum includes pieces from the family’s collection from the Dead Sea Scrolls, towering bronze gates inscribed with text from the Gutenberg Bible and a soundscape of the 10 plagues, enhanced by smog and a glowing red light to symbolize the Nile turned to blood.
It is an ambitious attempt to appeal simultaneously to people of deep faith and no faith, and to stand out amid the impressive constellation of museums in Washington. The Bible exhibits are so extensive, administrators say it would take days to see everything.
Green says the institution he largely funded is meant to educate, not evangelize, though critics are dubious. Museum administrators have taken pains to hire a broad group of scholars as advisers. Law- rence Schiffman, a New York University Jewish studies professor and Dead Sea Scrolls expert, called the museum a “monument” to interfaith co-operation. Exhibits are planned from the Vatican Museum and the Israel Antiquities Authority.
“There’s just a basic need for people to read the book,” said Green, sitting in a hotel-style suite inside the museum where visiting dignitaries can stay. “This book has had an impact on our world and we just think people ought to know it and hopefully they’ll be inspired to engage with it after they come here.”
John Fea, a historian at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, points to the family’s goal of helping people “engage with” the Bible as a telling indication about what the Greens hope to achieve. He said the “Bible engagement” concept was popularized by the American Bible Society in the 1990s amid concern that people who owned copies of the Scriptures weren’t reading them.
Fea said advocates for this strategy ultimately hope the Bible will inspire a desire to learn more and accept Christ. “There’s a public face to this Bible engagement rhetoric and then there’s a private aspect of what it really means,” Fea said. “It debunks the whole notion that this is just a history museum.”
Green’s response to such arguments: Visit and decide for yourself.