A Review of The Museum of the Bible
This article was originally published in Christian Renewal Magazine.
Do You Know The Story of the Bible?
Do you know the story of the Bible? I’m afraid most people don’t.
Not only its content, the broad plot, the redemptive thread running from Genesis to Revelation, but the story of its origin. The story of its sources, its peoples, its cultures. The story of its transmission and impact in the world.
The Museum of the Bible aims to tell that story, and on the whole, it does a remarkable job. It is, of course, a big story, spanning thousands of years and millions of artifacts. And the Museum of the Bible is a big museum, spanning 450,000 square feet over seven floors and sparing no expense, reportedly costing upwards of $500 million. It is a beautiful museum.
Of course, the vast majority of people don’t know the story of the Bible. Educated citizens today are told a very bigoted, dismissive version of the Bible’s story, and on the whole believe the Bible is a hodgepodge of myths with no grounding whatsoever in history.
And herein, I believe, lies the greatest value of the museum: It brings visitors face to face with the Bible as a cultural artifact. The museum reminds us of the historical character of the events the Bible recounts, and of the Bible’s tremendous role in shaping the world in which we live. The museum successfully avoids outright evangelism, but it does engage in what I would characterize as pre-apologetics, preparing the soil for an otherwise secular visitor to pick up the Bible and read it in a new light. As familiarity with the Bible in our culture continues to fade — both inside and outside the church — I think this will be of increasing value.
Of course, while I believe the Bible is inspired, this museum isn’t. There is a critical word to say about the Museum of the Bible, but I’ll reserve it to the end of this review so it doesn’t drown out all the good that can be said.
What’s Inside? An Overview
I repeat, this is a large museum. I failed to view all its exhibits over the course of two visits and five total hours. While the museum has a suggested donation of $15, entrance is free of charge, which is remarkable given this is a private museum with a large price tag. What follows is a quick overview from top to bottom.
The sixth floor has a glass-enclosed gallery with beautiful views of the Capitol, as well as the biblically themed fast-casual “Manna Restaurant” and a biblical garden. I didn’t sample the food, but heard it is excellent. The fifth floor contains a theater, currently hosting “Amazing Grace,” a Broadway musical telling the story of John Newton and the writing of the famous hymn. There are also a collection of smaller galleries. An archeology exhibit from the Israeli Antiquities Authority sets the context of ancient life in Canaan, while there is an art exhibit showing how themes of Ecclesiastes were demonstrated in early modern art. It appears as though these galleries may rotate exhibits over time.
Explanatory videos, computer reconstructions, and live action documentary films throughout the museum are of extremely high quality and production value. There is a bit of History Channel-esque “Edu-tainment” aspect to many of the videos, but no more than you will find in many mainstream museums today. On the whole, I was impressed that the museum avoided the cheesy or smarmy factor that sometimes imbues religiously themed productions. It seems to be aimed, successfully, at the mid-level visitor and at families, avoiding both elitism and populism in its presentation. Scholars will no doubt find nits to pick, as they always do (more on that later).
The fourth floor is dedicated to the History of the Bible. This is the heart of the museum, and attempts to trace the story of the text of the Bible from early oral traditions, manuscripts, the transmission of the text, and finally modern translations. It covers everything from the Dead Sea Scrolls to medieval manuscripts to renaissance and reformation flowering of translations and editions. There is a large section dedicated to Torah scrolls, describing their production and use in synagogues. This is a large and impressive collection of texts, richly displayed and described.
The third floor attempts to tell the stories of the Bible. I didn’t have time view the New Testament story, which is told via an animated short. The Hebrew Bible story is told via a narrated “experience” whereby walk from room to room, hear narration, see video and various other multimedia experiences. It is not a bad attempt to condense the Old Testament into a thirty minute narrative. The other element on this floor is “The World of Jesus of Nazareth,” a reproduction of a Galilean village. This type of thing is not exactly my cup of tea — it felt a bit more like Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbeanthan a museum exhibit. But it did give my daughter a very concrete feel for a biblical setting, not unlike other living history exhibits.
The second floor covers the impact of the Bible, both in America and in the world. It is of much more mixed value than the history of the Bible section, though there is a very interesting mock-up of a Gutenberg Press where demonstrations are regularly conducted. I worried that the “Bible in America” might tell a narrow story of a Christian America, but was pleased to find that it mostly avoided that. What you do get here is an impressive set of mostly historic texts that illustrate the role the Bible played in our nation’s European settlement, founding, and development. The great awakening, slavery, civil rights movement each receive some treatment. Obviously, this is not a comprehensive history, and historians will find room to quibble, but the thread of Scripture’s role through phases of America’s development is clearly presented.
A series of video presentations demonstrate the museum’s effort to strive for balance. Actors are presented on stage reading the founders presenting diverse views on Scripture on topics ranging from revolution to government to the Bible: Jefferson vs. Adams, Seabury vs. Franklin, Washington vs. Rush. These displays effectively teach that there were a diversity of views on religion in our founding, which was far from monolithic in its approach to Christianity.
One of the kitschier elements of the entire museum is the “Washington Revelations Flyboard Ride” ($8 fee). This is the type of thing I’d never do in a museum, but for the sake of this review my daughter insisted I give it a try (there were only a few other people who joined me, so I doubt this will be very popular). The ride transports you in magic carpet fashion around the Washington, D.C., identifying the prominent places where scripture and scriptural themes are on display, from the Supreme Court to the Capitol building to the Washington Monument.
There are a handful of smaller temporary galleries on the main lobby level, including a collection of mostly reproductions from the Vatican Museums and Vatican Library, as well as an exhibit from the Jewish Historical Museum. Along with the involvement of the Israeli Antiquities Authority, these efforts clearly represent the museum’s desire to appear to be ecumenical in its presentation. There’s also a Children’s Gallery, basically a play room for kids to blow off steam.
Finally, there is a basement level, with three smaller galleries. One of the galleries traces the story of John Newton and the writing of “Amazing Grace,” while another presents an art exhibit of sculptures of stations of the cross. Finally, an archeological exhibit “In the Valley of David & Goliath” can be accessed for an additional charge of $8. This is a fairly small traveling exhibit of artifacts from an architectural dig near the believed historic site of the biblical battle between David and Goliath. This significance of this dig is that it purports to demonstrate an early, literate, monarchic culture at approximately 1,000 BC, near the time of King David, which is much earlier than many scholars have argued for. Clearly, this exhibit purports to make a case for a historic setting as presented in Scripture.
Reaction and Critique
As the length of this very cursory review indicates, there is something for everybody at the Museum of the Bible. But does it work? Is it worth the time and effort, especially when there are so many other remarkable attractions to see during a short stay in Washington, D.C.?
On the whole, I believe the museum does work, and I could see the value of adding it to a week-long itinerary in DC. It is, in itself, a remarkable project, in scale, in quality, and in scope. Some parts of the museum feel more like filler than museum exhibits — bright, shiny objects designed to fill space and entertain, rather than educate. Some of the press at the opening suggested that criticism and stumbles in development of the museum led to a shift in focus during development, and the unevenness of the exhibits bears this out.
Finally, not to be taken lightly is the aforementioned matter of scholarly criticism, detailed in many articles at the museum’s launch and in a book length treatment, “Bible Nation: The United States of Hobby Lobby.” The Green Family, the Hobby Lobby billionaires behind the museum, have been criticized for their acquisition of items of questionable provenance. It further appears that they shipped materials from the Middle East to the United States without appropriately declaring the items, and have entered into a multi-million settlement with the U.S. Government. Additional criticisms include the enforcement of non-disclosure agreements with scholars, whereby you are prohibited from saying anything negative about the museum if you study their materials or artifacts. There are other issues of concern as well, including claims that artifacts that don’t support the argument of the museum are excluded and kept out of circulation and scholarly examination.
Bottom line, critics allege that the story of the Bible told at the museum is not comprehensive, but selective. It is not the consensus story of academic scholars, but the believing story of faithful adherents, people who are committed to an broadly orthodox and traditional portrayal of the Bible’s development. Because critical voices are excluded, the claim is that the Bible museum isn’t so much educational as it is propagandistic. It tells a particular story of the Bible, and not necessarily the whole story.
This is a serious charge, and it should be taken seriously. There is of course no such thing as an entirely neutral take on the Bible. The question Satan puts to Eve in Genesis, “Has God really said?” rings in the ear of every student of the Bible. But in my view, an orthodox view of Scripture should stand up to the most rigorous of scholarly cross-examination. A Christian view of history should be a historical view of history. I hope the Museum of the Bible pursues the highest standards of scholarly integrity in all of its efforts going forward, and recognizes that shortcuts which call that integrity into question will only undercut its apologetic value.
Here’s an analogy:
Across the mall from the Museum of the Bible is the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, in which there is an exhibit of human origins that most decidedly excludes a theistic understanding of Creation ex nihilo. It is a most engaging exhibit, and you can get your picture taken and find out what you would have looked like as a Neanderthal. The exhibit has an agenda, to make the case for a strictly naturalistic and materialistic development of human life on earth. Likewise, the Museum of the Bible has an agenda, to make the case for the Bible as an utterly unique holy book.
Caveat visitor!