Museum of the Bible, Part 3

This is the third of three posts in a miniseries about my visit to the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, which I visited back in July with my friend Jenny. During the first post, I talked about several high-tech interactives and a few historic Bibles. During the second post, I showed more of the same, along with impressive reproductions, in sections known as “Bible in America” and “The History of the Bible”. For this post, I will finish up “The History of the Bible”, describe a fascinating exhibit about translation, and talk about a few others must-see stops before giving my conclusion.

One of the funniest sections of the museum contained examples of Bible Errata, or errors in printed versions of the Bible. In one example known as the Sinner’s Bible or the Wicked Bible from 1631, the commandment “Thou shalt not commit adultery” omitted “not”. In the Killer’s Bible from 1795, the verse Mark 7:27 was supposed to read “Let the children first be filled.” but instead read “Let the children first be killed.” Many of these Bibles were destroyed by authorities, making surviving Bibles extremely rare. A less concerning error was some confusion around who said what in the book of Ruth, cause incorrect pronouns to occasionally be used in one translation.

Throughout “The History of the Bible”, signs indicated how many languages had Bible translations at the time. Thirteen languages had translations in AD 600, while 35 languages had translations by AD 1450. This number doubled to 70 languages by 1800 and increased to 397 by 2000. Besides a variety of languages, Bibles featured a variety of illustrations. The Bishop’s Bible was commissioned by Queen Elizabeth I and featured a woodcut of her portrait in the front, declaring her the Defender of the Faith, at least if one was Protestant. The first Bible in Spanish was published by a printer in Switzerland in 1569 and is sometimes called Bible of the Bear in English because of the cute picture of a bear eating honey on the title page. I thought of him as medieval Winnie-the-Pooh. A more recent illustrated bible, called The Saint John’s Bible Heritage Edition, was completed over twelve years between 1999 and 2010 by calligrapher Donald Jackson and his team. Jackson was associated with Benedictine monks at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. The book spanned seven volumes, and its illustrations contain references to landmarks on the university campus. One strange note on informational signage next to the Bible was about its donation. Philanthropic former bodybuilder Alan Quesnel donated the Bible in honor of Fred Trump, Jr., the deceased older brother of the current president.

The remaining exhibit on this floor was sponsored by illumiNations, a nonprofit organizations that connects Bible translation groups with the commitment of 95% of the global popular having access to the full Bible by 2033. This would be an astonishing feat, as Bible translators not only train and work with local believers to make the Bible available in the local language, but also assist in creating writing systems for languages that were only spoken. While non-Christians may not support translating the Bible before other books, as they fear this would lead to indoctrination rather than genuine acceptance of the faith, this is often the only way people with unwritten languages will receive funding and support to create their own writing system. The circular illumiNations room contained bookshelves representing the approximately 7,000 target languages. Whenever a Bible is translated into a target language, a binder is added to the shelf. This was among the best visualizations I have seen for understanding the diversity of language in our world.

With the fourth floor complete, we moved up to the final exhibit on the floor. On our way, we paused to look at a replica of the Pietà by Michelangelo, which he carved for St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City in 1499. This is a famous scene from Catholic tradition that has been replicated in many art forms, along with parodied in modern media. The statue depicts Mary holding the body of Jesus who has just been taken down from the cross. At last, we came to the final exhibit, “The People of the Land”, which contained artifacts from around Mesopotamia. I had seen similar artifacts in greater number at other museums, although I did appreciate the touchable stone at one end of the gallery. If one is short on time, one can skip this room. However, one should not skip the unique view of Washington. The top of the Capitol was visible on the right over the newer industrial buildings. Feeling tired after our full day of museum-ing, we decided to take the elevator down and were glad that we did. The elevator was filed with brightly colored screens portraying sites from the Bible, including Mount Sinai in Egypt. One must take the elevator at least once; it was the nicest museum elevator I have visited.

The Museum of the Bible is open nearly every day of the year except for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. From Monday through Saturday, it is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and on Sunday, it is open from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Admission is higher than most museums at $34.99 for adults, $29.99 for seniors, military, first responders, and students, $24.99 for youth ages 5 through 17, and $0 for children ages 0 to 4 and members. Premium attractions are additional fees. The museum likely uses the model that people will choose between a theme park and a museum, and the museum is still much less expensive. The gift shop is reasonably priced and contained any item I would care to purchase; I got a pin and a postcard for my collections. The museum clearly prides itself on accessibility and hospitality, as I saw people of all abilities enjoying the exhibits, while museum staff were exceedingly helpful and friendly. I was especially impressed by the number of people around my age and younger working at the museum. A quick check of the career listings shows that salaries are competitive with corporate rates. On top of this, the website is easy to navigate and mostly legible. Overall, this museum is how modern museums need to run. Similar to the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, PA, the high quality exhibit design blended with unique artifacts and appropriate use of technology created a premium experience that justified the premium price.

Abby Epplett’s Rating System

Experience: 8/10

Accessibility: 9/10