The museum of the Bible is the newest museum in Washington DC. It opened on November 17, 2017. and is located only 2 blocks west of the National Mall. We tried to visit a year ago in November 2018 but did not get a ticket ahead of time so couldn’t get in with the line of visitors around the block. This time, I learned my lesson and purchased a ticket online the day before. I don’t remember exactly how and on what website but I got a 20% discount on the ticket price.
This museum documents the history and impact of the Bible on the world. There are no tour guides but there is an audio guide that was very detailed and informative. I spent about 5 hours in the museum and was information-overloaded so I had to get out of there. I barely scratched the surface of all the exhibits in the museum. If I had listened to all the audio guides and read every info card about each exhibit, I could spend 5 hours on just one floor of the museum!
This museum combined the usual info cards and listings with modern technology so it was an incredible visit. There were stained glass windows about the 4 apostles in the New Testament. There were videos about Moses and the liberation of the Israelites with sights and sounds. There were videos throughout the museum describing the Creation, the Dead Seas Scrolls, and a lot of informative videos about the different bibles in the world. There was a replica of the Liberty Bell upon which is engraved a verse from the Old Testament “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof” (Leviticus 25:10 KJV or King James Version) .
I took a lot of pictures in the recreation of a Nazareth village in the first century at the time of Jesus Christ: a prepared meal, bread making, a synagogue, a well, a stable, an oil press. There was a map of Galilee with the names of the cities in the New Testament.
The fourth floor of the museum told the history of the Bible from its origins to its translation to Latin, Greek and English. If I remember correctly ( information-overloaded if incorrectly), the translator of the first English bible finished his work in jail! I didn’t know there are a lot of Bibles out there: the Hebrew bible, the Septuagint, the Christian Bible, and many others. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I was glad to see there is a Latter-Day Saint version of the King James Bible with annotations to the Book of Mormon and Doctrines and Covenants. There is a section on the printing of the Bible, the illustrated bibles, the mini-bibles, with a hands-on area for any visitor who wants to learn how the printing was done. I saw the replica of the Rosetta stone with lines of text in 3 different versions: one in Egyptian hieroglyphics, one in Greek letters, one in Demotic script (ancient Egyptian writing). Guess why the language learning software is called Rosetta Stone.
On the fifth floor there was a wall of one million names to recognize the donors to the museum. The names were engraved into leaves of a pomegranate tree, a fruit of the bible and an uplifting symbol across the faiths. The engraving was done combining the traditional Jewish art of microcalligraphy with customized software to turn names into artistic lines.
I thoroughly enjoyed the visit and wish to come back at future trips to DC. Pictures will be posted once my husband fixed my computer with all the photos.
