New DC museum invites visitors to 'engage' with the Bible

NPR
By Tom Gjelten

The Museum of the Bible is located near the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The entrance is flanked by large bronze doors re-creating the first page of the Book of Genesis. Jennifer Kerrigan/NPR

WASH, DC---The newest museum in Washington, D.C., is a $500 million institution dedicated to a single book. The privately funded Museum of the Bible, set to open Nov. 17, will focus on biblical history, biblical stories and the Bible's impact on the world. "We only have one mission statement," says Cary Summers, the museum president, "and that is to engage people with the Bible." Summers and other museum officials insist the institution has no sectarian or evangelical agenda, even though the museum is largely the brainchild of Steve Green, the CEO of Hobby Lobby — the family-owned craft store chain known for supporting conservative Christian causes. [More]

A. Zahner Co. in Kansas City has already completed portions of the 40-foot-tall bronze doors it is creating for the Museum of the Bible, which is scheduled to open this fall in Washington, D.C. (Bill Tammeus | Flatland)

The entrance to the Museum of the Bible features relief metal lettering of scriptures in Latin. (Washington Post photo by Michael S. Williamson)

Artist Larry Kirkland, the Gutenberg Gates create an entrance to Museum of the Bible that helps convey its mission to contribute to guests’ understanding of the Bible. Inspired by Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the moveable-type printing press, the gates display the first 80 lines of Genesis in Latin, as originally printed in the Gutenberg Bible. [Photo provided by the Museum of the Bible]