The Museum of the Bible Scandal

Second Friday of Easter

If any of you happen to be readers of the Wall Street Journal, there is an excellent editorial in today's issue by C. Kavin Rowe, who is a professor at Duke Divinity School.

At what point does ignorance become dishonesty?  Steve Green, the multi-billionaire owner of Hobby Lobby along with some of his family members, decided to create The Museum of the Bible. Green is an evangelical/fundamentalist. The museum was to reflect his viewpoints and was also to evangelize skeptical attendees. Green acquired land for his museum in the middle of Washington, DC, very near the Smithsonian complex. Many visitors would think by its name and its location that it was part of the Smithsonian complex. Green has a fundamentalist's knowledge of the Bible but no knowledge of Biblical scholarship and very little knowledge of archaeology. His desire was to find and buy Near Eastern antiquities, or he might say Biblical antiquities, and display them in his museum as proof to the historicity of Biblical accounts. He hired a lot of would be scholars and archaeologists to find and buy these antiquities. Over a period of more than a decade he acquired many thousands of pieces, which were displayed in his museum. 

Mr. Green's major problem was he didn't know what he was doing. Some of the people he hired were dishonest. Most of them were not very knowledgeable. They fell prey to the unscrupulous antiquities dealers who are all over the Middle East. Green did not know the international laws and protocols of the antiquities trade. Dealers readily took advantage of his ignorance.

The scandal falls into two major areas. First is the theft of antiquities by U.S. service men and women in Iraq. Modern day Iraq is the territory of some of the great empires of antiquity, most importantly the Assyrian and the Babylonian. War is a great destroyer of the relics of the ancient past. One modern day bomb can do the destructive work of a massive ancient army. Soldiers of every country collect souvenirs during warfare. Iraq abounds in such ancient souvenirs like few other places on earth. Green's acquisitions people paid US and and other military people for antiquities they found. Those antiquities went on display in the Museum of the Bible. In an international lawsuit, Green was forced to pay 22 million dollars in damages to Iraq. But he kept the antiquities. 

The other major part of the scandal concerns the Dead Sea Scrolls. I was present at the 1992 meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, the American Schools of Oriental Research, The Israel Antiquities Authority, and numerous other organizations, where an agreement was reached that all future Near Eastern antiquities discoveries would remain in their countries of origin. I would think that some of Mr. Green's people knew of this agreement, but they did not honor it. I feel sure that Mr. Green did not know of it. 

In the late 1990"s there was a massive search done with the co-operation of the governments of Israel and Jordan to find any other Dead Sea Scroll fragments. The search, which went on for months, turned up nothing. The conclusion was that five decades of searching had turned up everything that was there. 

In the 2,000's there were reports of other Dead Sea Scroll fragments turning up in places in the United States, mostly in Texas. The Museum of the Bible acquired 16 of these supposed Dead Sea Scroll fragments. Many archaeologists and Biblical scholars questioned their authenticity.

Last year the Museum, at the direction of Mr. Green, brought in specialists in all the aspects of ancient writing, inks, scroll leathers, the making of scrolls, etc. The experts concluded that all sixteen scroll fragments were modern forgeries. They have since been removed from display in the museum.

Last week, Mr. Green agreed to return over 11,500 ancient artifacts to their countries of origin. He admitted that he had been very naive in the whole long process of acquisition. 

Faithfully,

Christian