As priceless Israeli artifacts go to controversial Bible museum, some wonder why

WASHINGTON — Since Hobby Lobby president Steve Green moved to open a massive Bible museum near Washington’s National Mall, suspicions have grown over the true intention of the project.

Green, who is best known for his large donations to evangelical colleges and for launching an Oklahoma public school curriculum based on a literal teaching of the Bible, is a controversial figure in the debate over the boundaries between church and state.

He is also the son of David Green, the founder and CEO of Hobby Lobby.

Together, they run their business in accordance with an evangelical Christian ethos that entails them closing more than 600 of their stores each Sunday.

Perhaps most famously, the two of them successfully challenged US President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare reform package in the Supreme Court —specifically, its provision mandating companies to provide employees insurance plans that include access to emergency contraception.

By a 5-4 ruling, the nine-member panel agreed that the mandate impinged on family-owned corporation’s religious freedom, thereby striking down that part of the Affordable Care Act.

Now, some are expressing concern over how Green would guide his $400-million budget to unveil the Museum of the Bible in the fall of 2017, and whether his vast collection of more than 40,000 artifacts would be used as evangelical propaganda.

“The proximity of the museum to the world-class Smithsonian and the Capitol has raised eyebrows, wrote art historian Noah Charney in the Washington Post last year. “How will it fit in among the venerable institutions lining the Mall? How will it function in a multicultural city? And what version of the Bible will we get?  To many in the scholarly community, the museum seems like an oversize piece of evangelical claptrap.”

The collection on exhibit will include some of Israel’s most precious archaeological artifacts, including selections from the Dead Sea Scrolls, cuneiform tablets from Abraham’s time, materials from the First and Second Temples, and various other antiquities that go back to the Canaanite period.

In August 2015, the Israel Antiquities Authority agreed to a multi-year agreement with the museum, under which it will have a 4,000-square-foot top-floor exhibit featuring a selection of ancient artifacts excavated in Israel. The IAA has not yet announced which exact ones will be on display.

“It’s an opportunity for Israel to have a dedicated space in Washington where we can exhibit archaeological material from the IAA that will be seen by millions of people,” Jacob Fisch, executive director of the New York-based Friends of the Israeli Antiquities Authority, who organized the deal, told The Times of Israel.

Why the partnership?

Green’s history and interests raise the question of how materials from Israel will be used in the museum’s presentation of the Bible. American University professor of religion Martyn Oliver said Israel’s role in evangelical theology could be a reason for Green’s interest.

According to Evangelism, the State of Israel’s establishment follows the biblical prophesy that says the gathering of Jews the biblical heartland is a prerequisite for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

“There is a question to wonder about,” Oliver told The Times of Israel. “Is there a theological motivation for the partnership? Or is it just, the museum’s curators are thinking, ‘They got the best stuff. IAA is an extraordinary organization with an astounding collection and we want the best stuff for our museum.’

“Or is it an ongoing thing of support for Israel that we see from some evangelical Christians that is related to a theological belief that the establishment of the State of Israel forecasts the Second Coming?” he added. “I don’t know.”

The assortment of ancient artifacts could theoretically present Jewish history in the Holy Land as an antecedent to the end times and the return of Christ.

Fisch dismissed the notion that the IAA’s materials could be used that way. He said the agreement allowed his organization to have complete control over the exhibit and how it is displayed.

“All the material that comes from the national treasures of the IAA, everything is curated by IAA,” he said. “All the texts, all the labels, everything. It’s an exhibition that is completely curated and under the control of the IAA, and hosted in Washington, D.C., by the Museum of the Bible.”

He added that the agreement was forged due to the opportunity presented by the museum: a gargantuan eight-floor, 430,000 square-foot building steps away from the National Mall and two blocks from the National Air and Space Museum, a prime area for tourists.

“Our decision to make these kinds of alliances is based on … How can we benefit the archaeological heritage of the Land of Israel through exhibits like this? That’s really the main thing,” Fisch said.

‘We have an opportunity to have a gallery in the nation’s capital for the next 10 years… Millions of people will come and learn about Israel and the history of Israel’

Asked if the IAA had any reservations about partnering with Green, Fisch said he was unaware of the museum’s chief funder or his involvement with the museum.

He said he’s only interacted with Cary Summers, the museum’s president, and other curators. “We work with the organization, not with specific donors or funders,” he stated. “I don’t even know if any of this trickles into the agenda of the museum. Not the way the agenda was described to the world, certainly.

“We at the IAA are an apolitical organization that has a mission to make Israel’s archaeological heritage known to the world,” he added. “We have an opportunity to have a gallery in the nation’s capital for the next 10 years that will be visited by millions of people. Millions of people will come and learn about Israel and the history of Israel.”

Oliver, the American University professor, acknowledged that the IAA had practical reasons to find the partnership attractive. “This is going to a premier place in a premier spot, and for most people who visit, it will be the first time they’ve even heard about the IAA,” he said. “There’s no better advertising opportunity, I’m sure, than this.”

Will the museum be different from Green’s past endeavors?

Despite the questions about how the museum may use Israel’s archaeological finds, Oliver said Green has taken certain steps “to be serious about the Bible as a historical phenomenon,” but not without some caveats.

“The scholarly team they’ve hired both for acquisition and for the study of their artifacts, as far as I can tell, is completely above board. These are very serious people,” he said. “On the other hand, the people they’ve hired to create the display of the museum are the same folks who designed [one of the exhibits at] the Creation Museum. I see that and I think, really? How are they going to work together?”

The Creation Museum, which is located in Petersburg, Kentucky, is run by a creationist ministry, Answers in Genesis, that uses the facility to promote a literal interpretation of the creation narrative from the Book of Genesis.

Summers, who was hired to oversee the launch of the Museum of the Bible, was previously a consultant for The Ark Experience, LLC, which designed the Noah’s Ark exhibit at the Creation Museum. The designing firms hired by the Museum of the Bible, however, are different.

Green has also had a relationship with the Kentucky museum. In 2012, he and Summers brought a traveling exhibit of rare Bible manuscripts and artifacts from the Green Collection to be displayed there.

The differences in the scholarly team and the project’s other stakeholders, Oliver said, reflect the question most close observers are following: How will Green’s “own conservative, literal, theological perspective about the Bible” be negotiated with “a historical approach that sees it as a historical phenomenon” once the museum opens?

Fisch said he was confident it will be an appropriate home for the IAA’s artifacts, none of which has been exhibited in Washington, DC, since 1993, when the Library of Congress held the Dead Sea Scrolls.

“It’s a museum of the highest standards, of the highest scholarly level,” Fisch said. “That’s the only thing that guides us. It’s very straightforward, and an accredited museum is an accredited museum.”

Oliver is waiting until 2017 to make any definitive assessments: “The question, for me at least, is will the Greens seek to square belief with history?”

This story was updated on May 3 to correct a quoted claim that the Museum of the Bible hired the same designing team as the Creation Museum. While MOB’s president, Cary Summers, was a consultant for part of the Creation Museum’s design, the designers hired by MOB were not associated with that project.