COURTESY OF GREEN COLLECTION
Pursuits | Visual
The decorative cover of an early Esther or Megillah Scroll, dating to the 16th century
RETRACING THE BOOK
T
he Bible is, in a sense, a road map to life; a guide to help believers navigate their earthly journeys. But viewed historically, this venerable document has undergone a journey of its own: expanding in global influence, being translated into dozens of languages and handed down across generations for millennia. This month, a new exhibit exploring the history of the Bible begins a global tour with its debut in Oklahoma City, as the OKC Museum of Art proudly hosts “Passages.” “Passages” is the non-sectarian exhibition of a portion of The Green Collection, one of the world’s newest and largest private collections of rare biblical texts and artifacts. Named for the Green family, founders and leaders of Hobby Lobby, the massive collection was assembled at an aggressive pace beginning in November 2009. The speed was enabled by the work of Collection Director Dr. Scott Carroll and the Green family’s desire to make the story of
By Steve Gill
the Bible accessible to people of all interests, as well as to scholars worldwide. “The Bible didn’t come from Mount Sinai to Moses and end up in a Red Roof Inn desk drawer,” said Carroll, who holds a Ph.D. in ancient studies. “There was a process and ‘Passages’ tells the dramatic story of that process.” Beginning with its May 16 world premiere, the 14,000-square-foot interactiven exhibition will enable visitors to see, touch, feel and experience the exceptional story of thousands of years of Bible history. Included in the exhibition is one of the earliest pieces of Genesis, along with the Codex Climaci Rescriptus, one of the earliest surviving near-complete Bibles, and the most extensive early biblical texts in Jesus’ household language of Palestinian Aramaic. In this year marking the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, an unusual collaboration between one of America’s top family retailers, scholmay 2011 | slice
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