Museum of the Bible slated to open in the fall of 2017 Biblical Proportions

IN A CITY KNOWN FOR scandalous leaks of classified information, the Museum of the Bible—set to open in the fall of 2017—may be one of the best-kept secrets in Washington, DC.

“We did that by intention,” Cary Summers, museum president, said during a presentation at the Greater Washington Board of Trade Outlook conference. “We are taking on the most controversial topic in the world, and that’s called the Bible. There have been more wars about the Bible, more misuse of the book. It’s still the most read book, most debated, most banned, and most destroyed book in the world.”

The purpose of the Museum of the Bible, which will house the world’s largest private collection, is to engage visitors with the history, narrative, and impact of the 1,600-year-old sacred texts of Judaism and Christianity through cutting-edge technology and artifacts that bring the Bible to life.

“We want to put the Bible back in the center of conversation as a book,” Summer told the attendees, adding later: “It’s about the Bible; it’s not about any specific faith.”

The six-year-old nonprofit organization “had the whole world to look at” for a home for the museum, Summers said.

Oppty Box

Opening Fall 2017

$1.5 billion COST OF PROJECT

430,000 SQUARE FEET

140x20 ft. digital ceiling screen with 555 LED panels

In the end, it chose Washington, DC, based on surveys of potential attendance. The organization expects the museum to attract two to three million visitors during its first year of operation.

The building is located three blocks from the Capitol building and two blocks from the National Mall, although proximity to those places is not the reason the organization selected the site, Summers said. The museum will be housed inside the former Terminal Refrigerating and Warehousing Company building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. The new museum will be 430,000 square feet—exceeding the size of the new National Museum of African-American History & Culture, which sits at 409,000 square feet—on eight floors with 20-foot-high ceilings.

Once inside, visitors will be greeted by a digital ceiling screen running the entire length of the grand lobby at 140 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 40 feet high. When completed, it will be the largest digital screen in the US, made up of 555 LED panels with five-millimeter pixel pitch. The screen will be a rotating display of art from the museum, landscapes, and more, including the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. “They look like murals, but it’s all electronics,” Summers said.

The total cost for the project will be about $1.5 billion.

“No federal, city, redevelopment or historical preservation funds are being used,” the museum president said. “It is all being done through donations.”

The museum will feature permanent and temporary collections. Some highlights include first editions of the King James Bible, the world’s largest private collection of Torah scrolls, spanning more than 700 years of history, and a handwritten letter by Thomas Jefferson, in which he discusses his concept of religious liberty.

“We are trying to preserve documents so the next generation can see them,” Summers said.

The building also will have research labs, libraries, a 100-seat lecture hall, a 500-seat theater with a high-tech projection system and a 1,000-seat ballroom.

The entrance will sport two 40-foot-tall bronze doors—one 12 tons and one 8 tons—featuring the first edition with the Guttenberg Bible, Genesis Chapter One. The doors also will include the oldest-known piece of Psalms 19 that dates to the third century.

In addition to the collections, the Museum of the Bible will continue to offers school curriculum that’s already been taught to 100,000 children in Israel, the United Kingdom, and private schools in the US.

“The curriculum will be very important to what we do,” Summers said.

JEAN DIMEO

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