Visiting the Museum of the Bible

by Brett Manero

While traveling through the Washington, DC area this past summer, I visited two places where I had always wanted to visit: Mt. Vernon in Alexandra, Virginia, and the Museum of the Bible, in the city of Washington. The museum was built after I had left DC in 2015, and during all of my visits in recent years, I missed the opportunity to visit until this time around.

Overall, I was impressed by what the museum had to offer. Consisting of several layers of displays and artifacts, the museum has clearly done quite amount of work in collecting archaeological artifacts to present the truth of Scripture.

One of the most enjoyable sections was The World of Jesus of Nazareth, where the set is bult and painted to be like Nazareth in first-century Galilee. There is even one room that is built like a typical synagogue, such as the one where Jesus announces Himself as the Messiah in Luke 4:

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and he went to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the sabbath day. And he stood up to read;  and there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book and found the place where it was written,

 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
 to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

 And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.  And he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”  And all spoke well of him, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth; and they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”  And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself; what we have heard you did at Caper′na-um, do here also in your own country.’”  And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his own country.  But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Eli′jah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when there came a great famine over all the land;  and Eli′jah was sent to none of them but only to Zar′ephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.  And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Eli′sha; and none of them was cleansed, but only Na′aman the Syrian.”  When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath.  And they rose up and put him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw him down headlong.  But passing through the midst of them he went away (Luke 4:16-21).

Another impressive section shows you the impact of the Bible throughout the ages. I honestly wasn’t expecting to find something like this, but I was impressed. This section details the massive impact the Bible has had upon world history, including American history. In this 250th year of the existence of the United States, this was interesting to see. One is reminded that while America was not established with any particular religion, Judeo-Christian faith has had a undeniable impact on the history of the country.

However, I most enjoyed the top section, where archaeological artifacts from biblical times are shown. It may not have as much as the Met in New York, but it was an impressive display. I missed the section where supposedly some of the Dead Sea Scrolls are shown (this required a higher ticket purchase), but that is okay. Seeing the ancient artifacts was enough.

I recommend visiting the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, even just once. It is a good thing that it exists in the heart of America’s capital, reminding us and the world of the reliability of biblical history.