Interactive, high-tech effects highlight rare, ancient bible collection
An interactive experience of the bible, using digital, high tech and other special effects, will highlight one of the oldest and most comprehensive bible collections in the U.S., at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art until Oct. 16.
The “Passages” Bible exhibit will feature 300 pieces out of 40,000 items in the Green Collection, including an additional 200 items on a rotational basis. It will then proceed to the Vatican and perhaps, New York and London in the winter, according to The Christian Post.
The exhibit includes high-tech robots and animatronics with interactive activities and a first-hand experience of original Bible manuscripts and artifacts, many of which go back for centuries, according to The Oklahoman.
“Passages” will be held on the third floor of the museum which has been metamorphosed for the nonsectarian, worldwide traveling display of The Green Collection, including ancient rare manuscripts and articles, The Oklahoman said.
The collection is owned by the Green family, who founded Hobby Lobby, but on the side has purchased items for their collection for many years. The tour includes an iPod touch where guests can refer to commentary from experts and scholars related to each display, and which also has a children’s listening track from Louis the Lion, according to the Passages website.
Among the items is one of the earliest pieces of Genesis, a text of the Dead Sea Scroll written on papyri, part of the Gutenberg Bible and various ancient first editions of the bible up until the King James Version, The Oklahoman said.
“There are things in almost every case that they can’t be seen anywhere else in the world, Scott Caroll, who is the director of The Green Collection, told The Oklahoman.
There is a Codex Climaci Rescriptus, a near-complete bible, one of the earliest of its time written in Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke. Some parts on the old papyrus are not legible but will soon be through a project with Oxford University using special light and computer techniques, The Christian Post said.
The largest room exhibit highlights the King James Bible, including first editions in a scene that replicates Westminster Abbey’s Jerusalem chamber, where the final version was edited and completed, according to The Christian Post.
Animatrons
One surprising display is an animatron of Queen Anne Boleyn, one of the wives of King Henry VII, who was a supporter of William Tyndale, the Protestant reformer who translated much of the bible into English and was sentenced to death for heresy, The Christian Post said.
There are also flip books, touch screens, placards with details of each exhibit and hands-on, interactive activities so that guests come to better appreciate the sacrifice and the lives that were lost so that the bible could be available to everyone today, The Christian Post reported.
The entire experience covers 14,000 square feet of the third floor of the museum, spanning more than 2,000 years of history. It is also the work of over 200 architects, artists, audio and visual experts and writers, The Oklahoman said.
Carroll told The Christian Post, “Oftentimes, Christians think the Bible comes to us magically and it kind of showed up at the bookstore. But it’s actually been the hard work of individuals and in many places of the world it has been their risk of life. Tens of thousands of people died for the privilege of owning a Bible.”
The exhibit is also designed so that nonbelievers appreciate it. Carroll told The Christian Post, “The Bible has had a tremendous impact. If you are a person of culture, you must know something about the Bible because it has impacted everything from arts to politics and religion to philosophy. It’s part of being an educated person.”
Sources:
http://www.christianpost.com/news/high-tech-robots-bring-bible-history-to-life-50259/