Interfaith Bible Exhibit Opens in St. Peter's Square (136)It certainly sounds that way. I edited the Cave Four manuscripts of Genesis from the Dead Sea Scrolls (in DJD 12). I wonder if the Genesis fragments mentioned above are from those, or does the Green Collection have something new I haven't heard of?
Verbum Domini Runs Through Lent. A working Gutenberg press. Seeing early scriptural papyrus led one viewer to quip: ‘I feel like Indiana Jones.’
by TIM DRAKE 03/06/2012 (National Catholic Register)
VATICAN CITY — Visitors to Rome will have the opportunity to view a free, one-of-a-kind exhibition looking at the Bible at the Braccio di Carlo Magno Museum adjacent to St. Peter’s Basilica in St. Peter’s Square.
The exhibition, “Verbum Domini,” opened March 1 and runs through April 15, and offers a collaboration between the Vatican, the Green Collection (aka Museum of the Bible) and the American Bible Society.
It features more than 150 manuscripts and artifacts from the Catholic, Jewish, Protestant and Orthodox traditions.
The exhibit is the brainchild of business executive Steve Green, with the exhibit under the direction of Scott Carroll, both of whom were motivated by their love for the Bible.
“We wanted to make this exhibit available, on faith’s largest stage and one of the most visited religious sites in the world, to people of all faiths and no faith, to engage tourists and scholars alike,” said Green, president of the Hobby Lobby retail chain.
“Verbum Domini” features items “found nowhere else in the world,” arranged in eight galleries from different time periods, said Carroll, who chose the items for display. “They tell the story of how we got the Bible from an interfaith perspective.”
Among the items included in the exhibit are some the earliest fragments of the Book of Genesis from the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Codex Climaci Rescriptus, which is one of the earliest-surviving, near-complete Bibles containing the most extensive early biblical texts in Jesus’ language of Palestinian Aramaic. It also includes previously unpublished and never-before-exhibited biblical papyri, Torah scrolls from around the world and the Jeselsohn Stone, a 3-foot-tall, 150-pound sandstone tablet discovered near the Dead Sea in Jordan. Dating from 100 B.C., the stone contains 87 lines of Hebrew text prophesying the coming of a Messiah who will suffer, die and rise again.
Visitors said that they were struck by the diversity and quality of items found in the exhibit.
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More on Codex Climaci Rescriptus and on the Green Collection in general here and links. More on the Jeselsohn Stone/Gabriel Revelation/Vision of Gabriel here and links.
