Subject: Passages - a must see ………. “Passages” Bible exhibit set up in an old Hobby Lobby store at the SE corner of Palmer Park and Academy. But let me strongly encourage everyone to set aside several hours (four was NOT enough!) to go and see this amazing assortment (certainly the largest private collection) of Bible-related artifacts ever assembled. Wow! I had no idea when entering the building just what lay beyond the cashier’s desk. Here is a sample: Passages is an amazing exhibit (here in COS for 9 months as the first stop on its multi-year USA tour). It was brought together by the owner of Hobby Lobby and it is a historical look at the Bible – starting with the Hebrew OT Scriptures/Torah. They go through the centuries with so many rare and amazing copies of manuscripts, books, Bibles, papyrus, Torah’s and synagogue paraphernalia, a replica Gutenberg press and actual 1st edition Gutenberg Bible, handwritten letter from Martin Luther the night before his excommunication, so many original hand-illustrated/illuminated Bibles and portions of Scripture from as early as the 4th century in all kinds of languages, an actual piece of the Dead Sea Scrolls, 1st edition King James Bible, 1st edition Luther Bible, 1st edition Wycliffe and Tyndale Bibles, original book of Psalms translated by King Henry, a Bible from 1492 just like what Columbus brought on his voyages, a handwritten copy of the Book of Hours, the only known copy of one edition of the Bible, the oldest known copy of so many books, portions of Torah scrolls and other scrolls of the OT (like Ester, Daniel, Ecclesiastics, etc.) which had burn marks by the Nazis trying to destroy them or from where communists tried to burn them. A portion of John 14 on papyrus which was found in the sarcophagus mask of an Egyptian mummy, the actual microfiche copy of a Bible taken to the moon on Apollo 14, Bibles with elaborate paintings on the edges of the pages, silver and gold embossed Bibles, Bibles with covers out of silver, gold, amber, turquoise, mother of pearl, and dozens of leather/metal clasp covers, wooden, silver, brass, leather, and cloth covers for Torah scrolls, and so many other books and artifacts it would take days to describe. Plus rooms set up like the cave where the Dead Sea scrolls were found, a cave with animatronics of St Jerome copying the Bible (and a lion whom he lived with which scared the bejeebers out of me when it started talking!), a prison with Tyndale giving his last words before his execution, another with Anne Boleyn as Queen and then her again in prison, Wycliffe talking in church about translating the Scriptures to English (and two English women debating whether it was worth the risk to go and hear Tyndale’s version of the book of John being read in English), a Gutenberg press where they printed a page of the Bible (that you can take home), a place with quill and ink to try your hand at being a scribe, a place to make prints from a woodcut of one page of the Bible, plus film re-enactments of conversations with Martin Luther, Erasmus and Johann Eck, a copy of the room in Westminster Abbey where the King James version of the Bible was written, and so many others. We were there four hours and didn’t get to a LOT of it, like all of the illustrations (Albrecht Durer, Salvador Dali, etc.) and rooms with interactive stuff for kids (by the makers of Veggie Tales), an Egyptian area, a war room about Bibles taken into battle with the original of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Battle Hymn of the Republic, more movie clips giving other historical or re-enactments of some of the things they talk about . . . I ended up getting a multi-day pass at the end so I can go back again and see more of the stuff I missed as after a while it was simply impossible to absorb anything else new or more or remember even what you’d seen. There is an extensive gift and book store as well. Never even got a chance to see that as we closed the place down (after running through the last 7 or 8 rooms in 20 min). Definitely go to see it! We got in for a $10 intro price (plus $3 for the headphones – also really well worth it), but even at $15 it is simply amazing. Here is their website. Go check it out… explorepassages/
Posted on: Tue, 04 Jun 2013 22:10:29 +0000