# Museum of the Bible A 430,000-square-foot, eight-floor museum two blocks from the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., dedicated to "the history, narrative, and impact of the Bible" — opened November 17, 2017 with an estimated $500+ million construction-and-acquisition cost, the project of [[Hobby Lobby]] founder [[David Green]] and his son Steve Green (who serves as the museum's chairman). The museum operates as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit under the Museum of the Bible Inc. governance structure but is institutionally and financially intertwined with the Green family / Hobby Lobby ecosystem. Annual visitor numbers in the high hundreds-of-thousands; located on Fourth Street SW in a converted refrigerated-warehouse building. The museum's institutional positioning has been **carefully calibrated for ecumenical respectability** — featuring exhibits designed in consultation with Jewish, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and mainline-Protestant scholars; avoiding overt political content in primary exhibit programming; and stating a "non-sectarian" educational mission. But the museum has also been the subject of substantial controversy on multiple fronts. **The smuggled-artifacts case** (2017–2020) — federal forfeiture of thousands of looted Iraqi artifacts that [[the Greens]] had purchased from antiquities dealers — resulted in the museum returning thousands of objects to Iraq and Egypt and damaged the institution's curatorial reputation. **Authentication controversies** — most prominently the museum's "Dead Sea Scrolls" fragments, which were determined in 2020 to be modern forgeries — further weakened the institution's credibility in academic circles. **Critical analytical reception** — particularly Joel Baden and Candida Moss's *Bible Nation* (2017) and subsequent scholarship — has argued that the museum's "non-sectarian" framing is itself a strategic positioning that occludes the institutional theology underpinning the project. For the Right Wing KB, Museum of the Bible is a **cultural-infrastructure node** of the [[Christian Nationalism Ecosystem]] — see the connection through [[Hobby Lobby]] and the Green family's broader religious-philanthropic network. Its specific function is *legitimacy-building*: the museum's National-Mall-adjacent location, ecumenical curatorial framing, and academic-style exhibition design produce a respectability that makes the broader Christian-conservative cultural-political program appear less sectarian than it is. The Green family's adjacent Bible-curriculum-in-public-schools project (paused after early-2010s legal pushback; revived in modified form in the 2024–2026 state-legislative wave) is the operational extension of the same legitimacy-building program: from museum to school curriculum. ## Founding and Construction The museum was the vision of **[[Steve Green]]** ([[Hobby Lobby]] president and [[David Green]]'s second son), who began aggressively acquiring biblical and Near Eastern antiquities in the late 2000s. The Green family purchased a **former refrigerated-warehouse building** at **400 Fourth Street SW** — two blocks south of the National Mall, three blocks from the U.S. Capitol — and undertook a **$500+ million** renovation and construction project to convert it into one of the largest museums in Washington, D.C. The building's 430,000 square feet across eight floors were designed by the architectural firm SmithGroup. The museum opened on **November 17, 2017** to substantial media coverage. Opening events included high-profile guests from evangelical, Catholic, and Jewish communities, consistent with the museum's stated ecumenical positioning. ## Major Exhibits The museum's permanent galleries are organized across three primary floors: the **History of the Bible** floor (tracing the Bible's transmission from manuscript traditions through printing to modern translations), the **Narrative of the Bible** floor (immersive walk-throughs of Hebrew Bible and New Testament narratives), and the **Impact of the Bible** floor (the Bible's influence on American culture, government, and daily life — the most analytically-loaded section given the museum's institutional context). A dedicated **"Bible in America"** exhibit traces biblical influence on U.S. founding documents, law, and culture. Special exhibits have included rotating installations on topics ranging from the history of Bible translation to Vatican-loaned manuscripts. The museum also operates a rooftop garden, a performing-arts theater, and extensive educational-programming spaces. ## The Smuggled-Artifacts Case (2017–2020) The museum's most consequential scandal. Before the museum even opened, the Green family's acquisition practices came under federal scrutiny. In **July 2017**, [[Hobby Lobby]] agreed to a **$3 million settlement** and **forfeited approximately 5,500 Iraqi artifacts** — cuneiform tablets, clay bullae, and cylinder seals — that had been imported with **falsified customs declarations** (labeled as "tile samples" from Turkey or Israel). The artifacts were returned to Iraq. Subsequent investigations identified additional problematic acquisitions, including **Egyptian papyrus fragments** of disputed provenance that were returned to Egypt. The total number of objects surrendered or returned across multiple tranches reached into the **thousands**. The case revealed that Steve Green had been warned by his own **cultural-property counsel** about the risks of purchasing unprovenanced Near Eastern material from dealers operating in conflict zones but had proceeded with acquisitions. ## Dead Sea Scrolls Forgeries (2020) In **March 2020**, the museum announced that **all 16 of its "Dead Sea Scrolls" fragments** — prominently displayed and marketed as among the museum's most significant holdings — had been determined to be **modern forgeries**. An independent study commissioned by the museum (conducted by Art Fraud Insights) concluded that the fragments were made from ancient leather scraps onto which text had been applied in modern times, with deliberate aging and artificial patina. The fragments were removed from display. The forgery revelation — following the smuggled-artifacts case — significantly damaged the museum's **curatorial credibility** in academic and museum-professional circles. ## Academic Critique The most substantial scholarly critique of the museum was published by Yale Divinity School professors **Joel Baden** and **Candida Moss** in their 2017 book *Bible Nation: The United States of Hobby Lobby*. Baden and Moss argued that the museum's "non-sectarian" and "educational" framing was itself a **strategic positioning** that obscured the Green family's evangelical-Protestant theological commitments — that the museum's exhibition design, narrative choices, and institutional context systematically communicated a specific theological worldview while claiming scholarly neutrality. The book also documented the problematic provenance of many Green Collection acquisitions before the federal case became public. ## Visitor Numbers and Operations The museum reported approximately **500,000 visitors** in its first year of operation. Post-COVID annual attendance has been in the range of **300,000–500,000 visitors**. The museum charges no admission fee (though it accepts donations), consistent with its 501(c)(3) educational-mission positioning. Annual operating budget is estimated at **$30–40 million**. ## Bible Curriculum Connection The museum's educational-outreach programming is institutionally connected to Steve Green's **Bible-curriculum-in-public-schools** initiative. The original curriculum ("The Book") was piloted at **Mustang Public Schools** (Oklahoma, 2014) but withdrawn after ACLU legal challenges. The curriculum project has been revived in the post-2024 state-legislative wave — Oklahoma's mandated Bible instruction, Louisiana's [[Ten Commandments]] law, and Texas Bible-literacy legislation — with Museum of the Bible educational materials positioned as content suppliers. ## KB Significance Museum of the Bible is the **cultural-legitimacy infrastructure** of the Green family / [[Hobby Lobby]] node of the [[Christian Nationalism Ecosystem]]. Its National-Mall-adjacent location, ecumenical curatorial framing, and museum-as-institution respectability serve a specific function: producing a venue where the Bible's role in American public life is presented as historical-educational fact rather than sectarian advocacy. The smuggled-artifacts case and Dead Sea Scrolls forgeries have weakened the institution's academic credibility but have not substantially diminished its cultural-tourism and audience-formation function. The museum-to-curriculum pipeline — from cultural-legitimacy venue to state-mandated educational content — illustrates the ecosystem's institutional progression from cultural infrastructure to policy implementation. ## See Also - [[Hobby Lobby]] - [[Christian Nationalism Ecosystem]] - [[Christian Nationalism]]