Exploring the Bible in Washington

By Linda Tancs

It’s no secret that America’s Founding Fathers were greatly influenced by the Bible, using it to shape their personal and political views. So it’s perhaps appropriate that the nation’s first museum dedicated to the Bible should be located in Washington, D.C. Opening this Friday, the Museum of the Bible is housed in a 430,000-square-foot building just two blocks from the National Mall and three blocks from the nation’s Capitol. It boasts 40-foot-tall bronze doors at the entrance and a rooftop garden, along with eight floors using modern technology to explain ancient parables. Among its collections are first editions of the King James Bible, fragments of the Dead Sea Scroll, the first Bible to travel to the moon and the largest collection of Torah scrolls.