Ancient artifacts rouse interest in biblical history

A box believed to contain the remains of the son of Simon of Cyrene — the man the Bible says carried Jesus’ cross to His crucifixion — is traveling the United States. 
   
Meanwhile curators are preparing the earliest­-known manuscript of the Ten Commandments for display next year in San Diego. At the same time, archaic writings testifying to the evolution of Scripture throughout centuries lie behind glass in Washington.
   
With simultaneous exhibits of biblical artifacts on display or in the works across the United States, the museum world and the general public cannot seem to get enough of the Bible. 
   
“I think the museum world is burgeoning in this area,” said Hershel Shanks, founder of the Biblical Archaeology Society and editor of the Biblical Archaeology Review magazine, which tracks exhibits throughout the United States.
   
The seeming escalation in the number of biblical archaeological exhibits in the United States may be coincidence but there are several theories.
   
Shanks said the popular interest in Christianity’s foundations, fueled by Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code” and Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” is playing a part in creating a “cross-fertilization” in interest between the academic and lay worlds.
   
“Archaeologists are digging things up, scholars are writing and so are the fiction writers,” Shanks said.
   
Cary Summers, CEO of The Nehemiah Group, a consulting firm that has helped build exhibits in Israel, said public interest in the Holy Land is greater now than in previous years, in part due to a greater curiosity about religion following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
   
Summers collaborated with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on an exhibit touring the United States called “From Abraham to Jesus” that walks visitors through the story of 2,500 years in the Holy Land using a combination of antiquities from biblical times and multimedia special effects.
   
The success of Dead Sea Scroll exhibits last year in Mobile and Grand Rapids, Mich., convinced him public interest was high and the timing was right to bring the show to the United States, Summers said. “We’ve certainly hit a hot button,” he said.
   
Through the traveling exhibit, the ossuary, or box, believed to contain the bones of Simon of Cyrene’s son is making its public debut. 
   
The oldest artifacts in the show have been dated to 3250 b.c. — the time of Noah’s Ark, according to Summers. The show is touring 27 U.S. cities and Toronto until December 2008.
   
In Washington, the Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery exhibition “In the Beginning: Bibles Before the Year 1000” tracks the evolution of the Bible from centuries-old scraps of parchment to the familiar codified form in use today. The exhibit is on display until Jan. 7, 2007.
   
A current Seattle museum exhibit focuses on the more than 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls. Similar exhibits will open next year in Kansas City, Mo., and San Diego.
   
The scrolls are believed to be the oldest surviving copies of the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, and are considered by many to be the greatest archaeological find of modern times. The writings have been dated between 250 b.c. and 68 b.c. (RNS)