The Fantasy of ‘the Bible’ in the Museum of the Bible and Academic Biblical Studies

Abstract

The Bible” does not exist as material reality, and yet as a cultural icon “the Bible” animates institutions and enterprises devoted to it. This article assesses the short history of scholarship on one such institution, the controversial Museum of the Bible (MOTB) in Washington, D.C., in order to highlight and critique the fantasy of “the Bible” in academic biblical studies. I argue that while the MOTB provides a productive site for public scholarship on the Bible, it further functions as a mirror of the historic preoccupations of the guild of professional biblical scholars that reflects back to us the problems associated with our own fabrications of an iconic yet immaterial Bible.

Keywords

• metacriticism
• museums
• museum of the bible
• green family
• hobby lobby
• scripturalization