On Day of Prayer this semester I traveled with 20 other students to Atlanta to view, reflect on, and simply enjoy the Passages exhibit. Passages is an interactive Bible exhibit that shows off the largest manuscript collection in private hands (owned by the Green family, CEOs of Hobby Lobby and strong believers). The exhibit is currently one that travels and will soon be moving to be shown in the Vatican to celebrate Easter. The long term goal is to build a Bible museum on the National Mall in D.C. I fell in love with this exhibit. We had dinner at a sandwich shop and then returned to hear a lecture. Dr. Emmanuel Tov from Jordan spoke about the Dead Sea Scrolls and explained some of the more fascinating and technical aspects of the history of Biblical texts. To have over 30,000 manuscripts in the hands of believers, and to have them in the hands of interested scholars at that is amazing!
At the end of the lecture we stopped to talk to Dr. Scott Carroll, the director of the Green Collection and he gave us all his card. I got to hold the oldest copy of Psalm 23. Whoa. He even gave us some inside information about the oldest fragment of Mark that was just discovered. 70AD! I can't believe how blessed I was by this trip. I got to see Hannah's prayer from 1Sam2:1-10 in Hebrew on papyrus. I sat and read it in English and in public. The enduring word of God is powerful! The struggle that it took to preserve this link to the divine ruler is astounding. I was blown away by the age, the bravery, the guts it took. If you get a chance to see this exhibit, it'd be well worth your time and little bit of money. Kid friendly too! Here's their website: http://explorepassages.com/
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