Feb. 7, 2018, story:
Late Amarillo businessman served in England during WWII

(This is a front-page story, not one of my Faith columns.)

By Mike Haynes

            A black-and-white photo shows Bob Williams and other Americans marching in an English village with local residents, young and old, dressed in their Sunday best, watching from the edge of the dirt street.

The scene helps illustrate the relationship between the United States and Great Britain during World War II as about 3 million U.S. soldiers were stationed on the British Isles or passed through to continental Europe during the war.

Capt. Bob Williams, right foreground, marches in
a village near Thorpe Abbotts Army Air Base
in England while he was stationed there
during World War II.
(Photo courtesy Medora Williams)

For Williams, a longtime Amarillo businessman who died in January, two months short of his 99^th birthday, the bond between G.I.s and Brits was a good one. In an interview just after New Year’s, he said he and his buddies got along fine with the English people during his four years at the Thorpe Abbotts air base near Norwich in eastern England.

“He has fond memories of them,” said his wife, Medora, 77, who helped with the interview because of Williams’ health condition. “He would give them his cigarettes, because he didn’t smoke, and they’d give him eggs.”

Great Britain had been at war with Germany since 1939, and after Japan’s Pearl Harbor attack on Dec. 7, 1941, the United States began sending troops across both the Pacific and the Atlantic. Williams was one of several thousand who reached England in 1942 on the British ship Queen Elizabeth.

The Lorena, Texas, native had enlisted before Pearl Harbor and recalled that during the voyage to England, the British broadcaster William Joyce, known as “Lord Haw-Haw,” was announcing the location coordinates of the Queen Elizabeth on the radio. Joyce was a Nazi propagandist based in Hamburg.

To avoid Nazi U-boats, the ship traveled as far south as Jamaica on the trip to England. Of course, Williams said, the Queen Elizabeth was heavily armed.

Unable to complete flight training because of an inner ear problem, Capt. Robert Henry Williams became an administrator at the Thorpe Abbotts base, home of the 100^th Bomber Group, known as the “Bloody 100^th.” He was an Army Air Corps captain in the 351^st Bombardment Squadron, handling such duties as transportation, payroll and sorting the belongings of the many airmen who didn’t make it back from bombing runs over Germany and other sites in Nazi-occupied Europe.

Among Bob Williams' World War II memorabilia
are his Eisenhower-style Army jacket, his
certificate appointing him as an Army Air Corps
captain, his dog tags and a silk map used by
airmen flying over Europe.
(Photo by Mike Haynes)

“He had to go through their personal effects and make sure there wasn’t anything the family didn’t need to see,” Medora said. “It was not easy duty. These were friends he had gotten acquainted with.”

London is known as a key target of German air raids, but other parts of England also suffered attacks. According to a military magazine clip in Williams’ scrapbook, English bases were laid out haphazardly, but on purpose, to protect from raids. If barracks and other facilities had been neatly arranged together, bombing damage could have been more serious. Thorpe Abbotts’ spread-out design also allowed more room for growing food in the days of strict rationing.

“All we got to eat for the first three months was ‘Billy beef stew,’” Williams said. “For breakfast, they’d put biscuits on it. It was corned beef from Argentina.”

Thorpe Abbots was attacked only twice, Williams said, with no loss of life. “We were strafed,” he said. “German fighter pilots strafed us.” But like Londoners, the base residents were accustomed to spending time in bomb shelters, and returning planes occasionally executed crash landings.

Williams said his group lost 273 bombers during the war during runs over factories, bridges and other German targets. He recalled one mission over the Netherlands that airlifted provisions to the population. His base was directly west across the English Channel from Amsterdam.

“Our planes dropped food over Holland,” he said. “They were hurting for food, and we flew

Bob Williams and his wife, Medora,
spent much of their retirement time on
fishing trips. Williams owned Builders
Supply in Amarillo for many years.
(Photo courtesy Medora Williams)

over at 500 feet.”

American servicemen in England who stayed as long as Williams certainly knew the cold weather and the landscape. Medora described the available transportation.

“He had a bicycle,” she said. “That’s what he had to ride into town on. She said bicycles had to be pushed up and over stiles, or steps that allowed them to go over railroad tracks.

Williams’ World War II scrapbook was a 2010 gift from Air Force friend Bob Spellacy. It includes photos of life on the base as well as copies of mission reports. A July 30, 1943, report provides a word picture of a bombing operation over Kassel, Germany. Some excerpts:

“Target and bombs away at 0935. … Terrific damage seen throughout. Large mushroom like column of smoke seen immediately rising to between 15 and 20,000 ft. … Flak and fighters followed us from coast to target and return. … Over target, flak concentrated and accurate. Received hits on our plane and most every plane received flak holes. We had about 7 or 8 flak holes …

“Hard to distinguish between enemy and P47’s but didn’t fire unless attacked. … 100^th Grp. lost no planes, but other groups lost between 4 & 6 planes. Am a firm believer in tighter and tighter formations. …”

Capt. Bob Williams

The group leader ended with this recommendation:

“Suggest that new pilots fly 100 hours of battle formation, very closely, before tackling Gerry. It would prevent 80% of ship losses.” “Gerry” or “Jerry” was a term referring to the German enemy.

Another report included a personal complaint:

“All crews suffered severe cold. Wish to h--- they’d send us some electric suits to replace those that won’t work. It is impossible to work efficiently at hi alt. under very cold weather otherwise.”

The planes had names such as “War Eagle,” “Salvo Sal,” “Our Baby,” “Rosie’s Riveters,” “Just A-Snappin’” and “Piccadilly Lilly.”

An Oct. 8, 1943, mission to Bremen, Germany, illustrates the origin of the name, “Bloody 100^th.” Of 21 bombers on the mission, seven – and their crews – did not return.

Williams didn’t fly on bombing missions, but he and others on the ground enabled them to happen. He saw the reports and knew who did and didn’t return to base. At his passing last month, he decreased by one the roughly 558,000 living American World War II survivors, according to the National WWII Museum in New Orleans. About 16 million Americans

Capt. Bob Williams displays a crab during downtime
while stationed in England during World War II.
(Photo courtesy Medora Williams)

served in the war, and in Texas, just over 30,000 remain.

Williams came home on another British ship, the Queen Mary. He said it normally carried about 4,000 people but that 24,000 crowded onto its decks for the return trip at war’s end.

“I’m sure you’ve seen the pictures of when they came back,” Medora said. “It was really something.”

As a civilian in Amarillo since 1946, Williams completed his degree at the University of Texas at Austin and became a partner and later full owner of Builders Supply at 7^th and Travis. He met Medora, a Houston native, on a fishing outing, and they were married for 40 years. One of their mutual loves was fishing. “He’s owned a lot of boats,” she said.

After a memorial service at St. Luke’s Presbyterian Church in Amarillo, Williams was buried in Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery. He was preceded in death by his daughter, Katherine Lynn Davis. Survivors include his wife, Medora of Amarillo; his sister, Martha Harper of Salado; a niece; a nephew; two stepsons; six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

In his last week, Williams did not feel well enough to talk much. But the pride in his Army Air Force service showed through as he finished talking to a visitor:

“Medora, show him my Army jacket.”

Bob Williams' World War II scrapbook contains this dollar

bill with signatures of  Gen. Carl Spaatz and Gen. Jimmy

Doolittle.

Jan. 28, 2018, story:

Director with Amarillo ties says Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., is nonsectarian

By Mike Haynes

            The new Museum of the Bible appears to be a good fit with the Smithsonian and other national museums in Washington, D.C. Its director, Dr. Tony Zeiss certainly thinks so.

            Zeiss, who took over as the MOTB executive director in 2017 three days after retiring from

Dr. Tony Zeiss
Museum of the Bible
executive director
(MOTB photo)

32 years as a community college president, said in his office Jan. 10 that the $500 million museum funded primarily by Hobby Lobby’s Green family presents its ancient manuscripts and cyber-technology in a neutral way in order to reach a wide audience.

            But he pointed out that people already versed in the Bible – such as many Texas Panhandle residents – will feel at home in the renovated refrigeration building just one subway stop from the National Mall.

            “We don’t interpret the Bible; we don’t promote any one faith tradition; we don’t promote any religion. We’re nonsectarian,” Zeiss said. “And we had to do that for obvious reasons. You limit your audience if you try to say, ‘This is just for Catholics, or this is just for Jewish people, or this is just for Protestants.

“The Bible is the foundation for at least seven, probably more, faith traditions, so we want to honor all of those, but really, we just want to focus on the Bible. We think the Bible will speak for itself.

“And I know the great people in West Texas, that’s what they would say. We don’t have to flaunt one thing or another; we just say, ‘Hey, let people get engaged with the Bible, and it will speak for itself.”

The illumiNations exhibit at Museum of the Bible highlights the universal
accessibility of the Bible with versions in more than 2,000 languages showcased.
Visitors can touch and read the books on the shelves, and the museum
still seeks to obtain copies in more languages. (Photo by Mike Haynes)

Zeiss, 71, has some credibility when talking about Texans.  The Indiana native’s Texas wife, Beth, is from Copperas Cove. He was a dean at Central Texas College in Killeen, where Beth was a library director. Zeiss, a Church of Christ Sunday school teacher, was on the board of Dallas-based motivational speaker Zig Ziglar for eight years.

As an educator, Zeiss said he has spoken at Amarillo College, and he is a longtime friend of former AC President Bud Joyner. And he has been an outdoor writer for Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine and for Centex Sportsman.

In addition, Zeiss has written more than 20 books on leadership, history and other topics.

The MOTB features documents that excite scholars, such as the Codex Climaci Rescriptus, which was one of the first artifacts the Greens bought in 2009. The CCR is a fifth to ninth century document that features Syriac script written over Greek biblical text that has been scratched off but is readable with multi-spectral imaging. Such modern technology is used by MOTB researchers, and museum visitors also will see high-tech features on each of the four main floors.

Christianity Today magazine cover,
November 2017

The cover of Christianity Today magazine last November, the month the facility opened, showed a Bible under glass. Zeiss said that image could be misleading; he described the $42 million spent on technology and interactive activities such as video tables where guests can write their own reactions with their fingers and the Hebrew Bible 45-minute walk-through experience that includes a realistic, brightly burning bush from the book of Genesis.

“The fire department heard about it and came over here to see it, not realizing there’s no fire to it,” Zeiss said.

Years before the museum opened, its staff was posting Facebook videos and other social media items with scholars explaining biblical art, pieces of Egyptian papyrus or the ongoing construction of the “World of Jesus of Nazareth.”

“We’ve created as much of an interactive experience as possible,” Zeiss said. “Especially, you look at millennials and younger, that’s what they want; that’s what they’ve grown up with.

The Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., includes a replica of the press
on which Johannes Gutenberg printed his Latin Bible in 1455 in Mainz, Germany.
The Gutenberg Bible was the first complete book printed in Europe with
movable type. (Photo by Mike Haynes)

“We were up somewhere just below the Louvre in terms of hits on social media. People want to know about it. And they sense that we’re making history here.”

He also recommended a New Testament video in a wraparound theater.

“I took Ambassador Ron Dermer from Israel and his family on a tour, and they liked that as much as they like the Hebrew Bible experience,” he said.

Dermer’s involvement is typical of the wide net the museum has spread in its exhibits, research and education efforts. He said the MOTB board wanted to avoid criticism of its quality and focus.

“We knew we needed academic credibility from the get-go, or we would get all sorts of criticism,” Zeiss said. “You’re going to get it anyway; it’s the Bible, probably one of the most criticized books in the history of mankind.

“So we have used over 100 scholars to vet everything you read, every video you watch, every word you hear, for accuracy and authenticity.

“That in itself was a huge task, because we had Hebrew scholars, Catholic scholars, Protestant scholars and scholars of no faith. To get them to come together and synthesize all of that, to come together and agree on how these things should be presented, was pretty major.”

Some religion-based attractions, such as the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter in Kentucky, promote a particular Christian agenda.

“We’re not,” Zeiss said. “That’s how we were able to achieve loans from world-class museums around the world. This is the first, as far as I know, comprehensive, world-class museum to the Bible in history.”

The MOTB has attracted temporary exhibits from the Israeli Antiquities Authority, the Vatican, the Bavarian State Library in Munich, Germany, and from Jewish libraries in Amsterdam. Zeiss said the Israeli collection is from the national museum in Jerusalem.

“They have never loaned out their artifacts before, but they believe in this concept, and so they have an entire gallery and sent over 1,250 artifacts,” he said.

A temporary exhibit on the song, “Amazing Grace,” coincided with a musical in the MOTB’s World Stage Theater and focused on the role the anti-slavery movement played in John Newton’s writing the celebrated song.

Another example of the museum’s ecumenical approach is the year-long residency of Rabbi

Rabbi Eliezer Adam of Jerusalem is a scribe spending a year
at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. Adams
demonstrates to visitors how scribes copied the Torah centuries ago.
 (Photo by Mike Haynes)

Eliezer Adam, who Zeiss said is a certified scribe from Jerusalem. Adam works at a small desk, allowing visitors to watch him write portions of the Torah in the manner done centuries ago.

“You ought to see how he captures people’s attention,” Zeiss said.

Beyond the D.C. building, the MOTB has wide-ranging research and educational programs. The Scholars Initiative pairs college students with academic experts, and a digital-based curriculum ties in with the MOTB’s three areas of focus: the Bible’s history, narrative and impact.

            About 100,000 high school students in Israel already are beta-testing the material, Zeiss said, along with 40,000 in Great Britain and some at U.S. Christian private schools. “Again, it’s nonsectarian,” Zeiss said. “It’s just about the Bible.”

            As president of community colleges in Pueblo, Colorado, and Charlotte, North Carolina, Zeiss was known for getting projects done and raising funds for them. Now he faces a challenge of generating more than $36 million a year to operate a museum with 170 full-time and 35 part-time employees. Admission to the MOTB is free, so income comes from gift shop and other sales, museum member donations and guests’ suggested donations.

             Then-Charlotte Chamber President Bob Morgan told Charlotte Magazine in 2012, “What I love about Dr. Zeiss is that he’s passionate about whatever he’s passionate about. And he’s passionate about many things.”

            One of those things is the Bible, which seems to make him a good fit for this museum. “That’s why I’m here,” he said.

Jan. 21, 2018, column:

From history to technology, Museum of the Bible is as impressive as Disneyland

By Mike Haynes

Forty-foot-high bronze columns of type

copied from the 1455 Gutenberg Bible

flank the main entrance of the Museum

of the Bible, three blocks from the U.S.

Capitol in Washington, D.C.

(Photo by Mike Haynes)

            As a kid, one of my dreams was to go to Disneyland. I still haven’t made it to Anaheim, although I’ve been to the Florida version as a grownup.

       After my wife, Kathy, and I had been in the new Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., for less than an hour the week before last, I told her I was in Disneyland. Kathy was impressed, too, with the $500 million attraction that opened Nov. 17, but she was satisfied with one full day exploring the four main floors of displays, videos, touch screens and ancient artifacts.

            Two days weren’t quite enough for me.

            Not everyone will be as enraptured as I was to see a page from the Gutenberg Bible, which is the “Holy Grail” for someone interested in not only the Bible, but the invention of printing. But the MOTB has a page from that historic book, printed in Mainz,

Germany, in 1455. Johannes Gutenberg’s Catholic Bible in Latin is considered the first book printed with movable type in the western world, and it created a communications revolution.

            The museum entrance is flanked by two 40-foot-high replicas of columns of type from Gutenberg’s Bible. The 118 brass panels that form the columns give the building quite a grand entrance.

The lobby of the Museum of the Bible in

Washington, D.C., is topped by a 140-foot LED

screen that rotates various visual effects.

(Photo by Mike Haynes)

            I also am one of the few who are fascinated with the first King James Bible, printed in 1611 after England’s James I decided to approve a new Bible to replace the Geneva version, which he thought was too biased toward the Puritans. But the MOTB displays two of those 407-year-old Bibles, along with books that James wrote himself, such as his personal translation of the Psalms, printed six years after his 1625 death.

            As impressive as the museum’s biblical collection is, it also is a technological wonder. A video table shows in real time what words from the scriptures are being searched for in various countries around the world. At one moment on Jan. 8, “love” was the most-searched word in Cambodia and “sin” was the third-most-searched in Zimbabwe.

            Although just in the testing phase, “digital guides” – handheld tablets – can take you through the museum on a customized tour. When fully operational, the guides will store your high-priority exhibits and activities and steer you to them. Built-in GPS shows your location in the building within a few inches, and tapping on the map produces audio describing what’s in front of you.

Most impressive visually is a 140-foot LED screen that covers the lobby ceiling. Its color-drenched images constantly rotate from cathedral ceilings to stained glass to garden scenes.

            The museum is a renovated food refrigeration facility built almost 100 years ago. Its 430,000 square feet cover eight stories, four of them major exhibit areas. The museum’s content focuses on the Bible’s impact on society, its narrative and its history.

            The impact floor includes a 3,200-pound copy of the Liberty Bell that was lowered into the

James I of Great Britain not only sponsored the

King James version of the Bible, but he published

some of his own biblical writing, including “The

Psalms of King David, Translated byKing James.”

This version was published in 1631, six years

after his death. It is part of the Green Collection

at the Museum of the Bible. (Photo by Mike Haynes) 

building with a crane before the new roof was completed. Like the original, the bell is engraved with a verse from Leviticus 25. It’s in the “Bible in America” section.

            The narrative floor has a recreated Nazareth village, including a first century synagogue replica, the New Testament Theater and, our favorite, the “Hebrew Bible Experience.” For 45 minutes, visitors walk from theater to theater and room to room, experiencing a blazing bush emerging from the dark, a trek through stylized walls of simulated Red Sea water and an emotional retelling of the first Passover.

            The history floor features not only scores of notable Bibles but Dead Sea Scroll fragments, videos by “Drive Thru History” TV host Dave Stotts and “illumiNatons,” a circular area with shelves of Bibles translated into hundreds of languages – and spaces for many more languages still to be translated.

            All that and more, plus a restaurant and a kids’ play area – and extensive research and education programs that already have been going for a few years.

 ^rd Psalm in Greek on Egyptian papyrus, probably from the years 225 to 325 A.D.; a 1400s Torah from Spain written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic; a copy of John Newton’s song, “Amazing Grace,” in the Choctaw language.

This page of a papyrus manuscript

includes the 23^rd Psalm in Greek.

Part of the Museum of the Bible collection,

it was found in Egypt and probably dates

from 225 to 325 A.D. (Photo by Mike Haynes)

           The riches of this museum three blocks from the U.S. Capitol are diverse: Bibles once owned by Elvis Presley and Billy Graham; Julia Ward Howe’s 1861 handwritten words to “The Battle Hymn of the Republic;” a massive stone from Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem – the one the Romans destroyed in 70 A.D. (on loan from the Israel Antiquities Authority); an exhibit from the Vatican; the 23

            I was surprised by this Vincent van Gogh quote in the “Art and the Bible” section: “I cannot tell you how much I sometimes long for the Bible. I read it daily, but I would really like to know it by heart…”

            Maybe the most moving moment for Kathy and me was the finale of the museum’s first theatrical production in its World Stage Theater. It was “Amazing Grace: The Musical,” tracing Newton’s early life as a slave trader and his dramatic turnaround to oppose the immoral practice. Tears flowed as the audience joined the biracial cast in that amazing song.

            The musical now embarks on a national tour that will include stops in Ruidoso, New Mexico, April 4 and Wichita Falls April 17. I recommend it heartily. As I do this treasure of a museum.

This “digital guide” can take visitors around the

Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C.

The touch screen uses precise GPS to show guests

what displays they are near and even to guide

them to preferred exhibits. (Photo by Mike Haynes)

The impact floor of the Museum of the Bible in

Washington, D.C., includes an exhibit showing

how the Bible has affected men and women

who are incarcerated in prisons and jails.

(Photo by Mike Haynes)

Dec. 17, 2017, column:
Learning new things every day is exciting

By Mike Haynes

            An Amarillo College student told me last week that her mother puts sugar and a crushed pain killer tablet in their Christmas tree’s water to keep the tree fresh longer.

            My reply was, “Well, you learn something new every day.”

            That holiday practice may or may not be a sound one, but I hadn’t heard of it before. And it reminded me that in 2017, I’ve had more opportunities than ever to discover how little I know.

It doesn’t bother me; in fact, it’s exciting.

            A few years ago when I was receiving a writing-related honor, my parents also gave me a little trophy that included small human figures climbing up a stack of books. The base had a quote from Benjamin Disraeli:

            “To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge.”

            Here’s a list of a few people who have highlighted my ignorance in 2017:

Martin Luther’s nailing of his “95 Theses” to the

door of the Wittenburg church in 1517 has been

much noted in 2017, but few outside the academic

community know that although Luther escaped

harm for his criticism of the Catholic Church, others

didn’t. In November, West Texas A&M University

hosted a display of original documents from the

Remnant Trust, including Luther’s 1528 account

of “The Execution of Leonhard Kaiser.” Kaiser

was a Luther supporter who was burned at

the stake in 1527 for his Protestant views. 

·         Dr. Bruce Brasington, West Texas A&M history professor. I had read a book about Martin Luther in anticipation of the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation and even perused a copy of Luther’s famous “95 theses.” Then I watched a video of Brasington’s Remnant Trust lecture on the Reformation last month and realized how my knowledge of Luther is the tip of the iceberg. The WT historian quoted supporters and detractors of the German theologian through the centuries, including John Adams and Frederick Douglas, who both wrote that he inspired freedom, and John Locke, who said Luther just replaced Catholic intolerance with his own.

·         Jerry Klein, Jon Kohler and Mural Worthey, Amarillo College Bible chair directors. Those three men are trained in the field, so of course they know more than most of us. But hearing their views in weekly Bible studies has impressed upon me that they and many local ministers are founts of biblical knowledge, not to mention wisdom.

·         Dr. Andrew Hay, Denver Seminary’s West Texas site director. Yes, you can earn a seminary degree in Amarillo. I didn’t go that route, but I took four religion “lite” courses that Hay taught, ending this May. You have to concentrate to keep up with the many theological ideas, controversies and heresies in Christianity from the first century to now. Have you thought about gnosticism and why the early church rejected it? Did you know that some sermons you’ve heard originated with early church fathers such as Polycarp, who probably knew some of Jesus’ disciples and died as a martyr?

·         C.S. Lewis’ book, “Surprised by Joy.” Most known for “Mere Christianity” and the Narnia children’s books, Oxford professor Lewis may have been the most influential Christian writer of the 20^th century. Anywhere you start in his writings is going to spur your imagination and your intellect. I find myself re-reading sentence after sentence to unpack the meaning I missed the first time. And members of an Amarillo C.S. Lewis group dig deeper than I would on my own.

The Remnant Trust, based at Texas Tech University,

provided this 1528 account by Martin Luther

of “The Execution of Leonhard Kaiser” as part

of a display at West Texas A&M University in

November 2017. 

·         Joy Jordan-Lake’s new novel, “A Tangled Mercy.” Jordan-Lake, who wrote Amarillo College’s 2014 Common Reader book, has a new fictional story based on a real planned revolt in 1822 by slaves in Charleston, South Carolina. The book hits your emotions with great impact, and it also lets you know that the Charleston church that was the center of that 1822 attempted uprising is the same church that was the scene of the racist mass shooting in 2015.

I could go on. Each of those people has shown me just in a few months how much is to be learned from the past. This week, a friend posted this quote on Facebook from St. Augustine, one of those church fathers:

“A person does not go wrong when he knows that he does not know something, but only when he thinks he knows something he does not know.”

     I want to actually know a lot. But one cool thing about Christianity is that in the end, you really don’t have to know whether Luther was good or bad for the world or what the Arian heresy is. You just need to know that man is separated from God, that belief in Jesus Christ fixes that problem and that our response should be to love God and to love each other.

That’s all it takes for us to appreciate Luke 2:10-11:

“And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”

Nov. 12, 2017, column:
Collectors, others peruse ancient texts at OKC convention

By Mike Haynes

            Narrow, portable tables lined three walls of a hotel meeting room in Oklahoma City. They were filled with neatly arranged Bibles, church-related books and pages of ancient Bibles, some for sale and some just for display.

            The tables held everything from a single page of the original 1611 King James Bible to a four-inch-thick German book, also from the 1600s, containing sermons and scripture commentary in 1,344 pages. Above the German book was a note asking anyone in the room whether they could identify the author; the title page was missing.

Ancient and more recent Bibles and related

material were on display at the

International Society of Bible Collectors

convention in October in Oklahoma City.

(Photo by Mike Haynes)

            It was likely that someone attending the two-day convention of the International Society of Bible Collectors might have had the answer to the question. It was a small group, but the men and a few women making up this organization included seminary professors, former missionaries, pastors, a retired Air Force chaplain, authors, a retired physician and sellers of old Bibles.

            When these people say “old,” they don’t mean Grandmother’s family Bible from 1900. For the most part, they collect Bibles from the 1600s and before, and they are fascinated with the story of the various translations and editions that have transmitted God’s Word from ancient Hebrew times to handwritten copies in the Middle Ages to Gutenberg’s revolution in the 1450s to the Bibles the pilgrims brought to America – which weren’t the King James Version, by the way, but the English-language Geneva Bible, which was more popular in 1620, especially with the Puritans.

            The 2017 meeting was in Oklahoma City because that’s the home of Hobby Lobby, whose owners, the Green family, started collecting ancient Bibles and artifacts in 2009. The Greens have expanded that endeavor so fast that on Nov. 17, the Museum of the Bible will open in Washington, D.C., three blocks from the U.S. Capitol.

            The D.C. museum won’t just show off dusty old Bibles; it is a high-tech, eight-story, $500 million facility funded by the Greens and private donations. If you haven’t heard about it yet, you will.

            Much of the Green collection is stored in Oklahoma City when it isn’t rotated for display in

Amy Van Dyke, Oklahoma City exhibition curator for Museum

of the Bible, gives a presentation on art and the Bible at the

International Society of Bible Collectors convention in October.

(Photo by Mike Haynes)

Washington, and the ISBC members got to visit a cold warehouse to see items such as a piece of papyrus, around 2,000 years old, with Psalms 95-97 on it in Greek. A museum scholar displayed a letter written in 1518 by Martin Luther while on his way to be questioned at Augsburg, Germany. The letter includes the sentence, “I stand here fixed,” expressed three years before Luther reportedly said, “Here I stand” at a famous interrogation at Worms.

            Back at the hotel meeting room, members of the Bible group spoke on such topics as “The 21^st Century Relevance of a 17^th Century Bible Translation,” in which Dr. Donald Brake said the 1611 King James version’s language still is important although modern translations can be better for study. Dr. John Hellstern discussed, “Bible Collectors: Why do we do what we do?”

This 4-inch by 6-inch manuscript Bible,

possibly created by a professional scribe

in Paris in the early 1200s, was on display

at a Bible collectors’ convention in

Oklahoma City in October.

(Photo by Mike Haynes)

            And while there is a strong similarity to stamp or coin collecting, this group has an underlying commonality that goes beyond just accumulating stuff. I asked Hellstern about his work in England as a military chaplain, and he was proud that 103 soldiers had been baptized during his three years there. Part of the purpose of the ISBC, founded in 1964, is “promoting the preservation, study and understanding of the Bible…”

            Several of the members give presentations in their hometowns that focus on the sacrifices people have made through the centuries to ensure that the Bible has been copied, printed and distributed. Brake, Hellstern and others have donated their collections to the Dunham Bible Museum at Houston Baptist University.

            And a stained edition of the Geneva Bible, printed in London the same year as the first KJV, rested on a table with a note that that read: “It survived 406 years! In a cardboard cover! … Maybe it is not good if yours survives that long! Read your Bible every day.”

            I have the Bible collecting bug myself, which is why I drove to OKC for the convention. I restrained myself and bought only a $25 page from a 1582 Catholic Bible. I wasn’t in the market for the three-inch-thick French Bible from the 1200s, transcribed by hand on 4- by 6-inch pages with colorful embellishments. Its asking price was $50,000.

            The next ISBC convention will be next fall in Washington, D.C. I’m not waiting until then to visit that new museum.