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) |
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.”
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.
“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
“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.