Museum of the Bible exhibit opens at OC

The art and Bible departments came together on Tuesday to bring the student body an exhibit of biblical proportions.

The first exhibit of the school year in the Oklahoma Christian University gallery opened, showcasing the Museum of the Bible.

“This exhibit is about biblical methods of study,” Curator Amy Van Dyke said. “…I wanted this exhibit to be able to open people’s eyes to different ways that the bible is studied, both in academia and outside of it.”

President John deSteiguer, Professor of New Testament John Harrison, Professor of Art & Design Michael O’Keefe and others worked together with the Museum of the Bible staff, including Van Dyke, in order to bring their collection to Oklahoma Christian University this semester.

The Museum of the Bible started as a private collection owned by David Green, founder of Hobby Lobby.

“It has transitioned to being a non-profit organization,” Van Dyke said. “So the Museum of the Bible is a separate entity from the private collection, but we are so closely tied still that we do loans between the two of us for items.”

Because the Museum of the Bible does not currently have a permanent home, the Passages exhibit has been on tour for the past several years. However, the organization’s offices are located in Oklahoma City.

“We have offices here, but we don’t really have a venue for anything local, and we wanted to be able to serve our community better with the things we have,” Van Dyke said.

The exhibit opened with a reception in the Conservatory Tuesday night. About 200 students, faculty, staff and members of the community were in attendance. David Trobisch, director of the collection, gave a lecture for the event.

Trobisch opened with a traditional poetic recitation of scripture, calling out “a story, a story” and asking the audience to respond with “let it come, let it go.”

“I think it was really interesting to hear his perspective as a non-American on how we read the Bible,” senior Parker LaMascus said. “He said as a Lutheran, his church is very comfortable with memorization and recitation… whereas Americans are very reluctant to memorize scripture. And seeing those different approaches to scripture really broadened my horizons.”

Van Dyke said working at the Museum of the Bible has helped her in her personal studies.

“I think it’s going to open their eyes to a different way of thinking about the Bible,” Van Dyke said. “I know for me, when I read the Bible on my own, I read it in a singular way. But then having worked at this collection for three years, I have learned about all the different ways people read it and study it and look at its text and look at its history… and it has helped me understand it more when I read it.”

Van Dyke said she hopes the exhibit at Oklahoma Christian will spur on students to learn more about antiquity and the Bible.

“I would hope that people would see these things, take the book, go home and then study it more… but hopefully this would ignite a little inspiration in everybody to go and learn more,” Van Dyke said.

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