{"id":233742,"date":"2019-10-07T03:40:47","date_gmt":"2019-10-07T07:40:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=233742"},"modified":"2019-10-07T03:40:47","modified_gmt":"2019-10-07T07:40:47","slug":"museum-of-the-bible-quietly-replaces-questioned-artifact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/10\/07\/museum-of-the-bible-quietly-replaces-questioned-artifact\/","title":{"rendered":"Museum of the Bible quietly replaces questioned artifact"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
The\u00a0museum\u00a0replaced\u00a0the\u00a0original microfilm\u00a0Bible\u00a0with one that was donated by an Oklahoma woman who wrote a book about\u00a0the\u00a0Apollo Prayer League, which arranged for Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell to carry tiny Bibles to\u00a0the\u00a0moon. (File Photo By Fuzheado – Own work\/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

OKLAHOMA CITY \u2014\u00a0The\u00a0Museum\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0Bible\u00a0in Washington quietly replaced an artifact purported to be one\u00a0of\u00a0a handful\u00a0of\u00a0miniature Bibles that a NASA astronaut carried to\u00a0the\u00a0moon in 1971 after an expert questioned its authenticity.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0move follows an announcement last year that at least five\u00a0of\u00a016 Dead Sea Scroll fragments that had been on display at\u00a0the\u00a0museum\u00a0were found to be apparent fakes.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0museum\u00a0replaced\u00a0the\u00a0original microfilm\u00a0Bible\u00a0with one that was donated by an Oklahoma woman who wrote a book about\u00a0the\u00a0Apollo Prayer League, which arranged for Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell to carry tiny Bibles to\u00a0the\u00a0moon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know for sure that one on display right now went to\u00a0the\u00a0moon, but we could not verify for sure that\u00a0the\u00a0one we had originally on display had gone to\u00a0the\u00a0moon,\u201d\u00a0museum\u00a0spokeswoman Heather Cirmo said. \u201cWe couldn’t disprove it, it just wasn’t certain.\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0$500 million\u00a0museum\u00a0was largely funded by\u00a0the\u00a0Green family, evangelical Christian billionaires who run\u00a0the\u00a0Oklahoma City-based Hobby Lobby chain\u00a0of\u00a0craft stores.\u00a0The\u00a0purported \u201clunar\u201d\u00a0Bible\u00a0is just\u00a0the\u00a0latest item purchased by\u00a0the\u00a0family to come under scrutiny.<\/p>\n

Steve Green,\u00a0museum\u00a0founder and president\u00a0of\u00a0Hobby Lobby, also purchased thousands\u00a0of\u00a0Iraqi archaeological artifacts for a reported $1.6 million, but was forced in 2018 to return them to\u00a0the\u00a0Iraqi government and Hobby Lobby paid a $3 million fine after authorities said they were stolen from\u00a0the\u00a0war-torn country and smuggled into\u00a0the\u00a0U.S.\u00a0Museum\u00a0officials have said none\u00a0of\u00a0those items were ever part\u00a0of\u00a0its collection.<\/p>\n

As for\u00a0the\u00a0Dead Sea Scrolls that were called into question,\u00a0the\u00a011 remaining fragments are being tested, with results expected by\u00a0the\u00a0end\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0year, Cirmo said. Two\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0fragments remain on display with signs noting that they are being tested.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0museum\u00a0did not announce that it was replacing\u00a0the\u00a0lunar\u00a0Bible\u00a0\u2014 a decision Cirmo defended.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s pretty ridiculous to think that any\u00a0museum, that every time you switch something out you’re going to announce it on plaques,\u201d Cirmo said. \u201cCollectors make mistakes all\u00a0the\u00a0time. … This is not something that is unique to Steve Green.\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0item that was previously displayed is now in storage, Cirmo said.<\/p>\n

Tulsa author Carol Mersch, who had raised concerns about its authenticity, donated\u00a0the\u00a0replacement\u00a0Bible.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Green) is thankful, as is\u00a0the\u00a0museum, that someone came forward and donated one that actually went to\u00a0the\u00a0moon … and that one didn’t cost anything,\u201d Cirmo said.<\/p>\n

Mersch was given 10 lunar Bibles by then-NASA chaplain\u00a0the\u00a0Rev. John Stout, a co-founder\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0Apollo Prayer League.<\/p>\n

Green, chairman\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0museum’s board, bought\u00a0the\u00a0original\u00a0Bible\u00a0for about $56,000. It had also been displayed at\u00a0the\u00a0Vatican.<\/p>\n

Mersch questioned its authenticity because it had a serial number that was only three digits; she said Stout engraved\u00a0the\u00a0authentic lunar Bibles with five-digit numbers. Mersch said\u00a0the\u00a0Bible\u00a0she provided was authenticated by both Stout and Mitchell.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought (donation)\u00a0the\u00a0best thing I could do to honour Rev. Stout. He had asked me to donate them to museums,\u201d Mersch said.<\/p>\n

Green bought\u00a0the\u00a0item that was originally on display from Georgia-based Peachstate Historical Consulting, which acquired\u00a0the\u00a0Bibles from Stout’s brother, James Stout.\u00a0The\u00a0Stout brothers are both dead, as is Mitchell. Peachstate owner David Frohman did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

In an interview with\u00a0The\u00a0Associated Press a month before\u00a0the\u00a0museum’s 2017 opening, Green acknowledged\u00a0the\u00a0museum\u00a0had made some mistakes early on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s a lot\u00a0of\u00a0complexities in areas that I’m still a novice at,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we are engaging\u00a0the\u00a0best experts we can to advise and help us in that process.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OKLAHOMA CITY \u2014\u00a0The\u00a0Museum\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0Bible\u00a0in Washington quietly replaced an artifact purported to be one\u00a0of\u00a0a handful\u00a0of\u00a0miniature Bibles that a NASA astronaut carried to\u00a0the\u00a0moon …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":233743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-233742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-art-and-culture","category-travel","mauthors-ken-miller","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233742"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":233744,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233742\/revisions\/233744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}