Hobby Lobby CEO Shares Bible Collection in Jerusalem

Hobby Lobby CEO David Green and his wife Jackie were on hand for the opening of Jerusalem’s Bible Lands Museum exhibit “The Book of Books.” The Green family are devout Christians and want people to know the importance of the Bible. David also hopes this exhibit will bring more Christians to the Holy Land. 

“I think there is a certain desire amongst Christians to visit Israel, and Jerusalem specifically, and hopefully this exhibit will give them the motivation to come and see the land that Jesus walked,” Green told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive interview.

The collection includes Dead Sea scrolls, Codex Climaci Rescriptus (written in Aramaic, Jesus’ language), and the Gutenberg Bible. There is also a 14th century chronicle of Jesus’ lineage and letters from John Wycliffe, who was an early critic of the Catholic Church. From FOX News:

“It’s a bit of a history of the Bible, starting from the Dead Sea scrolls going through the King James version and many of the artifacts show that timeline,” Hobby Lobby President Steve Green told FoxNews.com on Monday by phone. “With our collection as a whole, we wanted to encourage people to know their Bible better, whether it be here in America or anywhere around the world.”

The Greens’ faith is the foundation for their popular craft store Hobby Lobby. The stores are closed on Sunday and they are fighting the federal government’s mandate that the morning after pill be covered on health insurance because it violates their religious freedom. As Christians, they are pro-life and believe life begins at conception. 

“We have operated our businesses on the Bible, and we have raised our family according to the Bible,” he said. “We started with a Bible collection to tell the story of the Bible, which obviously brought us to Israel, and working with the Bible Lands Museum was an exciting opportunity for us to have the exhibit here, sharing the story of the Bible.”

The exhibit runs until May 2014 and the artifacts will be featured at a future unnamed Washington, D.C. museum that opens in 2017. The Greens own over 40,000 pieces and it is considered to be one of the largest private Bible collections in the world.