Press Release

Distinguished Members of the Council Have Been Providing Oversight and Insight on Museum’s Exhibition Materials and Galleries

WASHINGTON–Today, Museum of the Bible announces a distinguished list of advisors for the museum that will open its doors to the public this November. The council is comprised of archaeologists, professors, theologians and scholars and includes pastors, priests and rabbis. Members hold advanced degrees from such distinguished institutions as Yale, Oxford, Cambridge, Wharton, University of London, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Yeshiva College, Catholic University of America, Claremont College, NYU and more.

“We are honored to have such an esteemed group of experts join our efforts through the Advisory Council,” says Museum of the Bible President Cary Summers. “We’re grateful to the council for lending their formidable talents and expertise to ensure the museum exhibits are of highest possible quality.”

Over the last three years, Museum of the Bible’s internal staff and professional design firms have worked extensively with leading subject matter experts to build creative and academically reliable galleries. The work of creating the concept and content of the museum began with professional design firms and the museum’s own team of experts and curators.

Along the way, expert consultants refined the coherence, accuracy, and balance of the content in each gallery. Signage, images, and media programs are being assembled into exhibits and galleries, eventually populating the museum’s three main floors: the Impact Floor, the History Floor and the Narrative Floor. 

With the steady completion of exhibit content, the museum has been applying a final layer of scrutiny. Members of the Advisory Council are reviewing signage, videos and visuals to advise about the cohesiveness, accuracy, fidelity, and cultural sensitivity of content being used in the museum. 

“This distinguished council speaks to the level of rigor we have applied to both the creative and academic review processes,” says Museum of the Bible Executive Director Tony Zeiss, “And it also demonstrates the institution’s commitment to quality in everything we publish and create. This is truly an exciting, new phase of the journey and it means the opening of the Museum of the Bible is close at hand.”    

“These are some of the brightest academic minds in the world” says Allen Quine, the museum’s vice president of international relations & new business development. “We’re incredibly honored to have a council comprised of such a diverse and accomplished list of scholars and leaders. Their support speaks to the level of excellence we aim to achieve as an institution and will continue to strive for as we invite all people to engage with the Bible.” 

See the full Academic Advisory Council listed below.

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About Museum of the Bible 

Museum of the Bible is an innovative, global, educational institution whose purpose is to invite all people to engage with the Bible. In 2017, Museum of the Bible, which aims to be the most technologically advanced museum in the world, will open its 430,000-square-foot nonprofit museum just three blocks from the Capitol in Washington, D.C. A digital fly-through of the Museum is viewable here. A 360-degree hardhat tour of the museum is available here. 

Website | www.museumofthebible.org  Twitter | @museumofBible

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Advisory Council

Museum of the Bible

Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein, Director of Interfaith Affairs for the Simon Wiesenthal Center. He holds the Sydney M. Irmas Adjunct Chair in Jewish Law and Ethics at Loyola Law School.  Extensive writer on Orthodox Judaism and issues of Jewish culture.

Rabbi David Baron, born in New York, graduate of Hunter College of the City University of New York with a double major in Political Science and Hebrew Literature. After his ordination, he served conservative pulpits in New Jersey and Florida before moving to Los Angeles. Founding Rabbi of Temple of the Arts in 1992, he is the rabbi of the largest arts and entertainment-industry synagogue in the United States: Temple of the Arts, in Beverly Hills, which owns the 1900-seat Saban Theatre.

Joshua Berman, Ph.D., professor of Bible at Bar-Ilan University in Israel serves as a research fellow at the Herzl Institute, with primary areas of research in biblical law and narrative, and is a recipient of the Rotenstreich Fellowship of the Israel Council for Higher Education.

His most recent book is Inconsistency in the Torah: Ancient Literary Convention and the Limits of Source Criticism (Oxford, 2017).  His previous book, Created Equal: How the Bible Broke with Ancient Political Thought (Oxford, 2008) was a National Jewish Book Award Finalist in Scholarship.  He has written on Bible and society in Mosaic Magazine and the Wall Street Journal.

Michelle P. Brown, FSA, is Professor Emerita of Medieval Manuscript Studies, School of Advanced Study University of London; was Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts, British Library, and specializes in cultural & book history.  She is a Visiting Professor at University College London and at Baylor University and is a Senior Researcher at the University of Oslo.

Gordon Campbell, D.Phil. and a D.Litt., serving at University of Leicester as Fellow in Renaissance Studies and University Public Orator; specialist in Renaissance, 17th century, John Milton, Biblical Studies, Historical Theology, King James Bible, Classical Antiquity, architecture, and the Islamic world.

Robert Cooley, Ph.D., Vice Chair of the Board for Museum of the Bible, President Emeritus of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. A biblical scholar and archaeologist, served as professor and administrator; as President of tThe Association of Theological Schools; has overseen excavations in the U.S., Israel and Egypt; was senior editor for Christianity Today.

Simon Crisp, D.Phil. University of Oxford, M.A. University of Birmingham.  A Bible translation specialist, serving as Coordinator for Translation Standards and Scholarly Editions with the United Bible Societies. Honorary Fellow of Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing at the University of Birmingham. Publishes in Bible translation, linguistics, hermeneutics, exegesis and N.T. textual criticism.

Michael Cromartie, is Vice President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and director of the Evangelicals in Civic Life and Faith Angle Forum programs. His area of expertise is the cross-section of religion and politics; senior fellow with The Trinity Forum; six years as a presidential appointee to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, where he was twice named Chair of the Commission.

Andrzej Gieniusz is the New Testament Editor at Biblica, a professor of the New Testament at the Theological Faculty of the Pontificia Università Urbaniana, and director of its language department.  He has published on Romans and Paul's theology.

Seymour (Sy) Gitin, Ph.D. in Syro-Palestinian Archaeology, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion; archeologist specializing in Ancient Israel, Dorot Director and Professor of Archaeology Emeritus, W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem.

Christopher de Hamel, doctorates from both Oxford and Cambridge, and two honorary D. Litts;  a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and formerly librarian of the Parker Library; a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries; a member of the Comité international de Paléographie latine, and on the council of the Association internationale de Bibliophilie; formerly chairman of the Association for Manuscripts and Archives in Research Collections; and author of numerous books, including the prize-winning Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts (2106).

John Lennox, M.A M.Math. Ph.D. (Cambridge) M.A. D.Phil. (Oxford) DSc. (Wales) M.A. (Bioethics) Surrey is Emeritus Professor of Mathematics in the University of Oxford, Emeritus Fellow in Mathematics and the Philosophy of Science at Green Templeton College, Oxford and Associate Fellow at the Said Business School, Oxford.  Published on mathematics and the interface between science, philosophy, and theology, and biblical studies.

Rev. James Martin, SJ, (M.Div., Th.M., Weston Jesuit School of Theology; B.S Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania), a Jesuit priest, writer, and editor-at-large of the Jesuit magazine America.  Author of numerous books including the bestselling Jesus: A Pilgrimage and The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything.  Appointed in 2017 by Pope Francis as a consultor to the Vatican’s Secretariat for Communication.  Resident of the America House Jesuit Community, is frequently called for appearances in the national and international media for cultural and Catholic perspectives and opinion.

Alister McGrath, D.Phil, D.D., and D.Litt. from Oxford University; serves as the Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion at the University of Oxford, and Fellow of Harris Manchester College, Oxford.  Published on historical theology, the interface of science and religion, and the history of Christian thought

Yossi Prager, graduate of Yeshiva College; J.D., Yale Law School; is Executive Director for North America of The AVI CHAI Foundation; served on the Steering Committee for the Orthodox Forum, as an occasional dayan for the Beth Din of America and on The Governor’s Study Commission on New Jersey’s Nonpublic Schools; and writes and lectures on Judaism, Jewish education and philanthropy.

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Ph.D. from New York University; the founding Rabbi of Lincoln Square Synagogue, founding Rabbi of the Israeli community of Efrat in the West Bank; served as Associate Professor of Tanakh and Talmud at Yeshiva University; is Chancellor of the Ohr Torah Stone Institutions; is Chancellor of The Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation.

Stan Rosenberg, Ph.D., Catholic University of America; serves as founder and executive director of SCIO: Scholarship and Christianity, Oxford; as a member of the Wycliffe Hall academic staff, and Oxford University’s Theology and Religion Faculty. Written on Late Antiquity and Latin Patristics, especially Augustine, exegesis, preaching, Christianization, Late Antique culture, early Christian cosmology, and Neo-Platonism.  He also runs science and religion projects funded by major award bodies and has written on these issues.

Emile Schrijver is General Director of the Jewish Historical Museum and the Jewish Cultural Quarter in Amsterdam. He is also a professor of Jewish Book History at the University of Amsterdam’s Faculty of Humanities, the acting curator of the Braginsky Collection of Hebrew Manuscripts and Printed Books in Zurich, Switzerland and the General Editor of the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Jewish Book Cultures. He serves on the boards of various Jewish organizations in the Netherlands and abroad.

Marvin A. Sweeney, Ph.D., Claremont Graduate University; serves as Professor of the Hebrew Bible at Claremont School of Theology and the Academy for Jewish Religion California. Professor of Tanak at the Academy for Jewish Religion; specialist in biblical theology, literary-critical methodologies, exegesis of ancient biblical texts, and the interrelationship between religion and politics.

Emanuel Tov, Ph.D., professor emeritus Hebrew University of Jerusalem; a specialist of textual criticism of the Hebrew and Greek biblical texts; served as the editor-in-chief of the International Dead Sea Scrolls Publication Project; and is one of the editors of the Hebrew University Bible Project. He is a fellow of the national academics of Israel, Great Britain and the United States.

Rabbi David J. Wolpe, is the Rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, California. He previously taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York, the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, Hunter College, and UCLA. Rabbi Wolpe’s work has appeared in the New York Times, and he is a columnist for Time.com, written for The LA Times, the Washington Post’s On Faith website, The Huffington Post, and the New York Jewish Week. He has appeared on the Today Show, Face the Nation, ABC this Morning, and CBS This Morning.