Oklahoma Family Constructing Bible Museum In Nation's Capital

It’s been called the greatest story ever told, and now, thanks to an Oklahoma family, the Bible is about to have one of the country's greatest museums to help tell its story.

We first met Steve Green in the vast Hobby Lobby complex in Oklahoma City to talk about one of the most ambitious building projects in the country - a Bible museum in the heart of the nation's capital.

But it may not be the Bible museum you'd expect from a family of conservative Christians.

“This is not about a faith tradition. “It’s really not about faith,” he said.

The Greens are best known nationally for taking on the white house in a controversial Supreme Court case concerning contraception - and winning.

At the same time, Steve Green was amassing one of the world's biggest collections of biblical artifacts and manuscripts, and housing them in the nation’s capital seemed a logical choice.

“The world comes to D.C. We can have an influence on people all over the world with a museum in Washington D.C.,” he said.

We were so intrigued that we went to D.C. to take a look ourselves.

The building was massive, covering a full city block; just a stone’s throw from the national mall and within shouting distance of the Capitol.

“I had no idea when we got started that it was going to be what it was,” Green said.

At peak construction, 700 workers will be on the job every day.

“From a technical perspective, it’s probably the most complicated building we've ever delivered here in the city,” said Project Director Brian Flegel.

Cost estimates for the museum run at $800 million. Green said he knows devoting that kind of space and money, in this city, to the Bible will not come without controversy.

“Yes, the Bible is controversial, so there are going to be those who are going to be suspicious,” he said.

But Green said he's come to believe the museum will have a greater impact by taking a historical, rather than evangelical, approach - examining how the Bible has moved through the centuries, shaping cultures and lives.

That means no free Bibles, no chapel, no proselytizing.

Green said, “There are certain fence-posts that we don't cross. We trust that this book can speak for itself.”

And to help give it voice, the Greens have hired 12 design teams from firms that are usually competitors.

Lead designer Dan Murphy, whose latest project was the George Bush Presidential Library, said, in this case, they were brought together by the power of this vision.

“Collectively what we're doing here is essentially making a museum of museums, which is appropriate for the Book of Books,” he said

Green said, “Whether its government, or the economy, or science, art, literature, music...all these areas of life, the Bible has had its impact.”

And whatever their faith, whatever their background, Green believes every visitor to the museum will come away with a new understanding of the Bible.

Green: “I think it will blow them away to realize it has had the impact it has had.”
Terry: “It could be life-changing.”
Green: “I think that it will be.”

The museum is set to open in the fall of 2017, but a big controversy has already landed at its doorstep.

A federal investigation is underway concerning a shipment of ancient clay tablets from Israel in 2011. The tablets were destined for the Museum of the Bible but were seized by U.S. customs agents in Memphis.

Federal investigators are still trying to determine if they were legally brought into the country.