Located in Washington, D.C., the Museum of the Bible is a must-see for any Christian family.
My family attended the museum on one of their Homeschool Days. It was crowded with families, but we were still able to move throughout the museum rather easily.
Although this is a fairly young museum, compared to the Smithsonian which has been around for a while, they have quite an extensive collection & displays. They also seem to be in the process of adding to the museum.
They have 7 floors of exhibits. Plan for a full day at this museum alone. In fact, if you lived close enough, you’d probably could go slower and see more exhibits, plus the changing displays. We went rather quickly through some floors and skipped some of the extra exhibits that required a paid ticket and still had a full day.
We started on the the 6th floor. What a view! From this building you can see the tops of other buildings, including the Washington Monument, and off in the distance you can see the city itself. On this floor, is also the Manna Restaurant which is a little pricey, but offers unique Mediterranean cuisine with added local convenience. There are a few children’s items on the menu as well. We loved a few items, and could “pass” on a few others…it just wasn’t our taste. On this floor is also the “Gathering Room” where they had several tables/displays for us homeschool kids. I felt a little too old for most of these. They seem to be geared towards elementary kids. Although it was cool to handle some actual artifacts.
We then went down to the 5th floor. Now both my parents & I really liked this floor. We watched 2 short movies in the Israel Antiquities Authority room which were really interesting. In fact, we probably should have watched them twice. But in this room are displays of pottery, homes, coins, coffins, scrolls, and a piece of the Wailing Wall. This was a neat display.
Working our way down the museum, we hit the 4th floor. This one is somewhat interactive. You are literally walking through the history of the Bible…codexes, copywork, Vulgate, Gutenberg, Luther, King James, etc. I’m not sure how many were original or simply copies/duplicates, but it was cool to see. Spread throughout this floor are also little movies giving the history background of different area/time frames as well as the Drive Thru History Theater….yeah the dude in the jeep.
The 3rd floor is a must-see for everyone; especially families with little children. They actually have an ancient village with play-actors who will answers questions and do mini-presentations while remaining in character. Its called the World of Jesus of Nazareth. The homeschool day gave us a packet we should fill-out as we talked with different actors: carpenter, priest, shepherd, etc. Also on this floor is an excellent movie that everyone should watch in the New Testament Theater. I believe the movie was made specifically for this theater and the curtains move to open wider for impact during the presentation. I can say this movie is moving & there were quite a few tears throughout the audience.
We ran through the 2nd floor as we were losing time. This floor deals with the Bible in America and throughout the rest of the World. It shows how the Bible has affected music, fashion, art, etc. I even got to see Elvis Presley’s Bible. Since I’m a fan – this was awesome.
The 1st floor is the basically the lobby & welcome center. However, you must do the VR Reality Tour of the the Lands of the Bible (unless you easily get motion sickness). This was cool, as was the Washington Revelations (up on the 2nd floor), a panoramic virtual flight over Washington DC that shows you the common monuments and museums of D.C. I believe both of these required extra paid tickets.
You will exit through the Gift/Museum Shop as you leave. Lots of treasure & goodies here. You can always purchase this online from their shop once you are home so you don’t need to worry about lugging around too many souvenirs.
We actually drove up to this museum and reserved a parking spot (using SpotHero) in a nearby parking deck. This would definitely be the way to go unless you are taking the Metro – they are right next to the Federal Center SW Metro Station. See their website for Parking Garages & Plan your Visit Page. Tip: take a picture of your car, floor level & parking spot in garage with your cell phone as a reminder of where you parked.
Again, this museum is worth a visit. Check out their website for more information. For homeschool info:
- click on their MENU icon in the upper left hand corner
- type “Homeschool” in the Search box located at the bottom
Currently they have an upcoming Homeschool Day scheduled for November 8, 2019.
Museum of the Bible – museumofthebible.org
https://www.crazyjcgirl.com/moh4-mystery-of-history4/ I believe this field trip would be appropriate when studying MOH2 – Mystery of History II. The following MOH topics are related to this museum:
MOH2: Dead Sea Scrolls, Vulgate, Gutenberg
MOH3: Martin Luther, William Tyndale
MOH4: Great Awakening (Jonathan Edwards & George Whitefield)
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