Yesterday afternoon, word came out that Hobby Lobby is buying the old St. Gregory’s University campus. I guess they need a place to house all their fake artifacts!
In case you missed it, the Hobby Lobby family quietly acknowledged this week that their $500-million hobby – The Museum of the Bible – has been displaying fake Dead Sea Scrolls and presenting them as real. I bet God got a good laugh out if it.
Via KOCO:
The Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., says five of its most valuable artifacts — once thought to be part of the historic Dead Sea Scrolls — are fake and will not be displayed anymore.
German-based scholars tested the fragments and found that five of the scrolls “show characteristics inconsistent with ancient origin and therefore will no longer be displayed at the museum.”
That’s nice. The family that’s made millions and millions and millions selling cheap, knockoff goods got swindled for millions and millions and millions by counterfeiters selling cheap knockoff goods.
CNN raised questions about the museum’s Dead Sea Scroll fragments in an article published last November, as the Green family prepared to unveil their new, $500 million museum. At 430,000 square feet, and with views of the Capitol, the Bible museum represents a significant investment for its evangelical founders.
Now scholars say the Dead Sea forgeries could be part of the most significant sham in biblical archeology since the “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife,” a fiasco that hoodwinked a Harvard scholar and made worldwide news in 2012. Some scholars estimate that as many as 70 forged fragments have hit the market since 2002.
“Though we had hoped the testing would render different results, this is an opportunity to educate the public on the importance of verifying the authenticity of rare biblical artifacts, the elaborate testing process undertaken and our commitment to transparency,” said Jeffrey Kloha, the chief curatorial officer for Museum of the Bible.
Yeah, there you go, public. The next time you’re looking to buy rare artifacts and antiquities for your bible museum, make sure to verify their authenticity. The first step in that process would be to listen to other experts and scholars:
Some scholars have been raising questions about supposed Dead Sea Scroll fragments for years, saying that unscrupulous antiquities dealers are preying on evangelicals like the Greens, making millions in the process.
Those same scholars questioned the Greens’ fragments even before the museum opened with splashy ceremonies last year, including an event attended by Vice President Mike Pence…
Kipp Davis, an expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls at Trinity Western University in Canada, was one of several academics who has tried to warn Christians, including the Green family, about the forgeries.
Davis, who studied the fragments for the Museum of the Bible, said Monday’s news about the fakes felt like bittersweet vindication. His takeaway: Evangelicals and others whose faith motivates them to collect artifacts should be very careful with antiquities dealers eager to pique their interest in supposedly ancient scraps of scripture.
Karma.
Don’t forget about the looted artifacts they were forced to return to Iraq after illicitly purchasing them with full knowledge they were stolen from various archaeological sites…
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/01/607582135/hobby-lobbys-smuggled-artifacts-will-be-returned-to-iraq
At least this time, Holy Hobby Lobby’s money went to talented forgers, artists if you will, instead of the terrorist looters who sold them the stolen antiquities. We still don’t know what violence that funded.
They could start a new line of craft kits for their customers to make their own fake Dead Sea Scroll artifacts. Start with pages from an Israeli or Armenian newspaper, tear into random pieces, let sit out in the sun for a couple weeks to yellow, add some antiquing around the edges, glue on to poster board and frame (sold separately) for display. Voila!
In way-out Christian circles, authenticity doesn’t much matter. These fragments LOOKED like the Dead Sea Scrolls to almost everyone… right? So what’s the problem?
The holier-than-thou crowd used to say that character and religious faith matter dominantly in choosing a President. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama failed their test. But Donald Trump passes?
With all too many of these folks, there is nothing about them that isn’t phony.
There’s a sucker born every minute.” – P. T. Barnum
“You can’t cheat an honest man.” – W. C. Fields
Good Stuff, Graychin. Keep on keeping on.
Aw, look. The Conservative Evangelicals took Michelle Obama’s advice. They went “high”:
““Though we had hoped the testing would render different results, this is an opportunity to educate the public on the importance of verifying the authenticity of rare biblical artifacts, the elaborate testing process undertaken and our commitment to transparency,” said Jeffrey Kloha, the chief curatorial officer for Museum of the Bible.”
Don’t ya just love opportunities to be educated??
Pssst. He pal…. wanna buy the Shroud of Turin?
Don’t cry for the Green’s. They have more money than God. So whatever they’re paying for phony relics is just a drop in the bucket. These are folks who spent tens of millions of dollars to open a museum about the Bible in WASHINGTON D.C.! Maybe the only worst place to open a museum of the Bible is that vacant Sears store across the street from Mecca. If they built it there to influence Congress then this speaks volumes about their naivety. They should persuade politicians the old-fashioned way, just buy them. It’s cheaper, easier and less chance of misunderstandings.
Can we interest you in a slightly used “Ark Experience”?
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/10/attendance-collapses-creationist-ark-museum-kentucky-taxpayers-spent-millions-building-theme-park/
Know who else searched for rare artifacts and antiquities? Nazi Germany. Reference: (no, not the Indiana Jones saga), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_archaeology
Gotta prove your ancestry. One of the tenets of the Nazi Ahnenerbe, Weltanschauungswissenschaften or World View Sciences, stated that culture and science were as one, and carried certain “race-inherent values”.
THEY spent 500 million dollars to be on the mall in DC, whores of Babylon … bull shit artist, snake oil salesman what do you want to call it….
Business as usual for the right wing nut corporation, aka Hobby Lobby. Makes you want to throw up.