WHEN THE Museum of the Bible opened in Washington, dc in 2017, it boasted an exhibit to make archaeologists salivate: fragments of the Dead Sea scrolls. These 2,000-year-old scraps of parchment include the oldest known transcripts of the Old Testament-and the museum had 16 of them. Except that it didn't. In 2018 five of its fragments were revealed to be fakes. Last week, the museum announced that all 16 were forgeries, probably created in the 20th century out of ancient leather, perhaps from old shoes. The revelation is an embarrassment for the museum, which has sought to present itself as an academically rigorous institution worthy of its location just off the National Mall, where the Smithsonian's fine museums are located. The museum was founded by Steve Green, a prominent evangelical Christian and president of Hobby Lobby, a chain of craft shops which in 2014 persuaded the Supreme Court that it deserved a religious exemption from a federal requirement under which employers provide their workers with certain contraceptives. It has rebuffed criticisms that it is an expensive advertisement for fundamentalist Christianity. The museum has several respected biblical-scholar consultants and a breathtaking collection of biblical texts and artefacts. They include a Gilgamesh tablet from the second millennium bc and sections of the Gutenberg bible.
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