Museum of the Bible Announces Formation of International Advisory Council

Museum of the Bible announces a distinguished list of advisers 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 review. Members of the Advisory Council are reviewing signage, videos and visuals to advise about the cohesiveness, accuracy, fidelity and cultural sensitivity of content 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 and 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.” 

Members include: 

Gordon Campbell, D.Phil. and 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 and president emeritus of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. A biblical scholar and archaeologist, served as professor and administrator; as president of the Association of Theological Schools; has overseen excavations in the U.S., Israel and Egypt; was senior editor for Christianity Today.

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 and also serves as a faculty member at Yeshiva of Los Angeles. 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 and at Shalem College in Israel and serves as a research fellow at the Herzl Institute, with primary areas of research in biblical law and narrative, and recipient of the Rotenstreich Fellowship of the Council for Higher Education.

Michelle P. Brown, former professor of medieval manuscript studies, professor emerita, School of Advanced Study University of London; was curator of illuminated manuscripts, British Library, and specializes in cultural and book history. She is a senior researcher at the University of Oslo.

Simon Crisp, D.Phil., University of Oxford, M.A. University of Birmingham. A Bible translation consultant, 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; he serves as senior advisor to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, senior fellow with The Trinity Forum and advisory editor of Christianity Today.

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, professor of archaeology, and former director of the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem.

Christopher de Hamel, four doctorates from both Oxford and Cambridge and two honorary D. Litts; serves as a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries; a member of the Roxburghe Club; on the Comité international de Paléographie Latine; a member of the Athenaeum; the council of the Association internationale de Bibliophilie; and serves as Chair of the Association for Manuscripts and Archives in Research Collections.

John Lennox, Ph.D., M.Math and a D.Phil., all from Cambridge and Oxford, serves as professor of mathematics at the University of Oxford and emeritus fellow in mathematics and the philosophy of science at Green Templeton College, Oxford. Published on the interface between science, philosophy and theology.

James J. Martin, MBA Wharton School of Business; a Jesuit priest, writer and editor-at-large of the Jesuit magazine America. Resident of the America House Jesuit Community, is frequently called for appearances in the media for cultural and Catholic perspectives and opinion.

Alister McGrath, D.Phil and D.D. from Oxford University; serves as the Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion at the University of Oxford; as senior research fellow at Harris Manchester College, Oxford; president of the Oxford Center for Christian Apologetics and as associate priest, Church of England. 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; serves as executive director for North America of The AVI CHAI Foundation; served on the Steering Committee for the Orthodox Forum; a dayan for the Beth Din of America; on the Governor’s Study Commission on New Jersey’s nonpublic schools; and writes and lectures on Judaism, Jewish education and philanthropy.

Stan Rosenberg, Ph.D., Catholic University of America; serves as founder and director of 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, religious, aesthetics and neo-Platonism.

Emile Schrijver is professor of Jewish Book History at the University of Amsterdam’s Faculty of Humanities, a curator of the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana and curator of the Braginsky Collection in Zurich; serves as chair of the board of the Jewish Educational Centre ‘Crescas’ and on the advisory boards of various Jewish organizations in the Netherlands and abroad; editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Jewish Book Culture.

Emmanuel 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.

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Ph.D. from New York University; the founding Rabbi of Lincoln Square Synagogue, founding rabbi of the Israeli settlement 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.

Marvin Sweeney, Ph.D., Claremont Graduate University; serves as professor of the Hebrew Bible at Claremont School of Theology; 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.

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 who has written for The Los Angeles 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.