~Wifey & Hubby
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I'm not sure how to start this. Hubby and Wifey asked me to guest post about my own adventure with my own wifey at The Great Passion Play in Eureka Springs. Particularly the Bible Museum attached to their Gift Shop.
I typically post about theology and Christian living on my own weirdly named blog, Ronin's Journey. When I started sending them pictures of 600+-year-old Bibles, they thought you guys would enjoy some theology and history as you travel vicariously through Werdehausen Adventures.
My wife and I had a rare opportunity to get away for a couple of days, so we headed to Eureka Springs, AR, home of the Christ of the Ozarks. We were last there in 2009, where we watched the Passion Play, a play about the last days of Jesus' life. They even had an ASL Interpreter (by request when I ordered tickets over the phone) for my wife who's Deaf.
Besides the play and statue, they have gift shops (for my wife) and museums for me. I went to the Bible Museum and started to nerd out. So much history surrounded me.
There is a page of the original manuscript of the Wycliffe Bible. It's 638 years old. John Wycliffe was born in 1330 and died in 1384. Because he butted heads with the Catholic Church over certain doctrinal issues he was arrested.
In 1380 he began translating the Bible into English from the Latin Vulgate because he believed all Christians should have access to the Bible, by hand. I get a cramp just thinking about it.
The Church had this to say about it;
"By this translation, the Scriptures have become vulgar, and they are more available to lay, and even to women who can read, than they were too learned scholars, who have a high intelligence. So the pearl of the gospel is scattered and trodden underfoot by swine."
He was a Protestant before there was a Reformation. You could say he was one of the first.
In the next case, there was a page from the Gutenberg Bible from 1455 that was printed on calfskin. 568 years old, the Gutenberg Bible is the first big book printed on a printing press that had a movable metal type. That greatly sped up the printing process.
Before it's invention everything was hand copied. Cramps again. Or the typeface was carved from wooden metal blocks.
Moving down to the next case, opened up, was an ornate Martin Luther Bible from 1599. Who's that?
Martin Luther's the man who unintentionally started the Protestant Reformation in 1517 when he nailed the 95 Theses to the church's door.
He wanted to debate, instead, it spread as a call for reformation.
By 1534 he had completely translated (with help) the Bible into German from the original Greek and Hebrew. This made it more accurate than the previous translations from the Latin Vulgate.
Turning to my left, I saw artifacts that were almost 2,000 years old. Among them were a few newer things like a wineskin made of goatskin. I sent Wifey and Hubby a picture of it, asking if they would drink from it.
For some reason, they declined.
Looking at it made a couple of verses from Luke more vivid. In Luke 5:37-39, Jesus said, "And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’”
That's essential leather, and it gets stuck in that shape and size as it dries. Rigid. I could see how it would burst as new wine fermented in the old skin.
Looking up, I saw the famous 'widow's mite'. It was smaller than a penny.
On the next shelf were lamps. I was attracted to the 1st Century lamp. It's small and could fit into my palm.
I'm not sure if it's the type of lamp referenced in the Sermon on the Mount;
"You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."
I am pretty sure it's the lamp mentioned in the Parable of the Lost Coin:
"Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’
Can you imagine trying to find a coin with such a tiny lamp?
You would really have to want to find it. That's why it's such a good parable as an example of God's tenacity to bring back lost people.
The best part of the Museum is that it's free. There are other free attractions there like a History Museum with a focus on making a case for the Christian Worldview. As a $1 Dollar Apologist, I mostly enjoyed it, though I disagreed on a couple of areas.
We didn't go through The Marketplace, but that's okay. Gives us something to do the next time.
If you're ever around northwest Arkansas then stop by Eureka Springs. You can spend hours at the Passion Play alone. A day shopping in the Historic District (good luck finding parking though). A few miles outside the city there is a big cat refuge called the Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge that has lions, tigers, and bears (Oh MY!) and more. We spent hours there too.
It won't disappoint.
