LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--THE BIBLE Executive Producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey along with Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment announced today “The Bible Experience” – an exquisite gallery featuring rare biblical artifacts and an array of breathtaking photography from the series production in celebration of the epic miniseries. Previously at the Vatican, these one-of-a-kind rare artifacts will be on display exclusively for the first time ever in New York, March 20-27.
Featured in “The Bible Experience” exhibit are rarely seen and priceless Biblical artifacts on loan from the Green Collection. “As stewards of these awe-inspiring texts and artifacts, we are thrilled about the opportunity to share them with the creators of THE BIBLE TV series and to celebrate this timely and transformative contribution to our culture's conversation on the book that has changed our world,” said Steve Green representing the family. “These items are of great historical and biblical significance and demonstrate the Bible's impact on every facet of life throughout the ages. We hope the experience of standing mere inches from them will inspire viewers to find a new appreciation for this most-banned, most-debated, best-selling book of all time.” The Green Collection is a private collection with several traveling exhibitions, the largest of which is Passages. The collection has 40,000 biblical pieces that will be housed in its permanent location in Washington D.C. Due to open in 2017; the museum will cover an entire city block.
"Roma and I are thrilled to be working with the Green Family and their rare Bible collection artifacts and to give New Yorkers an opportunity to glimpse the foundation of Western Civilization" said Mark Burnett, "you have seen the TV series, now see the real thing".
Guests will also take a unique and emotionally charged journey as they experience the imagery and striking beauty of photographs from the set of THE BIBLE and the greatest stories ever told. “The works of photographers Joe Albas and Casey Crafford are extraordinary,” said executive producer Roma Downey. “Their images are powerful and need no words to convey emotion. You can't help but be touched by the poignant expressions of these iconic figures. Mark and I are honored to take you on this visual journey with us, so that you might experience the wonder we felt in Morocco as our dream of making The Bible series came to life.”
Making their New York debut, a few notable rare relics including:
- Dead Sea Scroll Fragments: Daniel 10:18-20, and Jeremiah 23:6-9: Three pieces will be on display in this exhibit, containing portions from the book of Daniel, Jonah, and Jeremiah
- Medieval Torah Scroll, 14th century: One of oldest surviving Torah Scrolls in the world
- Codex Climaci Rescriptus: Between the late 4th and early 9th centuries AD, it represents one of the earliest near complete Bibles in the world. With two layers of text some of which are written in Aramaic, the language of Jesus Christ
- Bodmer Papyrus: From the 3rd century AD, these leaves are from one of the oldest near-complete books of Psalms in Greek
- Gutenberg Leaf: Isaiah 44-5, Mainz, Germany, 1454: The first book printed in moveable typeset in the Western world
- Aitken Bible: First English language Bible printed in the United States and the ONLY Bible ever officially authorized by the Congress
- Eliot Indian Bible: First Bible Printed in America. It was translated into Algonquin to help convert the Native Americans
- King James "She" Bible, London, England, 1613: Commissioned by King James the 1st of England and the 6th of Scotland. It took a committee of 47 scholars seven years to finish the project. It is significant in that it contained a printing error in the Book of Ruth
- Pocket Bible, Italy, c. 1240-1250: Produced in Italy between 1240 and 1250, it contains all of the books of the Bible in a single volume
- Rice Psalter, London, England, c. 1450: This book of Psalms, is an exquisite example of English Gothic manuscript illumination
- Complutensian Polyglot, Vol. 1, Alcalá de Henares, Spain, 1514-1517: The first printed polyglot of the entire Bible; it simultaneously displays the text of the Bible in as many as four different languages: Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and Latin
- Cairo Geniza Manuscript Fragments, Cairo, Egypt, c. 1150 – c. 1250: Dating from the twelfth to the thirteenth centuries, contains portions of prayer books from the Karaite Jewish tradition, including morning prayers, prayers for the Holiday of Booths, and prayers of the New Moon
The Bible Experience is located at 450 West 14th Street between Washington and 10th Avenue and will run 10:00AM to 6:00PM daily from March 20, 2013 to March 27, 2013. Admission is free.
Epic mini-series, THE BIBLE, premieres every Sunday on HISTORY® over the next three Sundays (3/17, 3/24, 3/31) culminating on Easter. From Genesis to Revelation, the series illuminates the Bible, re-telling the stories as they unfold and revealing new insights into these iconic characters in context of the Bible. The series will feature some of the most famous stories ever written from Noah’s Ark and the Exodus to Daniel in the Lion’s Den to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. To date, over 50 million cumulative viewers have seen at least a portion of the series since it began on March 3* (includes 9 telecasts across History and Lifetime). This Sunday will see the episodes covering the New Testament and the arrival of Jesus.
THE BIBLE series is produced for HISTORY by LightWorkers Media and Hearst Entertainment & Syndication. Executive Producers are Roma Downey, Mark Burnett and Richard Bedser. Executive Producers for HISTORY are Dirk Hoogstra and Julian P. Hobbs.
About TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, LLC (TCFHE) is a recognized global industry leader and a subsidiary of Twentieth Century Fox Film, a News Corporation company. Representing over 75 years of innovative and award-winning filmmaking from Twentieth Century Fox, TCFHE is the worldwide marketing, sales and distribution company for all Fox film and television programming, acquisitions and original productions as well as all third party distribution partners on DVD, Blu-ray™, Digital Copy, Digital HD™, and VOD (video-on-demand). Each year TCFHE introduces hundreds of new and newly enhanced products, which it services to retail outlets from mass merchants and warehouse clubs to specialty stores and e-commerce throughout the world.
About ROMA DOWNEY
A celebrated, Emmy® nominated actress Roma Downey is best known for her nine seasons as the tender-hearted angel on the hit CBS show Touched by an Angel. Ms. Downey starred in over 200 episodes and her work as the compassionate angel inspired millions of people around the world and earned Ms. Downey multiple best actress nominations for Emmy® and Golden Globe® awards. Born in Ireland and classically trained in London, Ms. Downey has performed on stage with the famed Abbey Theatre Company and has appeared both on and off Broadway. She played the leading role of Jackie Kennedy Onassis in the Emmy® award winning six hour miniseries for NBC called “A Woman Named Jackie." Ms. Downey not only starred in, but executive produced seven television movies for The CBS network, among them "Borrowed Hearts" with Eric McCormack and "Second Honeymoon" with Tim Matheson. She is the executive producer of the children's DVD and book series "Little Angels" and its companion "Little Angels Storybook Bible". Ms. Downey and Mr. Burnett have co-authored a companion book to the series ‘A Story of God and all of Us.’ The book is available now from Faith Words. For many years Ms. Downey has been a spokesperson for "Operation Smile" a volunteer organization that brings free surgeries to children around the globe with facial deformities. She has travelled to third world and developing countries making fund raising films on their behalf.
About MARK BURNETT
"Four time Emmy Award winner Mark Burnett has produced over 1,200 hours of television programming which regularly airs in over 70 countries worldwide. His current network series include “Survivor” (CBS), “The Voice” (NBC), “The Celebrity Apprentice” (NBC), “Shark Tank” (ABC). In the last 12 months, Burnett’s series have won their time slots on five nights of television in the same week.
Burnett is one of very few producers to have had a renewed series on each of the four major networks. He also has a strong presence in award show franchises, having produced the “MTV Movie Awards” from 2007 to 2011, the annual “People’s Choice Awards” since 2010, the “Video Game Awards” (Spike) and the 2011 “Primetime Emmy Awards.”
Together Burnett and his wife Roma Downey produced the 10 hour current hit TV series entitled "The Bible" (History). "The Bible" had record-breaking ratings, with its premiere drawing over 13 million viewers, making it the most watched cable entertainment series of 2013.
Burnett has been named one of the world's most influential people by TIME Magazine and is also listed as TV Guide’s Most Valuable Player. He has won BRANDWEEK’S Marketer of the Year Award, The Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Award, the PGA Norman Lear Award and the prestigious ROSE D’OR FRAPA Format Award. Burnett was inducted into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame and was honored in 2010 with a star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame. He served two elected terms on the Board of Directors for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in Los Angeles."