The Bible House concept
Following is an operating and maintenance plan presented to the think tank of the Bible House in Bible Valley.
General
1.1 The Bible and Peace House will be the jewel in the crown of Bible Valley. The Bible Valley Project intends to develop an area of 25,000 areas adjacent to Jerusalem. Visitors will be enveloped in various aspects of daily biblical experiences: economic, trade, artisan, agriculture, housing, consumer goods and war. The designated area is the region in which the dramas of several books of the Bible took place.
1.2 The Peoples of the World Inscribe the Bible Project
The Bible Valley Project will be composed of several sub-projects. Foremost will be the handwriting of 100 copies of the Bible in various languages by two million Bible lovers from around the world. This will be done in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. These 100 copies will be on display in The Bible and Peace House. This display will be unique in the entire world.
The Bible and Peace House will be the center of activities and study of the various elements of the biblical period: economic, life style, literature, art, crafts, history and cultural and intellectual values—as well as how this period actually looked physically.
Aims of The Bible and Peace House
We are targeting three different constituencies:
• Internal – the Israeli public
• External – the world at large: religious, social and cultural organizations as well as tourists and any and all individuals who have a cultural or faith connection to the Bible
• Those parts of the academic and literary world that have a relationship to the Bible and its cultural, artistic, spiritual and philosophical offshoots.
2.1 The Israeli Public
The Bible House is one of the elements in Bible Valley dedicated to bringing the Bible back to Israeli society and Israeli society back to the Bible. It will contain experiences and study activities designed especially to make them accessible to young people – who will hopefully pass them on to their families.
2.2 The External World
2.2.1 The aim is to create an intergenerational ongoing focal point for contact with millions of bible lovers around the world. Many will be connected to the Bible House by virtue of being involved in the bible writing project. Hundreds of thousands of tourists will see their visit to the site as the highlight of their visit to Israel and Jerusalem.
2.2.2 The Bible House will offer tourists, visitors and pilgrims a variety of activities containing powerful historical, artistic and cultural experiences.
2.2.3 The house will become a symbol of tourism to the Holy land and the State of Israel
2.2.4 Tourists to Israel will not forgo the unique experience of Bible Valley and the Bible House
2.2.5 Tourist companies in Israel and around the world will use the site as a means to enlist particular tourist segments: teachers, students, religious leaders, artists and writers, archeologists and historians, church and synagogue communities and others.
2.3 The Academic and Cultural Worlds
Everything that surrounds the Bible – its history, narratives, the cultures that preceded it, corresponded to it and derived from it, the national and universal messages it contains etc. – are all areas which have been explored by Rabbis and Priests and which have been passed on to writers and artists and then to Academe, the world of music, philosophy and poesy and thus to the entire world of the human spirit and art.
The Bible and World Peace House will contain activities relating to all of this.
Action and Operational Plan
3.1 Visitors will follow a path that will lead them into circles containing various dilemmas and messages that arise out of the unique biblical perspective:
From “Get thee out of thy country…” as it evolves into personal and societal transformation;
To “let us make man in our own image…”;
To the circle of justice and judgment – the judge of all the earth will not judge
To God promising Hagar he would make a great nation out of Ishmael –peace between neighbors;
To “lay thy hand not on the lad…” man is not a sacrifice
To the status of man’s in relation to God;
To “the seven lean cattle eating up the seven fat cattle” – governmental responsibility to society;
To “slaves you were…”—the question of freedom;
To the Jubilee and seven year cancellation of debt – the question of to whom belongs property;
To “thou art the man” -- the constitutional limitations of power;
To prophecy;
To the stranger, widow and orphan;
To Job – the purpose of life, ones actions and beliefs
To other issues which will be decided on
Physical elements that will serve as the infrastructure for activity
4.1 The physical display of the 100 handwritten copies will be a one of a kind demonstration of the place of the Bible in human culture (the Bible has been translated into 2100 languages)
*Each nation/organization/language grouping will relate to that part of the library that has elements unique to it
*Participants will enrich their part of the library with works of art, literature and poetry dealing with the Bible and which are products of the creative minds of their own culture
*Every visitor will have the opportunity to add the verse of his/her choice
*The library will contain a computerized system of all the participants in The Peoples of the World Inscribe the Bible Project in order that visitors will be able to find the names of the members of the organization and their families who wrote the verses.
4.2 The library will contain technology that will enable visitors to look at and evaluate that subject of the Bible that is especially relevant to their culture – as well as historical and cultural databases about relevant subjects.
4.3 The various rooms of the Bible House as well as the library will be covered with pictures and photos that are historically relevant to the Bible: literature, pictures, replicas of artifacts as well as works of art produced in our day by children and artists.
4.4 The garden of the Bible House will contain sculptures of biblical subjects, sculpted by artists from various countries in the world
4.5 The Bible House will contain halls and space for various interactive activities with visitors
4.6 The facilities will enrich visitors with a wide range of activities: exhibitions, outside events, theatrical presentations, stores, restaurants and all other things one relates to tourism.
The Physical Plan
5.1 will be designed to accommodate the above activities
5.2 Will contain the most up to date multi-technological equipment and facilities for its didactic functions
The Academic, Scientific and Literary World
The Bible House will hold periodic gatherings and convocations on relevant subjects related to the Bible and its offshoots: educators, university lecturers, personages and students from religious and social organizations – institutional and non institutional, historians, archeologists, artists, musicians, the plastic arts etc.