This past week a heated debate unfolded on Twitter between a representative of the Museum of the Bible and a handful of biblical scholars critical of the museum. What’s at stake is the very definition of scholarship. This is the story. In what follows, I have organized the conversation thematically and not chronologically. As with many Twitter threads, the comments came quickly.

Some context: In November of 2017, the Museum of the Bible (MOTB) opened in Washington, D.C. The MOTB was the conceptualized, funded, and built by the Green Family, the conservative Christian owners of Hobby Lobby. The $500 million museum saw almost one million visitors in its first year. Representatives of the organization claim that it is "non-sectarian" and that their goal is for people to "engage" with the Bible. Since its inception, though, many biblical scholars have questioned these claims to neutrality—and indeed even the very possibility of neutrality.

The first major scholarly intervention in the MOTB's narrative was the work of Candida R. Moss and Joel S. Baden. Since the museum’s opening, other biblical scholars too have challenged the organization’s claims to neutrality based on evidence drawn from the exhibits themselves, the museum’s marketing events, and other publicly available data.

Items