Bible Hunters

The Freer Sackler Archive had a lot of excitement on May 30^th. A television crew from CTVC, an independent British production company, came to film at the Freer|Sackler Archives.

They came to shoot footage (and archival materials) for a program about Bible Hunters. Bible Hunters are essentially Bible Historians or people who study ancient biblical texts as well as other historical writings dating back from the first recorded written text of Enoch.

In this segement of the documentary, about the search and discovery of these ancient biblical texts, Professor Kent Clarke of Trinity Western University was interviewed about Freer's acquisition of several Biblical manuscripts in Egypt.

When Charles Lang Freer was in Egypt in 1906 he purchased five early biblical manuscripts from an antiquities dealer, al-Arabi. Four of them became known as the Washington Manuscripts.

These manuscripts are historically significant artifacts for understanding, tracing, and interpreting the early transmission of the writings that make up the New Testament and the Septuagint.

We were able to provide the crew with various archival records that were used in this segment of the Bible Hunters documentary. The items included a diary of Freer's and a photograph of Freer and al-Arabi while in Egypt.

It was an exciting day at the archive.

Note:  This Bible Hunters special is now available through Smithsonian Channel. Check your local listening as well as online websites to watch it. 

Lara Amrod, Archivist
Freer|Sackler Archives