Bible Museum Münster


Bible Museum Münster is a museum located in Münster, Germany, telling the story of the Bible from its handwritten beginnings until today. The main focus lays on the tradition of Greek New Testament as well as the German Bible. The museum forms part of the Institute for New Testament Textual Research at the University of Münster.

History

The museum was founded as a department of the Institute for New Testament Textual Research by Kurt Aland and was opened with a ceremonial act on 8 March 1979 in the presence of Federal President Walter Scheel. It was the first and only Bible museum worldwide at that time. In 1983, Barbara Aland became its director and she was followed in October 2004 by Holger Strutwolf.

Collection

The museum exhibits include:
The basis of its holdings is a private collection. Some parts of the older holdings of the Institute of New Testament Textual Research were added. Over the years the collection was expanded further with significant exhibits; it is augmented by changing items on loan from a private manuscript collector from Norway. In April 2010, the Bible Museum in Germany received the largest private collection of Bibles from collector Walter Remy. This classical language Bible collection includes 379 Latin, Greek and 16 200 multilingual Bibles from the 16th to the 18th century.
Since the Bible Museum is part of the Institute for New Testament Textual Research which holds some original manuscripts of the New Testament, those manuscripts can be seen in the Bible Museum in Münster.