This is the Truth Network. It's arguably the most controversial book ever written. It's been banned in countries. It's been burned. It's also maybe one of the most studied and taught books.
In history, it has a divine origin, it's changed lives. And My friend Jerry Pattengal just wrote a wonderful book that has just come out. On the story of the Bible, the good book. Jerry, Dr. Pattingale.
Thank you for joining us to talk about this book and congratulations. Any book about the Bible. excites me and is worthy of having someone on this program.
Well, that's kind of you. And your new book, too, is wonderful and appreciated getting a copy of that. And it's also one of the most attractive books I've seen recently, too, for that type of book.
So congrats to you as well.
Well, thank you. You're the chief researcher and scholar for the Museum of the Bible, which if our listeners haven't been to, they have, ooh, they've missed out. Go to that, it'll blow you away. There's something about this book. This is no ordinary book.
You have been writing about it. You've been studying about it for a long time, Brother Jerry. Talk about this new book and how I just love it. I mean, you sent me a copy. They're beautifully bound.
It's just very the graphics are amazing. The archaeology. Can you get into this? You're truly a scholar. And if anyone.
Could write a book attacking the Bible. And you know, tearing it apart, well, you have the credentials, the academic credentials, the linguistic abilities to do so. But you're calling, you're writing a book, you've written this book, The Story of the Bible. to extol. It's amazing features, benefits, history.
Talk about why it's important, sir, and why it's been a passion of your life.
Well, yeah, glad to do that.
So, I have three books in this series: The Story. The history and the impact of the Bible.
So, there's three of them that are going to be like this that are in this beautiful format. You know, millennials like beauty. And so, just like our Gospels book that I did recently, they're filled with these beautiful classic paintings and the layout and just these rich pages.
So, part of it is to appeal to this generation. You know, there was a large conversion during COVID. I was talking to a young friend last night, a genius in the stock market. He's in his 20s. And he was talking about his conversion and finding materials like this that lay out the gospel in a very systematic way, but also in an engaging and a beautiful way.
And we put together when I say we, there's three other authors that have helped me directly with this book. And Jeremy Johnson was very high up in the religion books at Uh, Thomas Nelson for years and did the African Study Bible. Nick Denaff is just a genius, and Kimberly Schell, who's a great writer. And so, what we wanted to do is we wanted the kind of book that you could read a chapter a day. And in that, you would find history, you would find the story in a nutshell.
So it talks about some movement in history that the Bible is dealing with. Maybe it's the fall of. Of um Uh, you know, mankind, or uh, you know, maybe is trying to understand the coming of Jesus and what he brings. And so we take the Bible and we Really bring together those different books and chapters in a way. And all the chapters are listed there for them to do more research on as well.
Well, I like it because it's almost like you have exported the Museum of the Bible. Into people's coffee tables and into their homes, their rooms, their libraries, because as I read it, I feel like I'm at the museum. which has these amazing Exhibits. Describe the museum, will you? Just for our listeners, because your book is going to be there.
And it'll be promptly displayed, and people can get it there. And they can get it where Christian books are sold, obviously, in Amazon and whatnot. But describe the Museum of the Bible and kind of the mission of the Green family. You've been right there with them. alongside them.
In fact, you and I had a long session. Amazing meeting in Charlotte when we had a little mini exhibit go up for a bit. And you blew me away talking about. And I saw some of the rough sketches from you and from Steve Green. And I thought, there's no way someone's going to erect this massive museum.
hundreds of thousands of square feet. Not just not even blocks away from the nation's capital about the whole Bible. I thought, you know, I was a little bit skeptical, Jerry Pattigill, but it happened. Describe that. Describe that.
Multi-level scene of this amazing place for those that haven't been, and how your book, in a sense, is a real kind of a marketing tool. For this, well, that fits right that fits. You're right, that fits right into this book because we have a section in each chapter that starts the story in a nutshell.
So the story in a nutshell about the Museum of the Bible is in 2000, late 2009, 2010, the Greens were approached by a couple people in particular that really wanted to start a museum of the Bible, but on a smaller scale in another city, Dallas. And they helped them to start collecting a couple things. And then they realized it was bigger than those two people.
So the first collection they bought, for example, was 10,000 items.
So they decided they Probably should do this themselves and bring in people to do it at a higher level. And that's when I got a call. You know, I'd done this before with the Van Campen family, and it was a. Great experience, and we put together a huge collection there, about 15,000 key items. And then they became part of the Holy Land experience.
Well, this collection is now 65,000 or so items. And so as we were collecting these items, my role became to help bring together the programs and the people That would that would actually give life to the physical structure of the museum. And we were able to hire the right people to build a museum, but we had to first find the building. And we narrowed down between Dallas, New York, and Washington, D.C., and then the family. Ultimately, they chose Washington, D.C., the Green family, owners of Hobby Lobby.
They became the primary funders, and now there's thousands and thousands of funders that join them. And so I spent the next several years recruiting people smarter than I, which isn't difficult, but. That's really the key to this: is that we would get people in their lanes, and then they maybe they knew Wycliffe Bibles, or maybe they knew illuminated Bibles, or maybe they knew. The impact of the Bible. And so we had 150 or so scholars involved right away.
And we were doing lectures. And then the museum slowly rose up from the ground, if you will. We took an old building and gutted it, and the Kennedy family had owned it. And it's right there by the White House. And it's between the White House and Capitol Hill.
It's in a great place. And we've had a few million people visit.
So it's been exciting. It's been real exciting. And now a lot of my role, we roll out some key projects. Like we did a film, Road to a Mayus, which is phenomenal. The Moors in the West helped with that one.
Family and Mystery Box associated with The Chosen. They were the main company.
So we keep doing those projects, but my role has been. Really, to start releasing these materials like these books. We have a public school textbook that came out last year, it's being released in the fall. And so that's what's going on.
Now, the museum is built around three themes that Steve Green actually believed God gave to him: the history, story, and impact of the Bible. And so, when you go, you'll see three floors. You'll see a floor on history, one on impact, and one on the story of the Bible. That's what this book is about. And so, we capture that story.
So, the mission of the museum is a global, innovative, educational institution whose purpose is to invite all people to engage with the transformative power of the Bible. And so that's what we're doing with these materials, whether they're films, whether they're books. And these three books will be a set that will be awesome on any shelf in any homeschool environment or a personal reader. And we've almost sold out of the first printing already. Yeah.
That's remarkable.
Well, congratulations, brother. What a blessing. You know, what a blessing! It's so much bigger than. You and me, and the Greens, and even this museum, this book, The Word of God.
Introduces us to the Son of God, the one who came to change and transforms our life. That tomb is empty, so our lives can be full of him. And thank you for writing this, the story of the Bible. Folks, pick this book up. Where's the best place, Jerry?
Now, I know you're going to tell everyone the best place to get it is just to drive straight to DC to the bookstore. And I will second that, okay? I will say yes, and I will say this book and the whole series should definitely be on your shelves, friends. But I guess any place that books can be picked up, right, sir? Right, right.
Most people just go to Amazon because account, and you can certainly get it there. You can also get on Global Publishing Partners is the publisher, Jeremy Johnson, one of the authors.
So you can get it there. I mean, it's a target, Costco, I think. It's at all the major stores and then bookstores. But yeah, you can get it online pretty easily. It's called, now, you got to make sure you get the right one because there's other books that have story in them.
It's the story of the Bible, the people, places, and moments that shaped the world's greatest book. And it'll say Museum of the Bible will be listed as the main author because it's branded under the Museum of the Bible. True to the Bible.
