Maybe you remember this booklet photo from my blog a month ago? It's contents should interest EVERY writer and reader, especially Christian ones!
Last August I enjoyed a week in Orlando with family. If you think Disney World, Harry Potter Park, etc, were the most fun for me, you're wrong (although doing those parks with kids and grandkids was super fun). However, the highlight of the week for me was a day at The Holy Land Experience, largely because of The Scriptorium.
Years ago I read with great interest about the Van Kampen Collection of rare Biblical artifacts, but I had no idea or recollection it was in Orlando. LO AND BEHOLD (is that a cliche, Rick?), turns out it's in The Holy Land Experience!What a surprise treat! www.holylandexperience.com
(To read Rick Barry's blog on cliches, click here: Cliches.)
Are you vague about what a scriptorium is? Here's the explanation in the guide pictured above: "Before the invention of printing by moveable type, the actual work of reproducing a manuscript was done in a scriptorium, a Latin word that means 'writing room.' The scriptorium was a room, located in a medieval monastery, where the Scriptures and other religious books were copied out by hand."
And how about The Scriptorium in Orlando? Obviously, it's a re-creation of the medieval ones. It has many rooms that portray in spectacular and dramatic ways the story of the Bible, starting in 3000 B.C. with Abraham.
When you walk into a room, the lights dim and all kinds of special effects surround you — including narration, projections, life-size scenes, and ancient artifacts in display cases. In other words, you feel THERE when Abram leaves his home to follow God 5000 years ago; you are THERE in Babylon looking at one of Nebuchadnezzar's actual 2600 year-old tablets; you look THERE in awe at one of the 2200 year-old papyrus scrolls of the Septuagint (the Greek transalation of the Hebrew Scriptures ordered by the directors of the Alexandrian Library, one of the Seven Wonders of the World); and THERE you "visit" a Byzantine bindery in Constantinople and see one of the early illustrated codices of the New Testament from the 1100s.
OKAY, I'm not going to summarize every re-created scene and amazing ancient artifact, but how can I not mention Wyclif's final study where he speaks to you, Gutenberg's print shop with one of his first edition Holy Bibles from 1455, Tyndale's frighteningly ransacked print shop, a 1537 Matthew's Bible with blood-stained pages, Bunyan's prison cell, and so much more. . .
Has anyone reading this blog visited The Scriptorium? If so, I expect you feel as strongly as I that EVERY Christian, especially every Christian writer, should visit it! Although nothing can replace a visit in person, you can get a DVD tour from Amazon.com and from Marquis Laughlin's website. Not sure why The Holy Land Experience online store doesn't carry the DVD.
John 1:1 ~ In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was with GOD, and the WORD was God. My Scriptorium experience has helped me to understand that verse just a teeny bit more. Praise God!
Below: Enjoying the Creation and Noah's Ark animals at The Holy Land Experience.
Millie Nelson Samuelson
www.milliesbooks.org 