WASHINGTON – Four blocks southwest of the U.S. Capitol, officials started construction on the Museum of the Bible, a high-tech museum set to open in fall 2017. The $800 million museum will have interactive exhibits on the history, stories and impact of the Bible.

Funded by Hobby Lobby’s Steve Green, museum officials hope the museum will attract both scholars and casual visitors. A former refrigeration warehouse will house the interactive museum.

The 430,000-square-foot museum will feature numerous artifacts, including fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the earliest known form of a Jewish prayer book, several previously unpublished New Testament fragments on papyrus and more than 40,000 pieces of biblical texts and artifacts. Other highlights include the world’s largest private collection of Jewish Toah scrolls and the Codex Climaci Rescriptus with the world’s largest body of Christian Palestinian Aramaic.

One planned interactive exhibit calls for a floor-to-ceiling interactive media wall and a “Drive Through History,” which will allow visitors to encounter people, places and events from the Bible.

For more information, read the Reuters article or visit www.museumofthebible.org.