[Phillips:] Well, the markets have been a mess. People are flocking to safer investments like gold and other commodities. But Steve Green and his family well, they've put tens of millions of dollars into Bibles. I guess you could say that Steve has a lot of faith in his investment. He's overseeing the acquisition of ancient Bibles and other rare religious relics that are now part of a traveling exhibit. He's also president of Hobby Lobby, the arts and crafts chain. I tell you what, this is pretty amazing, looking at the I can't believe actually we can touch them, too. Usually you see these behind glass.
[Steve Green, Explorepassages.com:] Yes.
[Phillips:] Tell me, why did you want to do this? Why was this important to you?
[Green:] Well, our family has always had a love for the Bible. We have tried to operate our business according to biblical principles. And we believe in the Bible and we wanted to share the story of the Bible with as many as we could.
[Phillips:] All right. You brought in a couple of your favorites. Let's start with the earliest Greek text, dating within generations of the apostles, Psalm 23.
[Green:] Yes.
[Phillips:] And for those that are not familiar with the Bible, it's the very well-known verse of "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want."
[Green:] Exactly.
[Phillips:] Tell us about this.
[Green:] This is one leaf of about 49 within this particular codex. It represents about 100 of 150 psalms. And this happens to be the page that starts or has the 23rd Psalm. I'm no Greek scholar, but Dr. Scott Carroll that is working with us
[Phillips:] Right.
[Green:] lets me know this is where the 23rd Psalm actually begins.
[Phillips:] All right. And then you've got one of the world's earliest Bible, right?
[Green:] Right.
[Phillips:] The earliest comprehensive scriptures in Jesus' household language. Tell me about that.
[Green:] This is Codex Climaci Rescriptus and it's called rescriptus because it has been rewritten on. The text underneath is what is scriptural in Palestinian Aramaic as you said, that is Jesus' household language. We are working with Oxford right now. We have scanned each page 12 times under different lights to pull out that bottom text so it can be better read. There's parts of it you really can't see with the naked eye or because it was written over is not visible.
[Phillips:] How did you test all of these to make sure they are authentic?
[Green:] You know, I go back to Dr. Scott Carroll who we are working with. He has dealt with this for many years. He's an expert in bibles. And so, without his help, we would not be able to do, this because it's not our expertise. But with his help, we've been able to collect what we've done.
[Phillips:] So, where can folks see these items next? What's the plan? Is there a Web site where they can go to?
[Green:] We have our traveling exhibit, which is displaying about 300 of the over 40,000 items that we currently have in our collection. It is open in Oklahoma City at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. We are working on the final details to bring that here to Atlanta in probably November. We will be in Oklahoma City until October 16th.
[Phillips:] Fantastic, Steve Green. Tell you what? You are a blessed man on many levels. This is pretty amazing. Thanks so much for bringing them in and sharing them with us.
[Green:] Thank you for having me.
[Phillips:] You bet.
[Green:] My pleasure.
[Phillips:] Well, there's going to be more on the green collection and the family's planned Bible museum on our belief blog, CNN.combelief.