NGU News


Inside look: North Greenville University’s Miller Bible Museum

Posted on: February 3, 2025
By Ashley Merck, ashley.merck@ngu.edu

Tigerville, SCNorth Greenville University (NGU) has been the home of the Miller Bible Museum since 1985.

Located in Hester Memorial Library, the museum is unique to NGU and its surrounding community, as it is one of nine known Bible Museums in the United States that is permanently on display for the public.

“We have a number of groups that schedule tours and come to campus just to visit the museum,” said Leslie Brown, reference librarian at NGU. “It gives us a chance to really show people and talk about the continuity of Scripture.”

The museum showcases and is based on the Bible collection of Ret. Lt. Col. Lewie H. Miller, Jr. who was a 1939 graduate of North Greenville Junior College and later earned degrees from Furman University and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Before donating his collection to NGU, Miller’s Bibles were housed in Gatlinburg, TN.

Miller was an early proponent of digitizing Scripture, and he loved the history of Bible translation. There are over 75 different languages, spanning across various continents and dialects, represented through the Bibles and artifacts that are on display in the museum.

“When you look at some of the artifacts in the Bible Museum and all of the different languages, you realize that this sort of work is still going on today,” Brown said. “That’s the kind of thing chaplain Miller dedicated his life to.”

Some of the Bibles on display for visitors to see include a full-color edition of ‘The Gutenberg Bible’ (1456 AD) and an original, first edition copy of ‘The King James Bible’ (1611 AD). The museum emphasizes the journey of Bible translation from ink and paper to digitalized versions on floppy disks and CD-ROMs.

Along with copies of Bibles from all over the world, the museum also showcases artifacts to give visitors a better understanding of the cultures during different time periods.

One of Brown’s favorite artifacts are lamps from around 1500 BC. These small lamps, which didn’t illuminate much light, were used during Old Testament times and referenced in Scripture.

“In the Psalms, there’s a verse that says, ‘Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.’ When I was a child, when I first heard that verse, I thought of a Coleman lamp, but that’s not what it refers to,” she said. “[This lamp] fits in the palm of your hand… and would give just enough light for a few steps.”

“When you realize that is the kind of lamp the psalmist is talking about, then it makes you realize that’s what the Bible is like because it gives us enough understanding for the next step of faith,” she said. “So God, in His wisdom, gives us through the Scripture enough understanding for the next step. Just enough so that we can keep going, but not so much that it will overwhelm us. He wants us to rely on Him.”

For students, employees, community members, and other visitors, the Miller Bible Museum offers the opportunity to see how God is at work among the nations through Bible translation and how they can fit into the greater mission of bringing the Word of God to every tribe, tongue, and nation.

“We have so many students here who are studying linguistics so that they can join that effort, and we have students who are studying theology so that they can go and teach others the Word of God,” Brown said. “By visiting the museum, it gives us an opportunity to see where we fit into the tapestry.”

The Miller Bible Museum is free and open to the public during regular hours (Monday – Thursday: 8 am – 5 pm and Friday: 8 am – noon) and other times with an appointment. Guided tours are also available upon request.

© North Greenville University. All Rights Reserved. | Accessibility Statement

North Greenville University (NGU) admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.