Bible Study to a Whole New Level: BibleWalk Mansfield, Ohio

The museum has over 325 wax figures depicting scenes from the Bible. It was founded by Pastor Richard Diamond and his wife, Alwilda. In the early 1970s, they were head of the Faith Revivals church. In the 1980s, Pastor Diamond wanted to start creating life-size recreations of the Bible. He would search for used wax or fiberglass figures, as it was a little pricey to get new ones.

In the early 80s, the museum received twenty-two figures from Bill Warren.

Contrary to some articles saying many of the wax figures were from a celebrity wax museum, only two were. I’ll point out one of them below. One of the Museum guides debunked this. The first exhibits to open were three scenes from Jesus' resurrection: The Last Supper, Jesus and the Children, and The Woman at the Well, which were shown in the Diamond Hill Cathedral.

Over the years, Pastor Diamond added more scenes and exhibits to what it is today. He started to work to have a full-blown museum come to fruition. Many people volunteered to help build the museum. The fruits of the Diamonds' and the volunteers’ labor came to fruition in 1987 when the museum officially opened.

I will go in order with photos of the exhibits. Obviously, if I tell the full story, this post will take a few hours.

The first exhibit, which is an hour-long, discusses the stories of the Old Testament. Scenes include Adam and Eve, Moses, David and Goliath, Abraham and his son Issac, and other biblical stories. All of them can be viewed below. One of these scenes has a special wax figure, which I will happily point out.

Above is the Egyptian Queen taking in baby Moses. The Egyptian Queen figure was used as a wax figure for Elizabeth Taylor. Typecast happens to wax figures, too.

The next exhibit focused on scenes leading up to the resurrection of Jesus.

Aside from the Old Testament and Resurrection, there are a few other exhibits. If you plan on doing them, the total amount of time to get through the entire Museum would be 5-7 hours. If you only have 2-3 hours to spare, I would recommend at least Old Testament and Resurrection.

There is also a video room about the Museum founders. The video runs for ten minutes and details the museum’s construction in detail.

One cute little quirk they have is a small Jesus figure the size of a Lego person in every exhibit, which would be placed on one of the benches. In the Old Testament exhibit, a tour guide pointed one out on a bench after a scene had been played and gave it to me. Then I saw another one on a bench and could feel the same song and dance coming. The woman at that exhibit explained the same thing as the tour exhibit. The figures are placed around the museum for guests to take. That’s how I ended up bringing home a souvenir.

Biblewalk also offers a dinner theatre experience. Typically, these performances are scheduled on Saturdays, with specific dates throughout the year.

The whole experience was enjoyable and felt like a life-size Cliff Notes version of the Bible.