In 1927, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Bowen began compiling information and artifacts from Bible times for a museum that would "make the Bible come alive." The Bowens collected objects, plants, and models, and eventually their collection included artifacts from Babylon, Egypt, Palestine, and Rome. The Egyptian objects were discovered and donated by Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie, the world-famous English archaeologist. Many of Petrie's other important discoveries are on view at the Petrie Museum in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

In the fall of 1943 the Bowens presented their collection as a gift to Bob Jones College. In the spring of 1944 the Bible Lands Museum opened and Mr. and Mrs. Bowen joined the staff as the curators of their collection. In 1951, when the original Museum & Gallery opened, the collection of antiquities joined the collection of paintings. The Bowen collection, part of M&G's permanent collection, comprises over one thousand objects from ancient Egypt, Rome, and Palestine.