Dead Sea Scrolls to be accessed by everyone

JERUSALEM - The Associated Press

Fragments of the Dead Sea scrolls are examined at a laboratory. Google partnered with the Israel Museum last year to put five scrolls online. EPA photo

More than six decades since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and thousands of years after they were written Israel on Dec. 18 put 5,000 images of the ancient biblical artifacts online in a partnership with Google.

The digital library contains the Book of Deuteronomy, which includes the second listing of the Ten Commandments, and a portion of the first chapter of the Book of Genesis.

Israeli officials said this is part of an attempt by the custodians of the celebrated manuscripts, often criticized for allowing them to be monopolized by small circles of scholars, to make them broadly available.
“Only five conservators worldwide are authorized to handle the Dead Sea Scrolls,” said Shuka Dorfman, director of the Israel Antiquities Authority. “Now, everyone can touch the scroll on screen.”

Last year, Google partnered with the Israel Museum to put five scrolls online.

The scrolls, considered one of the most significant archaeological finds of the 20th century, are thought to have been written or collected by an ascetic Jewish sect that fled Jerusalem to the desert 2,000 years ago and settled at Qumran, near the shore of the Dead Sea. The hundreds of manuscripts found in caves near the site have shed light on the development of the Hebrew Bible and the origins of Christianity.