Google, Israel Museum Put Dead Sea Scrolls Online

The Dead Sea Scrolls have made their way online some 2,000 years after they were written through a partnership between Google and Israel’s national museum.

The important documents are available in searchable, high-resolution images, accompanied by informative videos, background information, and historical data. So far five of the scrolls have been digitized, including the biblical Book of Isaiah, the Temple Scroll, and three others.

Managing Director of Google’s R&D Center in Israel, Professor Yossi Matias said they plan to add additional Dead Sea Scroll documents to the site in the future. The AP says nearly all the scrolls will be online by 2016.

While smaller selections of the scrolls are owned by private collections and organizations, the Israel Museum owns the most complete scrolls. These documents are housed in a secured building in Jerusalem called the Shrine of the Book, which requires three keys to enter.