Digital Copies

Since 1996, Universities have been trying to upload the scrolls for the wider world to see. Recently the text of nearly all the non-biblical scrolls has been recorded and tagged for morphology (identification, analysis and description of structure of words-lingustics) by Dr Martin Abegg Jr the Ben Zion Wacholder Professor of Dead Sea Scrolls Studies at Trinity Western University in Langley, BC Canada. It is available on hand-held devices through Olive Tree Bible Software-Biblereader, on Macs through Accordance and on Windows through Logos Bible Software and BibleWorks.

Last year, scientists had taken digital photographs of the scrolls enabling scholars and the public to have access to the 2000-year-old documents. Using powerful cameras and lights that emit no damaging heat or ultraviolet beams, scientists in Israel have been able to decipher sections and letters in the scrolls invisible to the naked eye.
The scrolls, most of them on parchment, are the oldest copies of the Hebrew Bible and include secular text dating from the third century BC to the first century AD.
A team of specialists has taken 4000 pictures of some 9000 fragments that make up the scrolls, which number 900 in total. A few large pieces of scroll are on permanent display at the Israel Museum.

Scientists hope the advanced imaging technology will also help them better preserve the scrolls by detecting any deterioration caused by humidity and heat.