If my earlier post about the Codex Sinaiticus was interesting to you, then today’s announcement regarding the Dead Sea Scrolls should light your fire, too. The Israel Antiquities Authority, which apparently owns the rights to the scrolls discovered in caves near the Dead Sea between 1947 and 1956, will digitally photograph and scan the scrolls. The images will be posted on the Internet for anyone to see within the next two years.

Some of the scrolls date back more than 2,000 years. The texts include, among other documents, the oldest written record of the Bible’s Old Testament. I should expect there to be great excitement when these digital images start becoming available to viewers worldwide, instead of only to those selected scholars who have had the opportunity personally to inspect them. Perhaps now the entire text of the Bible can finally be preserved.