After 24 centuries, 
  Google puts the Dead Sea Scrolls online 
  for the world to see

Not 24 but 21 or 22.

Not Google but the Museum of Israel.

Other than that, the title is not too far off.

I am pretty ignorant of the Dead Sea Scrolls and related documents, but why is the translation not into modern English?

Well, it was interesting to use an actual scroll bar

Wait, wait,wait ... I read these online years ago... whats so special this time? just because Google is involved?

publically available scans are infinitely more useful than publically available text translations for purposes of research, as well as for coolness.

© The Israel Museum.

I was talking to a Catholic priest years ago, and he told me that the Dead Sea Scrolls had more historical significance than religious significance. (I don't know if that was the church's position or just his.) Given that, and the fact that I'm even not religious, I don't know why the copyright bothers me so much, but it does. Placing a copyright on the images of religious documents strikes me as a contradiction in purposes. Imagine if God had inscribed the Ten Commandments with "©For All Eternity, God. All Rights Reserved."

Most universities do things like this. Modern Universities don't really get the whole 'sharing knowledge' thing (cf. the posts about academic publishers). I wish they had used creative commons or something for them, but instead it's "All rights reserved".

Haha, the post title implies that Google has been working on this for 24 centuries.

We invented time travel a few months ago and used it to undertake some really ambitious projects, like inventing time travel.

When text spans multiple columns, the translation renders off the page: http://i.imgur.com/c7xWZ.jpg

If you're looking for verses to explore for yourself, start at chapter 45 verse 1 on the scroll of Isaiah, http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/isaiah?id=45:1

Here, Isaiah names Cyrus the Great, 150 years before his birth, and goes on to describe how the Lord ("HaShem" on the scroll) would use him as a foreigner to demolish the empire of Babylonia and restore the Jewish people out of exile (http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/isaiah?id=45:13).

Josephus, the Jewish historian, in his Antiquities, records that the Jews in Babylonian captivity showed Cyrus the prophecies of the Old Testament Scriptures which contained his name and described his role in the scheme of God. The historian says that it was this circumstance that motivated the ruler to fulfill what was written, and to issue his edict permitting Israel's return to her homeland (http://books.google.co.za/books?id=kyaoIb6k2ccC&pg=PA359).

Shortly after chapter 45, Isaiah writes in chapter 46:8, "Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose...'" (http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/isaiah?id=46:10)

Then from chapter 49 to chapter 53, Isaiah foretells the servant of the Lord, Israel and its embodiment in the person of the Messiah, and his suffering and rejection by his own people, how "he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed" (http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/isaiah?id=53:5) and how "like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth" (http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/isaiah?id=53:7) and how "they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death" (http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/isaiah?id=53:9).

It is often said that the words of the OT have a remarkable weightiness to them. I recall reading that Ernest Hemingway at one time used to read the OT to absorb this quality in his own writings.

i wish google translation work on those text