This book is the first to fully explore the life and ideas of John Marco Allegro (1923–1988), freethinker and rebel, whose work on the Dead Sea Scrolls led him to challenge the church, the team
This book is the first to fully explore the life and ideas of John Marco Allegro (1923–1988), freethinker and rebel, whose work on the Dead Sea Scrolls led him to challenge the church, the team of scholars in charge of editing the Scrolls, and most conventional assumptions about the development of Christianity.
As the first British member of the Scrolls editing team, Allegro shared the excitement, the insights, and the eyestrain of deciphering these invaluable ancient fragments. He made it possible for the Copper Scroll to be opened in Manchester and did much to focus worldwide attention on the Scrolls as a whole. But he made his name — or gained his notoriety — from questioning orthodox assumptions about how Christianity began.
Allegro's views soon set him apart from fellow Scrolls scholars and even from the church itself. He asked questions that many people found disturbing if not outrageous. He wondered, for example, about the interweaving of history, myth, faith, and tradition in the New Testament, and about the nature of the church's authority. Allegro went on challenging the establishment all his life, and he relished the arguments he provoked. For over thirty years he campaigned for open access to the Scrolls and for wider debate about their significance. To him it was a campaign for free speech and free opinion.
Judith Anne Brown's John Marco Allegro is a fascinating, probing, inside account of this man of ideas who was independent, irrepressible, and, above all, always original. Making extensive use of Allegro's letters, lecture notes, draft manuscripts, and other previously unpublished writings, Brown brings to life anew the extraordinary discoveries and debates that began in the caves by the Dead Sea over half a century ago.
George J. Brooke
— University of Manchester
"Judith Brown's beautifully written biography of her father provides a richly informative and candid overview of John Allegro's life and thought. Through her intricate use of dozens of his letters and other unpublished items, Allegro tells his own story. In the hands of his daughter, however, the self-presentation is skillfully controlled so that this immensely energetic and intellectually provocative character, who has been much maligned, is shown in a fresh and appealing light. This is an impressive work for reconstructing the intellectual history of Dead Sea Scrolls studies."
Philip R. Davies
— University of Sheffield
"John Allegro was probably the most colorful and controversial character ever to be involved in the editing of the Dead Sea Scrolls. His interpretations brought him into conflict with his fellow editors, but he did more than anyone else to provoke public interest in these documents, especially the Copper Scroll, on which his views have been vindicated. His view of Christianity as based on a 'mushroom cult' was even more controversial and was widely (but wrongly) understood as a cynical publicity stunt. But there is more to his personality and his career than this, and his daughter Judith Brown has written a biography that sympathetically but not uncritically reveals this fascinating man, explains the issues that he tangled with, and introduces many of the individuals whose lives he infected with his extraordinary enthusiasm."
James C. VanderKam
— University of Notre Dame
"This biography should be of great interest to anyone intrigued by the Dead Sea Scrolls and the history of scholarship on them. John Allegro's daughter counters the negative image of her father by quoting liberally from his correspondence and describing his publications; she also manages to achieve some critical distance in restoring a fair balance to his reputation."
Jodi Magness
— University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
"This fascinating and informative biography of John Allegro will be of interest to specialists as well as to the general public. . . Scholars will find Allegro's letters to other members of the original Dead Sea Scrolls editing team to be especially valuable."
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Judith Anne Brown is the daughter of John Marco Allegro, a freelance writer and editor, and an associate of the Plain Language Commission. Her work on John Marco Allegro also appears in Manchester and the Dead Sea Scrolls (forthcoming), edited by George J. Brooke. She lives in Derbyshire, England, with her husband and two children. "
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