Customer Reviews

John Marco Allegro: The Maverick of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature)

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John Marco Allegro - The Maverick of the Dead Sea Scrolls
- By Judith Anne Brown -daughter of John Allegro.

John Marco Allegro is hereby vindicated! Scholars of the world beware!

Judith Anne Brown has inherited the same writing style, razor sharp wit, and knack for forcing people to think, as well as for stirring trouble and controversy that her father had.

Judith takes us through a riveting and fascinating glimpse at the life of John Marco Allegro. From John's youth as the son of an immigrant family, to his beginnings in the British Navy, to starting his studies as a Methodist minister. While studying for the ministry, she shows his personal, detailed letters that start him questioning the authority of Biblical teachings; to finally leaving the ministry to begin his studies at Manchester, and then Oxford, making him noticed as an up and coming biblical and language expert and Dead Sea Scrolls authority. Then finally on to his discovery that Christianity and religion is primarily based on entheogen (drug) use and star/sun worship.

Judy takes the reader through the times of laughs and the times of tears and turmoil.
She provides an outline of John's personal history, his family, his life as a playboy, the falling apart of his marriage, to the inner turmoil and outrage he had that no one would look at his views open mindedly and seriously, because they challenged the orthodox.

She provides and excellent breakdown of the content of each of his books, screen writes, and personal letters; proving John's side of the story. Judith gives the reader interesting and easy to follow story line, with a deep understanding into the most controversial of topics in recent decades.

This book contains a beautiful collection of previously unpublished photographs of John, the family, and the Middle East during his expeditions.

If this book wasn't written about John, I would have forgotten that I wasn't reading John's own work. Judy certainly has the Allegro ability to stir controversy--only this time people will have to pay attention. She has thoroughly debunked the 30 years of attacks, lies, and rumors that had spread over the years against John.

At times the book may move you to tears while reading about his personal struggles and the emotions over the blanketed attacks stirred regarding his unorthodox approach at religious scholarship and finally to his sudden death, on his birthday, on Feb. 17, 1988-and continuing legacy today.

Judith Brown has provided substantiation for Allegro's views, and debunked those empty attacks on his integrity and scholarship. Any intelligent and open-minded scholar will hereby be forced into reconsidering many of John's views...and for that matter, Judith's own views.

This book provides an absolutely solid foundation for future work to begin building on John Marco Allegro's ideas--an excellent foundation for up and coming publications by her and other scholars and authors.

The Allegro legacy of controversy lives on!

A better than 5 star rating.

Obviously, a favorable review of her father who was much maligned for presenting a novel
explaination for the origins of myth and religion, specifically the Christian
faith. He has never been seriously challanged by authentic philologists,
only by religious zealots and others who are convinced the Earth is flat.
Her portrait of a driven, ambitious and wounded man is full and warm and shows
much love of the man and his ideas, who opened the world to the hidden
exegeses by biblical scholars too frigtened to make known to a deluded public
what the Chuches and their minions were doing to them and the 'civilized'
world.

Judith Anne Brown's John Marco Allegro: The Maverick Of The Dead Sea Scrolls is an essential addendum to her father's important work. John Allegro was severely maligned after his publication of The Sacred Mushroom and the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1970. An unfounded response to his book from the religious and academic community at the time prejudged and condemned him unfairly. His work translating the scrolls found at Qumran, where the ancient Hebrew Bible literature was discovered by local sheep herders in the late 1940s, was the most scientific method undertaken by the international team. His non secular education, including extensive study at Oxford prior to going to Israel, provided an objective approach comparing the literature in the scrolls with derivations of words as they had evolved in the region. As Ms. Brown points out, John Allegro placed an asterisk next to each Sumerian word root theory not found in earlier extant literature. He was clear headed about his etymological projections, he was not propagating the intrigue of psychotropic fungus culture. Because of the latent fear of the subject ingrained in the myco-phobic consciousness learned by the present Angelo-European and other peoples, the readers of the world have been set astray of Allegro's work in etymology. Her book has somewhat redeemed his academic integrity, though too late and too unnoticed to have not lost his scientific work into the annals of ignorance.

I just want to express how much the world owes a debt of gratitude to Judith Anne Brown for writing this touching and informative biography of her father, John M. Allegro, and thus setting the record straight regarding the role he played with the Scrolls and in history.

Before I proceed let me apologize in that this writing is not actually a proper review of the book, but an emotional expression of relief caused by this book's mere existence.

As a free-thinking individual who is neither for nor against organized religion, I was always and will always be interested in the origins of humanity's spiritual belief systems and ideologies, its temporal authorities and institutions, and the way in which these forces come together to form 'civilization.' It surprises me how ignorant some people are about the context within which their chosen or inherited faith originated, and I've always thought it important to question established doctrines and particularly rituals, lest they become mindless and mechanical. It still boggles my mind how in the 21st century we are still struggling to reconcile faith with daily living, and how so many conflicts can result from a perceived clash of ideologies that in reality share so much in common.

Allegro thought this way over half a century ago when knowledge of ancient history was still not easily accessed by the laity. Allegro was therefore a pioneer thinker whose dedicated work and scholarship helped to propel us forward in our understanding of the nature and origins of Semitic or monotheistic religious traditions, and their relationship to other belief systems that had existed worldwide over thousands of years. The notion that Islam, Judaism and Christianity are not as unique or exclusive as some choose to believe should not threaten or undermine these great faiths; in fact, their claims to 'universality' should be bolstered.

At first glance, Allegro seems to have been born in the wrong time, as he encountered so much opposition regarding his open-minded views towards religion from individuals with vested interests and entrenched understandings. Nevertheless Allegro played a brilliant role in history, serving as a catalyst that continues to this day for public debate about Christianity's origins; this debate has far-reaching implications for all Semitic religions, especially insofar as they have shaped the world over two thousand years and culminated in the current stand-off between the so-called West and the Islamic world; 'Us' and 'Them' in the Jungian sense. Perhaps people who are affected by these great religions will come to understand that in this context there really is no Us or Them; that, in fact, Islam, Judaism and Christianity are all branches of the same tree, and not so far removed from other great world religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, and even - dare I say it - various 'pagan' traditions.

Allegro has authored many books conveying this kind of thought but he, of course, does it far better than anyone in my mind. A master of language, Allegro can articulate with the written word what we so often wish we could express ourselves. A master of philology, Allegro had the tools to fathom what most would overlook: the core significance of language and the written word; namely etymology, which contains the keys to understanding religious thought and development. Speech and later writing were early on perceived as divinely manifested abilities. The very fact that humans ever learned to speak and write was considered inherently sublime in itself, and when one comes to understand this, one is ready to read volumes like "The Scared Mushroom and the Cross" (1970) without becoming perplexed by it, as was the case with Allegro's peers.

Brown's book simply sheds light on Allegro's character and scholarship, putting the 'mystery' surrounding the Dead Sea Scrolls into context and giving us another chance to bring his work to light after it was so tragically misunderstood, suppressed and wrongfully slandered. The Dead Sea Scrolls' discovery did indeed have mass implications for Christianity, but the Scrolls did not contain anything that directly threatened to shake the very foundation of the Church; like anything that unrightfully attempts to contravene the natural order of things, the Church, in overreacting to proponents of religious debate, shook its own foundation and unwittingly vindicated Allegro's just cause.

Sooner or later the truth will out; and, in my opinion, those who attempt to prevent this are simply lacking in faith. Now that a credible and balanced account of John M. Allegro and his legacy has been published, I sincerely hope readers will demand that his books be re-issued, so that Allegro's wonderful thoughts and insights can be more readily available to those who share with him a desire to better understand their religions' origins.

Like most far flung theories, this one relies upon "special, hidden" knowledge. In this case the special knowledge would be links between ancient Sumerian writings and the writings of the early Christians. Almost every serious scholar knowledgeable in ancient languages dismisses this notion and find Mr. Allegro's "connections" highly suspect. The few supposed scholars who do support it are highly controversial, such as holocaust denier and antisemitic, Michael Hoffman II.

Many assume Mr. Allegro was vindictive because of having been dismissed from the Dead Sea Scroll project, and this book was his best spiteful shot at the church. One may question the motives of the church in dismissing him. It was done under the cloak of secrecy and seemingly in response to his criticism. But that does not mean this book has the slightest merit. Another reason often put forth as a reason for Mr. Allegro having gone the route of the sensationalist is that he might have wanted to cash in on the speculative ancient "history" trend of the time. "Chariots of the Gods", a book which claimed God was an ancient astronaut was wildly popular at the time this was written.

Whatever his motivation, those few ancient linguists who bother to look at it dismiss it as nonsense. In fact, it is the book that ruined his professional reputation, which had been very good until it was published.

I would not waste my time on this ever again.