John Marco Allegro
| John Marco Allegro | |
|---|---|
John Allegro
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| Born |
17 February 1923 Balham, South London |
| Died | 17 February 1988 (aged 65) Sandbach, Cheshire |
John Marco Allegro (17 February 1923 – 17 February 1988) was an English archaeologist and Dead Sea Scrolls scholar. He was known as a populariser of the Dead Sea Scrolls through his books and radio broadcasts. He was the editor of some of the most famous and controversial scrolls published, the pesharim. A number of Allegro's later books, including The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, brought him both popular fame and notoriety, and also destroyed his career.
Allegro matriculated from grammar school in 1939, though he did not go on to university, as his father saw little value in higher education, so Allegro joined the British Navy, serving during World War Two and going on to become an officer. After the war he began training for the Methodist ministry, but found that he was more interested in Hebrew and Greek, so he went to study at Manchester University with fees paid by government grant due to his military service. Allegro received his Honours degree in Oriental Studies at the University of Manchester in 1951. This was followed in 1952 by a masters under supervision of H. H. Rowley. While engaged in further research in Hebrew dialects at Oxford under Godfrey Driver in 1953, Allegro was invited by Gerald Lankester Harding to join the team of scholars working on the Dead Sea Scrolls in Jerusalem, so he spent a year in Jerusalem working on the scrolls. He became a lecturer in Comparative Semitic Philology in Manchester in 1954.
It was on Allegro's recommendation in 1955 that the Copper Scroll was sent by the Jordanian government to Manchester University in order for it to be cut into sections, allowing the text to be read. He was present during the cutting process in 1956 and later made a preliminary transcription of the text, which he soon translated, sending copies of his work back to Gerald Lankester Harding in Jordan. Although Allegro had been first to translate the Copper Scroll, the text was assigned for editing to J.T. Milik by Roland de Vaux, the editor in chief of the scrolls. While he was in England he made a series of radio broadcasts on BBC Radio aimed at popularising the scrolls, in which he announced that the leader discussed in the scrolls may have been crucified. He posited that the Teacher of Righteousness had been martyred and crucified by Alexander Jannaeus, and that his followers believed he would reappear at the End time as Messiah, based on Qumran document Commentary on Nahum 1.4–9 (a position that he re-iterated in 1986). His colleagues in Jerusalem immediately responded with a letter to the Times on 16 March 1956 refuting his claim. The letter concluded,
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