John Marco Allegro, the Dead Sea Scrolls and Israel

In my recent article on the controversial Biblical scholar John Marco Allegro 'John Marco Allegro, the Sacred Mushroom and Judaism' (1) I argued that Allegro's research and theories about the role of psychoactive substances (particularly mushrooms) as the origin of religion were hinged on the stories emanating from the (Written) Torah originating from the use of these psychoactive substances.

I also pointed out that Allegro cannot be accused of being anti-Semitic in the academic sense of the term - in which I am in agreement with Brown - (2) but yet in the popular characterization: he almost certainly would be regarded as such. This stems in large part from Allegro's belief that the jews and Judaism were a religious group who had a significantly negative impact on the world and whose intolerance of others had lead ultimately to what Allegro regarded as aberrations: the Crusades, the Inquisition and the extermination of other religions by both Christianity and Islam.

This characterization of the jews and Judaism as being the principle foe of the modern advocate of religious plurality and toleration was much at variance with many of those writing at the time: who tended to see Christianity as the principal problem not Judaism. Judaism was instead regarded as an 'oppressed group' that was habitually victimized and scape-goated by both Christians and Muslims.

Allegro however had a far more intuitive approach in that he argued that the jews had long behaved in a highly intolerant manner in their own time of ascendency and that even when they had been militarily defeated and had not had an independent state for decades: they still had acted with absolute and incomprehensible hatred towards non-jews. The jews refused to countenance religious plurality and toleration: for their god Yahweh was the one true god and thus was the only actual god. Therefore any other form of worship was by its very nature idolatry and the worship of false gods and per force intolerable.

That the jews further believed that they were the uniquely chosen people – what Allegro sometimes infers as a self-identification that they were (and are) the proverbial 'master race' - he saw as the spark from which the consistent refusal of the jews to tolerate non-jews and their beliefs derived. This Allegro pointed out could be seen throughout jewish history, but was especially obvious in the period that was documented in the (Written) Torah through to the Greek and Roman accounts of the behaviour of the jews under their respective governorships. (3)

Allegro saw - as perhaps few others did - that Zionism was not in essence a new political idea or intellectual phenomenon, but was deeply-rooted in the jewish past with its routine oppression and casual disregard for the property, feelings and lives of non-jews. (4) He realised that the Zionism of his day was in essence the modern rebirth of the fanatical zealotry of Josephus' day: not a movement of religious and national liberation, but rather the rebirth of the origin of modern religious persecution in the garb of the persecuted rather than the persecutor.

It is perhaps no surprise to note that the modern apologists for Israel adopt much the same tone in relation to the actions of their opponents and enemies as does the Tanakh.

The apologists of Israel assert that they are besieged and persecuted on all sides, but so did the Israelites in the books of Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy let alone in Kings, Chronicles and Isaiah.

The apologists of Israel suggest that the jews were alone and in bondage until they were able to seize Palestine: much as in the (Written) Torah we find the Israelites enslaved in Egypt until they are brought to Palestine where they dispossessed the local inhabitants claiming to need land of their own (and so on).

This Allegro recognised for the nonsensical propagandistic spin that it was (and is) as well as declaring his open opposition to all forms of jewish nationalism as a return to the dark jewish past of religious intolerance, the hatred of non-jews and jewish racial exclusiveness. (5)

With the creation of Israel and the Six Day War: Allegro's militant anti-Zionism came to the fore and he wrote aggressively that the Dead Sea Scrolls were Arab not jewish property. (6) He had long held this view, (7) but he regarded the Arabs as more likely custodians of the scrolls in regard to their being universally known and studied than the Israelis who he believed (justifiably as it has turned out) (8) would turn the scrolls into part of the jewish national myth and use them to justify their brutality against non-jews in the name of creating - what Higger termed - a 'jewish utopia'.

It is a shame that Allegro's prediction has come true.

References

(1)  This is available at the following address: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/john-marco-allegro-the-sacred-mushroom

(2) Judith Anne Brown, 2005, 'John Marco Allegro: The Maverick of the Dead Sea Scrolls', 1^st Edition, Eerdmanns: Grand Rapids, pp. 243-249

(3) Cf. John Allegro, 1971, 'The Chosen People: A Study of Jewish history from the time of the Exile until the Revolt of Bar Kocheba', 1^st Edition, Hodder and Stoughton: London

(4) John Allegro, 1981, 'The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Christian Myth', 1^st Edition, Abacus: London,  pp. 26-35; 43; 88; 102

(5) John Allegro, 1959, 'The Dead Sea Scrolls', 3^rd Edition, Pelican: London, pp. 96-100

(6) John Allegro, 1964, 'The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Reappraisal', 2^nd Edition, Penguin: London, pp. 29-33; 46-50; 138; John Allegro, 1977, 'Lost Gods', 1^st Edition, Michael Joseph: London, p. 147

(7) Allegro, 'The Dead Sea Scrolls', Op. Cit., pp. 11-13; 17-32; Allegro, 'The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Reappraisal', Op. Cit., pp. 13-15; John Allegro, 1965, 'Search in the Desert', 1^st Edition, W. H. Allen: London, pp. 11; 81; 151-152

(8) Cf. Hershel Shanks, 1992, 'Silence, Anti-Semitism, and the Scrolls', pp. 264-275 in Heschel Shanks (Ed.), 1992, 'Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls', 1^st Edition, SPCK: London