================================================================== @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ Stewart on @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ Spring Allegro's Intro @ @ @ @ 1995 @ @ @ @ @@@@@@ @@@@@@ @@@@@@ ================================================================== R E V I E W S ================================================================== Dead Sea Scroll Book Reviews, for Religious Studies 225 University of Pennsylvania, Robert Kraft, Spring Term 1995 Copyright by the respective authors; reproduction with appropriate credits is permitted. [[NOTE: The assignment was to summarize the reviewed book and to compare it especially with the textbooks used in the course, by James VanderKam The Dead Sea Scrolls Today (Eerdmans/SPCK 1994) and Joseph Fitzmyer Responses to 101 Questions on the Dead Sea Scrolls (Paulist Press 1992). As with this note, any comments by the course instructor are enclosed in double brackets below.]] ----- John M. Allegro, The Dead Sea Scrolls: a Reappraisal. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1964. Pp. 207. Reviewed by Allison P. Stewart astewart@sas.upenn.edu <0.1> In this book, Allegro presents a basic introduction to the Dead Sea Scrolls. However, the ideas and situations presented in this book may sometimes differ from those presented in other introductory books insofar as Allegro's personal experiences and interests with regard to the Scrolls are often reflected in his discussions. <0.2> John Allegro joined the scrolls' team when the "deans of Old Testament studies in England, G.R. Driver of Oxford and H.H. Rowley of Manchester, were asked to send a young recently graduated doctoral student to join the team" (Fitzmyer, 149). Rowley's pick, Allegro, arrived to join the team at the end of 1953 (Fitzmyer, 149; Driver's pick was Strugnell). Allegro "was a dropout from a Methodist Seminary, who became an agnostic" (Fitzmyer, 152). Troubles started to arise between Allegro and his scroll-mates when he started to make allegations concerning the nature of the scrolls, claiming that there were crucifixion references in the texts which could be linked to the Jesus story. In the 6 February 1956

TIME magazine under a headline that read: "Crucifixion before Christ" (p. 88), Allegro is reported to have claimed that the priest-king Alexander Jannaeus "descended on Qumran and arrested its leader, the mysterious 'Teacher of Righteousness,' whom he turned over to his mercenaries to be crucified." Allegro went on to say that after Jannaeus left, the Qumranites took down their Master's body "to stand guard over it until Judgement Day," and to wait for his resurrection. "What is clear here," said Allegro, "is that there was a well-defined Essenic pattern into which Jesus of Nazareth fits" (Fitzmyer, 164). Allegro continued to make attacks on the uniqueness of Christianity and claims of the crucifixion of Jesus in the scrolls, which prompted response from the rest of the scrolls team. In a letter to

The Times of London (16 March 1856, p. 11), the team claimed to have reviewed the texts assigned to Allegro and concluded that there was "no crucifixion of the 'teacher,' no deposition from the cross, and no 'broken body of their master' to be stood over until Judgement Day. Therefore, there is no 'well-defined Essenic pattern into which Jesus of Nazareth fits'" (Fitzmyer, 165). Allegro's accusations that the texts were deliberately being suppressed by the Catholic-dominated scrolls team, as well as inaccuracies in his publication of his assigned scroll material (Discoveries in the Judaean Desert, vol. 5, 1968) which prompted a one-hundred and fourteen page rebuttal by scrolls team member John Strugnell, further increased tensions between Allegro and his teammates. Allegro's credibility was hardly increased when he mounted an expedition to look for the treasures of the Copper Scroll (December 1960 and January 1961) and published the scroll without authorization (1960). Allegro was famous for his accusations concerning crucifixion references in the Dead Sea Scrolls. He was obsessed with the search for parallels between Christianity and the Qumran documents, which is clear from his discussions in the book under review as well as some of his other publications . <1.1> The Dead Sea Scrolls: a reappraisal is enriched by Allegro's personal contact with the discovery of the scrolls. Included in the book is a lengthy account of the search for the scrolls. In this respect, Allegro's work is unparalleled by either Fitzmyer's book or VanderKam's. Allegro's descriptive language brings the reader right into the back of Kando's shop as Saad (the Secretary of the Palestine Archaeological Museum in Jerusalem) bargains with the dealer to purchase some scroll fragments. Allegro describes in detail the process of locating the first cave found by the Bedouin in 1947 (26), as well as how the fragments that were taken away by the original Bedouin "excavators" were finally obtained. Allegro discusses the discovery of the Murabba'at caves in 1951 (41), which contained some documents from the second Jewish revolt against Rome in 132-135 CE (VanderKam, 10), and also the discoveries of caves two and three at Qumran in 1952. Allegro also talks about the discoveries of caves four, five, six, and eleven at Qumran. From the point of view of a scholar present not long after the original discoveries and working in cooperation with those who made those original discoveries, Allegro provides a very detailed description of the discovery and purchase of the Dead Sea Scrolls. <1.2> Allegro also uses his firsthand contact with the scrolls to describe their compilation,transcription, and translation. He speaks of the difficulty in reconstructing often severely damaged texts, as well as the difficulties encountered by the use of codes in the texts of Qumran (57). Allegro goes on to describe the biblical texts found at Qumran. He prefaces his comparison of the Masoretic text, Septuagint, and Qumran text with a concise history of these translations of the "Old Testament," including the story of the "seventy" (LXX) translators of the Septuagint and those vowel-adding Masoretes. Allegro compares these three versions, stressing where the Qumran text agrees with the Septuagint, and not the Masoretic text. <1.3> Allegro describes the excavations at Qumran, as well as the methods used to date the site and the scrolls. He cites the presence of coins and an earthquake as primary source of dating the site, and carbon-14 dating on the flaxen scroll covers of the First Cave texts as the method of dating the scrolls. Allegro describes the site vividly and theorizes about the use of the various structures, commenting especially on the size and number of the water cisterns and their possible relationship to the purity rituals necessitated by the Qumran writings. He also comments on the caves near the site and their physical nature. Allegro feels that the caves were used as living areas as well as libraries, though not necessarily at the same time. He bases his conclusion on the presence of two fragments of a wooden comb found in cave one (86). Allegro discusses the absence of money in the caves, which, he says, indicated a communistic mode of living to excavations director deVaux which was later confirmed by the scrolls. <1.4> "Most scholars believe that the Covenanters of the Scrolls are to be identified with at least one branch of the Essene movement," says Allegro (116). Allegro bases his belief in the Essene identity of the sect on a three-fold proof. Allegro believes that the distrust of women, as well as the modification of certain biblical ordinances in the scrolls of the Qumran community links them to the celibate Essene sect mentioned by the historians Josephus ("Antiquities" and "The Jewish War") and Philo ("Apologia pro Judaeis"). Furthermore, Josephus describes a "mattock" which all Essenes were issued to use wnen relieving themselves. Allegro cites the presence of one of these "mattocks" in a Qumran cave as proof of the identity of the sect (118). Allegro further links the Qumran community to the Essenes by stating that there is a reference to Alexander Jannaeus, the Jewish priest-king, in one of the Qumran scrolls that indicates him as the sect's persecutor (see above). The Essenes were a group who fled the Hasmonean dynasty in Jerusalem, of which Jannaeus was a leader (106- 107). Allegro combines these facts to posit that these "Essenes" at Qumran retreated from Jerusalem in protest of the ascent of an illegitimate priesthood, the Hasmonean dynasty, of which Jannaeus was the most hated member. <1.5> In addition to disagreeing with the position awarded to the Hasmoneans, Allegro believes a major cause of conflict between the Qumran sect and the reigning Jerusalem priests to be the different calendars followed by each party. The Qumran sect, says Allegro, followed a solar calendar which had Wednesday as the first day of the year and of certain major holidays. The belief that the Temple priests were celebrating on the wrong days was a motivation for the retreat to the desert. Allegro describes the discipline of the sect and their governing/hierarchial policies. Initiation is discussed, and Allegro notes a correlation between the Karaites of the ninth and tenth century (who were accused of solemnizing Wednesday) and the Qumran sect. <1.6> Allegro explores the doctrines of the sect, and especially how they may relate to those of Christianity. Towards the latter half of the book, the comparisons between the Qumran texts and Christianity are overwhelming in number. Allegro has chapters titled "The Use of Scripture Texts in The Dead Sea Scrolls and The New Testament," "John The Baptist" (where Allegro actually concludes that John had nothing to do with the Qumran community),"The Qumran Community and The Church," and "The Messianic Conceptions of Qumran and the Early Church." Allegro "backs off" his crucifixion of the Teacher of Righteousness hypothesis in this book. During his discussion of his theory that Jannaeus persecuted the sect, Allegro states that Jannaeus crucified his enemies. He continues to say that "it is tempting to push our dramatic reconstruction further and see in this incident an allusion to the fate of the Teacher himself. But it must be confessed that his death is referred to only once explicitly in the scrolls, and then under the euphemism of being 'gathered in'" (108). Allegro ends his book with a chapter called "Jesus and The Scrolls," where he most definitely sees a correlation between Jesus and the Qumran community, saying that "the scrolls prompt us increasingly to seek an eschatological meaning for most of Jesus' reported sayings" (p. 175). Allegro seeks, and seems to find, many parallels between Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls, which he is more than happy to share with the reader. <2.1> Allegro presents interesting alternatives to the facts and hypotheses presented in the course textbooks. Allegro places the beginning of occupation at Qumran in or fairly soon after the reign of John Hyrcanus (135-104 BCE). This period was ended by an earthquake in 31 BCE, and reoccupation took place after the death of Herod (4 BCE). The sect remained there until 68 CE, when they were forced out by the Romans who stayed on to occupy the site for a while. VanderKam modifies this slightly by placing initial occupation "during the reign of one of John Hyrcanus's immediate predecessors but not too long before Hyrcanus assumed the high priesthood in 134 B.C." (105). These two different dates would mean the community started under different rulers, and possibly, different rules as well. <2.2> Other differences from our comparison materials also appear in Allegro's work. Allegro believes "The Wicked Priest," the opponent of the sect's leader, "The Teacher of Righteousness," to be the Jewish priest-king, Alexander Jannaeus (103-76 BCE). He cites as proof of this that "to him [the Wicked Priest] is referred any wicked person spoken of in biblical prophecy" (104). Allegro believes it is this person to whom reference is made under the pseudonym "the Lion of Wrath" in the commentary on the book of Nahum. He claims that it is simple to link "the Lion of Wrath" to Alexander Jannaeus (105). However, both Fitzmyer (57) and VanderKam (103) disagree with Allegro's identity for "the Wicked Priest." Both VanderKam and Fitzmyer agree that "the Wicked Priest" was most likely Jonathan the Maccabee (ca. 162-142 BCE) who "usurped" the priesthood, or perhaps his brother Simon (according to VanderKam). For centuries, the leading legitimate officials among the Jews had been the high priests descending from the line of David's priest Zadok. That family lost the high priesthood shortly before the events of the 160s BCE, and after that, the kings of the Seleucid Empire appointed high priests for apparently political and financial reasons. However, Josephus reports to us that there was no high priest between 159 and 152 BCE. In 152 BCE, Jonathan of the Hasmoneans was appointed high priest by one of the Seleucid monarchs, Alexander Balas, who needed his military backing (VanderKam, 101). Jonathan was seen as "usurping" the priesthood since he had only a tenuous claim to the position. Allegro neglects to explore the identity of "The Teacher of Righteousness," saying only that he was commissioned directly by God to take certain of the Jerusalem priests into the desert to remain pure. Fitzmyer identifies the Teacher as some sort of historical figure (56), and VanderKam sees him as perhaps a high priest active during that period from 159 to 152 BCE when there was an absence of a Jewish high priest (103). <2.3> Allegro takes no firm stance on the position of women at Qumran. He cites documentation from the Manual of Discipline which plainly points to the presence of women (114), and on the next page cites a passage which would indicate the lack of women in the Qumran community (4Q184). He justifies this by saying that some sections of the order may have avoided marriage altogether, and uses this to link the Qumranites to the sects of non-marrying Essenes that Josephus writes about (116). Fitzmyer reconciles this same inconsistency by saying that there must have been different lifestyles at different times or among different members of the community at Qumran, but that women and marriage were a part of the community at Qumran at some point in time (66). VanderKam has a similar defence (91). <2.4> One distinction between Allegro's book and the other course books is his mention of the Qumranites as being avid astrologers. Allegro says, "for them the stars and their positions could affect men's lives, and amongst their esoteric documents we have one giving the signs of the Zodiac distributed over the days of the month" (126). This is followed by a quote from an unidentified manuscript. There is absolutely no mention of astrology in VanderKam or Fitzmyer, although the concept of astrology is closely linked to determinism, which is mentioned in VanderKam (76-78) and Fitzmyer (67-70). Josephus said of the Essenes that they believed in fate as supreme to all else, and similar views are echoed in the community's Manual of Discipline (VanderKam, 76). However, "astrology," per se, did not make it into today's popular introductions to the Dead Sea Scrolls. <00.1> The Dead Sea Scrolls: a reappraisal provides an excellent source of background on the material found at Qumran. Allegro's personal connection with the texts enables him to explain the nature of this historical find in greater detail than perhaps anyone else could. However, I feel that the book spends too much time comparing the New Testament and the Septuagint to the scrolls, and not enough time comparing them to the Masoretic text and the Judaism that has survived. The scrolls should also provide us with a way to understand the evolution of the biblical texts that have reached us through Judaism, and Allegro's one-sided attention to the Septuagint undermines this goal. Allegro considers it to be of utmost importance to establish the relation of the Qumran community to early Christianity, and this primary concern of his dictates his writing, almost overwhelming the rest of the material presented. Allison P. Stewart astewart@sas.upenn.edu