================================================================== @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ Hoffman on @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ Spring Allegro's Origins @ @ @ @ 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 and the Origins of Christianity. New York: Criterion Books, 1956. Reviewed by Kathleen M.J. Hoffman khoffman@mail.sas.upenn.edu [[For information on Allegro and his work as a member of the original DSS team, see the review by Stewart.]] <0.1> This is a critical review of the Allegro book, printed in 1956, which will be compared to two recent books designed to introduce the reader to the DSS. Like Fitzmyer and VanderKam, Allegro intends his work to be a concise, popular volume, aimed at an audience that is little acquainted with the DSS (13). The focus of Allegro's book, as indicated by the title, is the impact of the DSS on the study of Christian origins and the New Testament. <1.1> All three texts include a description of the discovery of the first cave, and the subsequent purchases of the DSS. The main facts are consistent, however, Allegro offers many anecdotal details, transforming this episode in the DSS history to a tale of intrigue. For example, he dramatizes Saad and Hardings trip to a fifth-rate hovel to acquire the DSS, telling how the hairs on their necks bristled as... they asked a shifty-looking proprietor if Kando was there. This narrative style may appeal to some readers, but those looking for straight facts will find it tiresome and would do better to refer to Fitzmyer. <1.2> Allegro, writing in 1956, is confident in the link between the DSS and the ruins at Qumran, which he refers to as the "monastery" (82). He bases his conclusions upon the work of Roland deVaux, stating that quite certainly the cave and the ruins, the Scrolls and the people who had inhabited the settlement and had been buried in the cemetery [were linked] (84). He cites the unusual pottery shared by the two sites as the most conclusive evidence. Allegro subscribes also to deVaux's time frame theory for the Qumran community, based on archaeological (mainly numismatic) findings. VanderKam and Fitzmyer reach the same conclusions, agreeing that it is likely that the scrolls... were indeed the property of the sect whose communal center was Khirbet Qumran (F 12) and placing the community in the time frame between the 2nd century BCE and the first Jewish revolt, and the scrolls themselves somewhat earlier. However, the two recent books are more inclusive in their coverage of alternate theories on these points, of which Allegro gives no mention. <1.3> All three books refer to the Essene-Qumran connection as only a hypothesis, but a probable one. VanderKam, in particular, gives extensive documentation for the likelihood of an Essene identification for the Qumran sect. He even de-emphasizes Lawrence Schiffman's theory that the Qumranites were of Sadducean background by saying that Schiffman's challenge to the Essene hypothesis... revolves more around proper terminology than the character of the Qumran community (V 95). (Of course, Allegro has no mention of Schiffman, whose work was done long after the publication of Allegro's book.) Allegro discusses the Essenes mainly in the context of their connections with early Christianity, and does not really explain why the Essene name seems appropriate for the Qumranites. <1.4> Both Allegro and VanderKam have sections devoted to biblical texts among the DSS. Unlike Allegro, VanderKam points out the anachronistic use of the word biblical, which would have no meaning in a community that lacked a definition of authoritative works. In both cases, the authors use the word to mean the works that later constitute the Hebrew Bible (= Protestant Old Testament.) Allegro shows a great interest in the value of the DSS for specifically biblical text criticism, including an extensive three-columned comparison of passages from the Masoretic, Qumran, and Septuagint versions of the books of Samuel and Deuteronomy. He cites the frequent agreement between the DSS and the Greek LXX versus the Hebrew Masoretic Text, pointing out that just because the Masoretic is not a translation does not mean it is the most valuable version in all cases. Allegro advocates an "eclectic" translation (74), one which would draw upon various sources so that the original sense may be best understood. <1.5> As stated earlier, the title and main focus of Allegro's work is the connection of the DSS to the origins of Christianity. He discusses in four chapters the similarity in the use of scripture texts in the DSS and the New Testament as well as likenesses between the Qumranites and early Christians, specifically in their messianic and eschatological views. Although his chapter titles sound somewhat sensationalistic (The Qumran Sect and Jesus, for example), there is little in them that is beyond the range of mainstream scholarship. In no case is there any claim of evidence that would somehow jolt (V 170) the Christian faith. He only hints at the possibility that Jesus was not unique, stating that there seems to be nothing which would preclude the acceptance by the Qumran sect of Jesus as the expected Messiah (A 154), although the God-Man concept typical of modern Christianity would have been abhorrent to the Qumranites (A 161). Allegro makes clear that this, as well as the concept of salvation for Gentiles, are ideas that originated later, in Pauline Christology. Meanwhile, the uncontroversial VanderKam and Fitzmyer cite most of the Qumran- Christian parallels Allegro does. All three sources emphasize that the main connection is the common religious background of the two groups, and the deep roots of Christian tradition in Judaism. However, Allegro pushes a bit farther with his theory that Christians possessed Qumran-type thought and perhaps literature because Essenes were prominent among early Christians. This assumes, among other things, that Essenes were indeed at Qumran, a claim Allegro never supports firmly. <00.1> Overall, John Allegro's The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Origins of Christianity accomplishes its purpose of acquainting the unfamiliar reader with the DSS. It compares favorably with more recent books on the topic; in fact, the reader may be surprised at how little the most accepted theories on the DSS and the Qumranites have changed in forty years. Kathleen M.J. Hoffman Box 187, 3465 Sansom St. Philadelphia, PA 19104-6187 khoffman@mail.sas.upenn.edu