John M. Allegro

John Marco Allegro (17 February 1923 – 17 February 1988) was an English archaeologist and Dead Sea Scrolls scholar. He was 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 complicated his career.

Allegro served in the Royal Navy during World War II, began training for the Methodist ministry but shifted to Oriental Studies, earning degrees from Manchester and Oxford before joining the Dead Sea Scrolls research team in Jerusalem and becoming a lecturer in Semitic Philology in 1954. He played a pivotal role in the early study and popularization of the Copper Scroll by arranging its physical opening, producing the first translation, controversially publishing it ahead of the official edition, and promoting theories about its content that drew criticism from his peers.

John Marco Allegro published the Dead Sea Scrolls fragments 4Q158–4Q186, which contained ''pesharim''—unique biblical commentaries—in a minimalist edition after delays from the late 1950s until 1968. Although his approach faced widespread scholarly criticism, it nonetheless provided decades of material for study while other editors worked on their volumes.

By 1960, Allegro, holding controversial views on the Dead Sea Scrolls and clashing with colleagues, moved to theology at Manchester where he wrote the provocative book ''The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross'' and subsequently resigned due to its impact. John Allegro’s controversial theory argued that Christianity originated from an Essene shamanistic cult using psychoactive mushrooms, interpreting the New Testament as a coded record of this cult, but his ideas were widely rejected by scholars and led to his academic ostracism. Married with two children, he died of a heart attack on his 65th birthday in 1988, and was noted for his flamboyant style in biblical studies. Provided by Wikipedia