John Marco Allegro: The Maverick of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls & Related Literature) - Softcover

Brown, Judith Anne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802863337 ISBN 13: 9780802863331

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans-Lightning Source, 2007

Synopsis

This book is the first to fully explore the life and ideas of John Marco Allegro (1923-1988), freethinker and rebel, whose work on the Dead Sea Scrolls led him to challenge the church, the team of scholars in charge of editing the Scrolls, and most conventional assumptions about the development of Christianity. / As the first British member of the Scrolls editing team, Allegro shared the excitement, the insights, and the eyestrain of deciphering these invaluable ancient fragments. He made it possible for the Copper Scroll, a mysterious listing of treasure, to be opened in Manchester and did much to focus worldwide attention on the Scrolls as a whole. But he made his name - or gained his notoriety - by questioning orthodox assumptions about the Christian church's origins and authority. / Allegro went on challenging the establishment all his life, and he relished the arguments he provoked. For over thirty years he campaigned for open access to the Scrolls and for wider debate about their significance. To him it was a campaign for free speech and free opinion. Judith Anne Brown's John Marco Allegro is a fascinating, probing, inside account of this irrepressibly original man. Making extensive use of Allegro's letters, lecture notes, draft manuscripts, and other previously unpublished writings, Brown brings to life afresh the extraordinary discoveries and debates that began in the caves by the Dead Sea over half a century ago.

About this title

About the Author

Judith Anne Brown is the daughter of John Marco Allegro, a freelance writer and editor, and an associate of the Plain Language Commission. Her work on John Marco Allegro also appears in Manchester and the Dead Sea Scrolls (forthcoming), edited by George J. Brooke. She lives in Derbyshire, England, with her husband and two children.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans-Lightning Source
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0802863337
• ISBN 13: 9780802863331
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 308