Product Description

The late John Allegro, the only humanist scholar given access to the scrolls, presents translations and analyses of the manuscripts in his charge, and expounds upon his controversial ideas regarding the historical authenticity of Jesus, and the role played by the myths of the Essene community in the development of Christianity.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #259064 in Books
• Published on: 1992-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 252 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780879757571
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Customer Reviews

A gripping read
One of the most fascinating books I've ever read.

I definitely give this book a 5 star rating.

I spent 9 months of the last year researching Allegro's personal history, communicating with his family, etc., verifying accusations against Allegro, and investigating the personal history of those, like John Strugnell, who spent their lives in attempt to destroy Allegro's career. I've spent 12 years researching this field in total.

John goes deep into pre-Christian Essene/gnostic history, and shows us how the fanatical Essene political leader the 'Teacher of Righteousness' was applied the attributes of more ancient theology such as astrotheology and shamanism/drug use talked about in our own research (search Pharmacratic Inquisition for a free demo video). From this "Teacher of Righteousness" we begin to see a three tear system of the current pervading religious dogma, and how, like ancient kings, the Teacher of Righteousness, who died in 88 BCE, was considered holy because he was closest to god's word, the semen and drugs, and labeled the anointed "Christ."

Quote:
"Essene or Essenoi or Essaoioi means `physician'.
Although the name `Essene' was known only in its transliterated Greek forms, Essenoi, or Essaioi, there seemed good reason to believe it represented an Aramaic, ie Semitic, word meaning `Physician' (`asa', plural `asayya'), and reflected the popular idea that these pious people, like Jesus and his followers, exercised power of demons, an essential part of folk-medicine." Pg 12


Though he does not go as in depth into the drug use of these groups as he did in (the contested, and fabulous work) / The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, / he does make many references to drugs, and he does delve deep into the sun/Morning-star worship (the Morning-star was Venus and named Lucifer) of the Essenes (meaning 'Physicians'), and their fertility rites. He explains in depth just how the name 'Christian' (Christ) is derived from chrism (semen anointing), and the correlation of the Sun and the Morning-star and their correlation to morning 'dew', and rain as being the Sky Gods' semen, which impregnated the mother earth--from which the most powerful drug plants had the most of God's seed.

---
Quotes:
"In any fertility religion it is the god who is responsible for impregnating Mother Earth and the wombs of women and animals. This life-giving force was then, naturally enough, associated with rain and with sperm, and the god within the thunder-storm also motivated the sexual urge in man and beast. It was thought that menstrual blood had a similar potency to that of seminal fluid, and that it was the combination of the two in the womb that produced offspring." Pg. 118

"The semen of the fertility god could be seen spurting as rain from heaving during an orgasmic thunderstorm; in concentrated form it appeared in certain powerful plants like the Mandrake, or Holy Plant, identified in many cultures with the sacred fungus, Amanita muscaria, or in the aromatic gums and resins that formed part of the traditional unctions of priests and kings. Such functionaries thus became `holy', that is separated to the god's service, being smeared, or `anointed' with his divine substance. They were therefore called `the anointed ones', that is, `messiahs', or christs, more specifically in the Old Testament, `those anointed with Jehovah/Yahweh'. (I Sam. 26:11; Ps. 2:2)"

"Since this divine essence, the Light of the Pleroma, was also the source of the Knowledge of God, the gnosis, anyone thus anointed was granted special insight, as the New Testament says:
...you have been anointed by the Holy One and have knowledge of all things...the anointing which you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you; as his chrism teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie, just as it has taught you, abide in him. (I John 2:20 &27)" pg. 124

"The man and woman take the ejaculated sperm in their hands, step forward, raise their eyes aloft, and with the defilement still on their hands, offer up prayers...They present to Him who is essentially the Father of us all, what lies in their palms, saying, `We offer unto Thee this gift, the Body of the Messiah.' They then proceed to it it in their infamous ritual, saying, `This is the Body of Christ, and this is the Pascha [ie, the Passover Meal] through which our bodies suffer and are made to acknowledge the Passion of Christ.' They behave similarly with a woman's menstrual blood: they collect from her the monthly blood of impurity, take it, eat it in a common meal, and say, `This is Christ's blood.'"
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By reading this book, we can begin to see clearly how symbology such as the caduceus has been applied to modern medicine through religion, and it's direct cousin, the crucifix has been applied to its related religion which stemmed from the same source, the Essenes 'Physicians', and much earlier shamanic (drug) and star knowledge. Physicians were considered both spiritual and physical healers because all health problems were thought to be caused by personal demons of that person's personal issues.


Quote:
"Knowledge and healing were merely two aspects of the same life-force. Gnostic Essenes, a descriptive phrase which incorporates both functions, `knowing' and `healing', symbolized and effected their calling through their anointing. Thus the epistle-writer James in the New Testament suggests that anyone of the community who was sick should call the elders to anoint him with oil in the name of the Master (5:14). The Twelve are pictured as driving out demons and anointing the sick with oil (Mark 6:13). Healing by unction persisted in the Church until the twelfth century, and the anointing of the dying, a relic of this practice, has remained a custom among Roman Catholics to this day." Pg. 129


Through this we also begin to see how the cap of the Amanita was related to the mensus, and the stipe to the white, male semen.

Allegro goes into depth on how the Essenes believed in repetitive history, and how the Teacher of Righteousness was but one of 3 'Joshuas' that had this same ancient story applied to each.

This book is very deep, and its implications are powerful. This is absolutely required reading. Buy it while it's still in print, as it is one of Allegro's few books that still remains available.

A MUST READ! Though I must admit, I am not completely convinced against the pure achaeoastrological / shamanism origins of the Jesus anthropomorphism. (See Acharya S, Morton Smith, etc.).

One day soon, John Marco Allegro's research will be the accepted norm, and not the current literal interpretations put forth by those who sought to destroy his reputation...nearly all of whom were Catholic fathers and priets: Father De Vaux and Father Josef Milik of the École Biblique, Father Jean Starcky, Father Maurice Baillet, and Monsignor Patrick Skehan. They were joined by Frank Cross of the McCormick Theological Seminary and the Albright Institute, Claus-Hunno Hunzinger from Gottingen and later John Strugnell from Oxford.

John Allegro was the ONLY researcher involved with the scrolls who didn't attempt to apply his personal dogmatic beliefs to the scrolls, and sought to translate them as he saw it, not how he wanted it to be.

Another excellent scholar, who supports many of Allegro's ideas, is Dr. Philip Davies of the University of Sheffield. His books are highly recommended reading as well.

Probably the best book I ever read on the subject
I have read many books about Christianity and Jesus historic discussion; besides that I watch every Tv program that discusses this time of history. I read the portuguese translation of this book. Well, I have to say that this is, probably, the best book I ever read on the subject. Allegro became a largely polemic historian when he spoke about his theory that the New Testament episodes were evoked by mushrooms' consumption and not by real events. Unlike Kersten, Messadié and other polemical authors, John Allegro doesn't fall in just an easy speculation completely without logic and strong historical evidence. No, Allegro knows deeply the religious background of the Essenians and other Near-East cults. He can so easily describe the rituals and beliefs of those strange gnostic movements that one feels like we're actually reliving those past times with them: the reader can see the Ancient World through the eyes and words of John Allegro. Although, the majority of historians believe that Jesus really existed, even if some of the events written in the New Testament may have not happened like that, there is one thing that must be stated: we found no strong proof of Jesus existence to this day. There is no record of Jesus from his age. The original Gospels were only written some 40 or 50 years after Jesus death and may have been badly translated by the posterior Gentile christians: we can read only the remains of the greek Gospels and never the originals (if there were any real originals). The 1st century roman and jewish historians don't know anything of importance about Jesus, even though they knew of the Christian movement. Even the early III century's Catholic Christian patriarchs seem to be greatly ignorant of their early antecessors history and do not provide any actually historical background of the age or for the original Hebrew records: any knowledge of the real events of the past is lost to them and only tradition remains. Most of the Testimonium Flavianum of Flavius Josephus is know believed to have been forged by some Christian copist and doesn't still represent a strong argument to Jesus existence, because Josephus could have been deceived by some popular stories told by the Christian tradition which may not be historically true. Besides, the stories spoken in the Gospels seem to be intended mostly for preaching and not for historical background: many of the events and rituals described in essential episodes don't match our knowledge of the age. Pilatos wasn't a coward governor afraid of cruxifying a Jewish rebel and Pilatos didn't convert to Christianism like the sayings of the Christian tradition: Pilatos was dimissed by the Emperor by his excessive ruthlessness towards the people in 36 and committed suicide in Vienna shortly after; there wasn't any roman census at the time of Herodes (because Judea wasn't a roman province at the time); there isn't any evidence about a roman tradition of releasing a prisoner by the time of Easter (and it is most unlikely that something like that could happen in a Roman Province) and the Jewish law forbids the Sinedrius of arresting and executing people during Easter time (it is very doubtful that such a transgression of the Law should be made by the Sinedrius). Well, Allegro doesn't talk about many similarities between Christian beliefs and the cults of Dyonisius and Mythra, much popular at the time. But he gives us an interesting perspective. An ancient parchment of the Gospel of Marcos was found in Qumran. Many of the beliefs of the Essenians ressemble early christianity and the Teacher of Righteousness life also reminds us of the Jesus tale. Allegro explores with great insight the rituals and life in Qumran, concluding that the christian tales appeared after the fall of Qumran, when the group dispersed itself. The tales of Christ must have been symbolic lessons told by a group of former Essenians, and some people which adopted the christian beliefs - without understanding the mystic order of these tales - thought them to be entirely true. And so the greatest fraud of History was born... Allegro knows what he's talking about and is a recognized scholar, whose knowdlege of ancient languages remains one of the best among archaelogists. His logic and cohesion of speech is unmatched. He bases his thesis on hard evidence, doesn't create absurd historical events (like Kersten) and a profound analysis of gnostic beliefs. This is a quite reasonable perspective of the ideas and forces behind early Christianity. We should be thankful for Allegro! Even if his thesis may not be 100% enlightening - some questions still remain to be answered - he has shown us another way of looking at the Christian problem. Making people think about the past is never a bad deed!

16th of April, 1999

the myth around the candle flame
This study is much more convincingly presented than the author's reputation would lead one to expect. Of course Allegro's reputation was ruined by the Sacred Mushroom and the Cross which, except for the basic thesis itself, and it's quite a thesis, is much more sober and scholarly than the so-called critics would have us believe. Here Allegro tries to be more restrained, although the earlier book actually contains more interesting and useful data on the cultic credos of the 1st b.c. <> 1st a.d. period. As for his conclusion, if there is one here, Allegro's suggestion that Essenic sects played a role in the Jesus narratives, and that pagan myths were assimilated to the Christ doctrines, is not really very original or untenable. In fact, reverend scholars such as Powell Davies were making the same points in the fifties, and in the benighted nineteenth century the Reverend Taylor's Diegesis, written while in an English prison for his views, made the same connections although he of course knew nothing whatever of the Dead Sea Scrolls.