Odd Conspiracies: John Allegro, Sacred Mushrooms, and the Dead Sea Scrolls

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This was a great read. I attach some comments which you are free to take or leave as you please. Being biased they might add a tad more to the argument, but this is great as it stands....

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

  I appreciate the reader comments.  The reviewer emphasized that they are suggestions.  I made a few changes (with Track Changes on) to the manuscript.  I corrected the spelling "Frazer" on p. 9.  I don't understand the comment on pg. 10 about the closing punctuation mark.   I see the closing punctuation mark there.  But the reviewer says it's not there. I added a couple of interesting references suggested by the reviewer.   I did not make any major changes.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The article analyzes in detail the figure of English scholar John Marco Allegro, a promising philologist who was among the first to study the Dead Sea Scrolls and to edit and publish a complete volume, but who years later, distanced from the academic sphere and barely interested in his stage as a scholar of Semitic languages, published a book, The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, in which he postulates that all religions of the Near East, including Judaism and Christianity, have their origin in phallic and fertility cults, with rituals in which hallucinogenic mushrooms such as Amanita muscaria would be used. The study attempts to understand the drift that the life and career of this promising philologist took, and concludes that everything began during his period of collaboration with the team responsible for studying the Qumran manuscripts. On one hand, Allegro was inclined to make known to the general public some very personal conclusions that he drew from his contact with the Qumranic texts, without waiting for adequate verification. Likewise, he subscribed to the conspiracy theory according to which the Vatican was impeding progress in the editing and publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls for fear that such manuscripts would reveal uncomfortable realities for Christianity. These precedents would explain many of the characteristics presented by The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, a book in which Allegro does not hesitate to use fictional philology to explain many things based on ancient Sumerian, using unorthodox methods and demonstrating very limited knowledge of that language. What is curious is that the book that definitively ruined Allegro's career has experienced a modern revival, precisely among the most conspiratorial circles. This is a solid and well-researched article that makes a significant contribution to studies on the reception of biblical scholarship in popular culture. The focus on conspiratorial thinking as an explanatory framework is innovative and relevant, and its hypotheses are supported by an extensive bibliography that the author handles very well. We recommend its publication in the present form.

Author Response

Thanks for this review.  It does not recommend any changes.

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This is an excellent article, betraying full knowledge of Allegro as a scrolls scholar, but also of contemporary study of the scrolls, of trends in the study of the study of religions (including the question of comparison).  Even though not the objective of the article, it may perfectly serve as an introduction to Allegro for present-day scrolls scholars. The author’s discussion of Allegro’s work, though critical, is not dismissive, but aims at analyzing and understanding its kind of scholarship. In short: a great discussion of Allegro’s scholarship and personality. I not only greatly enjoyed the article, including the style of writing, but also observed the care for accuracy and style. 

Only one most minor comment: Please check the reference to Brooke 2012 in lines 88-89. Something has gone wrong there. 

 

Author Response

Thanks for the excellent review.  I made the minor correction noted on ll. 88-89,