I’ll name some who do agree

Sula benet, anthropologist, etymologist

Weston La Barre, anthropologist

Vera Rubin, Anthropologist

Imanuelle Lowe, Botanist

William Emboden, Botanist

Carl Ruck, Mythologist Linguist

Blaise Staples, Mythologist, Linguist

as well people can go to Navigating the Bible and see that even in this mainstream source, cannabis appears with other candidates due to its etymology. When these references are placed in context of the Biblical storyline, the use of a healing and psychoactive shamanic plant becomes clear.

And cannabis ointments were used in the first centuries after Christ, the messiah, or anointed, for both healing and spiritual purposes.

No, I wouldn’t be offended at all. When it comes to the issue of cannabis in the OT, I just don’t think that there is enough evidence about the word kanon to make a judgement either way (I may post more on that in the future). And I find the arguments of Chris Bennett very weak; he finds one or two scholars who support his arguments and ignores the hundreds of other scholars who don’t. I personally have nothing at stake in the argument; I don’t really care either way if there was cannabis use during the OT period.

I hope you would not be offended to have a discussion. Are you interested in religious testimony or are you purely persuaded by archaeological evidence? I believe the historical evidence is consistent with cannabis use in both Old and New Testaments, but may not be considered proven by one who does not believe. It is much like having a conversation about God with one who looks only for physical proof. Both can be proven to oneself by direct experience, but neither can be proven to another by testimony and documents alone.

http://pot.tv/archive/shows/pottvshowse-3775.html

38 minute excerpt for Preview. Interviews with Prof. Carl Ruck, Hemp Historian Chris Conrad, author Chris Bennett, The Church of the Universe and others. “New Film Confirms Cannabis in the Holy Anointing Oil, and Makes the link to this oil within early Christianity as part of the Fire Baptism of Jesus Christ. This Shocking New Film Documentary brings together the worlds foremost researchers on Cannabis in the Holy Anointing Oil as described in Exodus 30:23. The Holy Oil includes an ingredient translated as calamus. This translation is incorrect. Calamus contains a poison called asarone. The term Calamus was mistranslated in the earliest Greek Bible the Septuagint. The Hebrew in this case is Kaneh Bosem”
Check out http://www.freeanointing.org for more details.

Thanks for your comment. I didn’t mean to mislead my readers — they could read the full article via the link I provided. The biggest problem with your arguments is that kaneh doesn’t appear to mean hemp in Classical Hebrew. Furthermore, appeals to the Aramaic Targums or the Latin Vulgate really doesn’t help us understand the Hebrew. It may help us understand how the translators understood the Hebrew in their context, but that is about it (especially for the Vulgate).

Either way, the arugments are pretty weak. And even if there are some obscure references in the OT to hemp or the like, as I mentioned in my post, that doesn’t really say much about its use today.

FYI: I deleted your two extremely long posts (I didn’t think that posting what is essentially an article was appropriate for the comments. Please feel free to let me know of a link to the article and I will be happy to post it (and perhaps even write another post engaging your arguments further, though I’m not sure I would have the time right away).

Take care,

Tyler

Of the historical material indicating the Hebraic use of cannabis, the strongest and most profound piece of evidence was established in 1936 by Sula Benet (a.k.a. Sara Benetowa), a Polish etymologist from the Institute of Anthropological Sciences in Warsaw. Benet later stated that: “In the original Hebrew text of the Old Testament there are references to hemp, both as incense, which was an integral part of religious celebration, and as an intoxicant”(Benet 1975). Through comparative etymological study, Bennett documented that in the Old Testament and in its Aramaic translation, the Targum Onculos, hemp is referred to as kaneh bosm, which is also rendered in traditional Hebrew as kannabos or kannabus. The root “kan” in this construction means “reed” or “hemp”, while “bosm” means “aromatic”. This word appeared in Exodus 30:23, Song of Songs 4:14., Isaiah 43:24, Jeremiah 6:20, Ezekiel 27:19.

In 1980 the respected anthropologist Weston La Barre(1980) referred to the Biblical references in an essay on cannabis. In that same year respected British Journal New Scientist also ran a story that referred to the Hebrew Old Testament references, (Malyon & Henman 1980). A modern counterpart of the word is even listed in Ben Yehudas Pocket Dictionary and other Hebrew source books. Further, on line, the Internet’s informative Navigating the Bible, used by countless theological students, even refers to the Exodus 30:23 reference as possibly designating cannabis.