Was There A Whiff Of Cannabis About Jesus?

[Jun]

Claims of drug use by biblical figures surprisingly have susbtance,

says Professor Carl Ruck

 

Was Jesus a Stoner? is the mischievous title of an article about the use of cannabis in ancient Judaism in next month's High Times, a pro-cannabis magazine. Its author, Chris Bennett, likes to shock. He is the host of Burning Shiva, a show on Canada's Pot-TV, and an advocate for the medical use and decriminalisation of marijuana. Bennett first looked at the use of drugs in religion two years ago in his book Sex, Drugs, Violence, and the Bible. He postulates that Jesus's ministry was fuelled by mind-altering substances, that he may have used cannabis-based oils to heal eye and skin diseases and that his very name - Christ - derives from being anointed with cannabis-enriched oil.

 

His politics and television career might make it tempting to dismiss him but what Bennett says makes perfect sense. Over the centuries drugs have been used by virtually all religions. Why not Christianity?

 

In ancient times cannabis was widely cultivated throughout the Middle East. It grows like a weed and provides nourishing seed, which is also a good source of fibre used to make rope.

 

People certainly knew of its pleasurable effects; it would have been impossible to harvest it without becoming ecstatic as the drug would be absorbed through the skin. And as long ago as 1935 a Slovakian linguist identified the plant known as "fragrant cane" in the English Bible as flowering cannabis, a link since accepted by some Jewish authorities.

 

Ancient people were fascinated by herbs and their healing powers and knew much more about them than we do; at least about mixing herbs to release their potency.

 

Ancient wines were always fortified, like the "strong wine" of the Old Testament, with herbal additives: opium, datura, belladonna, mandrake and henbane. Common incenses, such as myrrh, ambergris and frankincense are psychotropic; the easy availability and long tradition of cannabis use would have seen it included in the mixtures. Modern medicine has looked into using cannabis as a pain reliever and in treating multiple sclerosis. It may well be that ancient people knew, or believed, that cannabis had healing power.

 

Much of their knowledge, passed down through an oral tradition, has been lost and to some extent it is the modern prejudice against drugs that has stopped us looking for it. Revulsion against drugs and the hippie culture even led to the term "entheogen" being coined to describe a psychotropic substance used in religious rituals.

 

Entheogen comes from the Greek entheos (meaning "god-inspired within") and the word is now commonly employed in English and European languages to discuss sacramental foods used by shamans (mystic or visionary priests) to achieve spiritual ecstasy.

 

So what of the early Christians? At the time they were evolving, they had to compete with other religions of the Roman empire. The strongest of those was Mithraism, imported from Persia, which exists today as Zoroastrianism.

 

Its sacrament, Haoma, was virtually identical to what we know of soma, in Brahmanism. Worshipped as a god, soma was a strange plant without leaves or roots that needed little light and induced religious ecstasy. It was most likely amanita muscaria: a magic mushroom. In ancient Rome sharing the Haoma cemented the bond of brotherhood of emperors, bureaucrats and soldiers. Pagan Greek celebrations at the sanctuary of Eleusis, meanwhile, included a visionary experience for a crowd of 1,000 people, from drinking a potion made from a fungus that grows on wheat and produces an effect similar to LSD.

 

So, did Jesus use cannabis? I think so. The word Christ does mean "the anointed one" and Bennett contends that Christ was anointed with chrism, a cannabis-based oil, that caused his spiritual visions. The ancient recipe for this oil, recorded in Exodus, included over 9lb of flowering cannabis tops (known as kaneh-bosem in Hebrew), extracted into a hin (about 11・pints) of olive oil, with a variety of other herbs and spices. The mixture was used in anointing and fumigations that, significantly, allowed the priests and prophets to see and speak with Yahweh.

 

Residues of cannabis, moreover, have been detected in vessels from Judea and Egypt in a context indicating its medicinal, as well as visionary, use. Jesus is described by the apostle Mark as casting out demons and healing by the use of this holy chrism. Earlier, from the time of Moses until the later prophet Samuel, holy anointing oil was used by the shamanic Levite priesthood to receive the "revelations of the Lord". The chosen ones were drenched in this potent cannabis oil.

 

Early Christian documents found in Eygpt, thought to be a more accurate record than the New Testament, portray Jesus as an ecstatic rebel sage who preached enlightenment through rituals involving magical plants. Indeed, Bennett goes so far as to say that Jesus was probably not born the messiah but acquired the title when he was anointed with cannabis oil by John the Baptist. The baptism in the Jordan was probably to wash away the oil after it had done its work. The early Christians fought hard for followers in the ancient world, recognising the similarity of their own "foreign" god and his eucharistic meal to the Greek gods. Various sects and even the elite in what would eventually become the Roman Catholic church probably used the full range of available entheogens for baptism, ordination and the eucharistic meal.

 

What we now call the host might have been more than just bread. There are indications that early Christians shared magic mushrooms - and the spiritual visions and ecstasies they occasioned - as their eucharistic meal. A 4th-century mosaic discovered at a basilica in Aquileia in northern Italy depicts baskets of mushrooms. Why? This wasn't a restaurant. Could the "red mushrooms" have been the ritual meal?

 

Eating bread and sharing wine together was, and remains, at the heart of the Christian ritual. We'll never know exactly what Jesus and his disciples consumed at the Last Supper, but as they believed they were drinking the blood of Christ we must accept it was - if not actually hallucinatory - at least fortified by God.

 

from here - http://cannabis.net/articles/jesus-cannabis.html

[heschel]

People certainly knew of its pleasurable effects; it would have been impossible to harvest it without becoming ecstatic as the drug would be absorbed through the skin

 

Total bullshit, as is, I suspect, every other word of this article.

[Thurisaz]

People certainly knew of its pleasurable effects; it would have been impossible to harvest it without becoming ecstatic as the drug would be absorbed through the skin

 

Total bullshit, as is, I suspect, every other word of this article.

 

That sounds weird indeed. I won't say "impossible", but... weird.

[heschel]

I won't say "impossible", but... weird.

 

Go ahead and say impossible. You won't be wrong.

[roman]

People certainly knew of its pleasurable effects; it would have been impossible to harvest it without becoming ecstatic as the drug would be absorbed through the skin

 

Total bullshit, as is, I suspect, every other word of this article.

Well, the Xian agent provocateur thinks this story is bullshit. I'm shocked! I'm shocked to hear that there's gambling going on here! Here's your roulette winnings.

 

Tell me, asshole, how would you know? How would YOU, know? YOU, who believe the biggest set of bullshit lies in existence? If you want actual total bulllshit, go and read your biglie babble some more.

 

Common now Mon, Rastaman Vibration! Com and get yo Ya-Ya heah!

 

BTW, that "stalk" of hyssop on which the sour wine was passed to Jesu on the cross...I'll just bet it was really a cannabis stem! Of course it's hard to know the truth of anything by the time one gets to Luke...after all, the so-called hyssop started out in Mark as "a stick."

 

Cannabis use was common in the Middle East even then, as it arrived from the Far East via traders on the so-called Spice Caravans. There were also Buddhist monasteries around the area. Was Jesu influenced by Buddha AND Cannabis? Well, if I had been writing the story, he definitely would have been.

[Guest NECRON]

Total bullshit, as is, I suspect, every other word of this article.

 

And you have evidence to disprove this? Typical Xtian response. So what is manna then? What are the ingredients of the oils used for annointing - go on get your bible out and read it.

[heschel]

Well, the Xian agent provocateur thinks this story is bullshit.

 

Who's an Xian?

 

I know for a fact that one cannot get high by absorbing THC from the marijuana resins through the skin while handling, harvesting or even rolling around in it. This isn't acid we're talking about. You can't even get a buzz from eating it unless the THC is first dissolved into either oil or alcohol.

 

As far as the rest of the article goes, if you're looking for evidence of pot use because that's what you want to find, the bible is as ripe and ambiguous a tome as you could ask for concerning the wealth of ideologies it'll support if you read it selectively enough. I suppose I could make a case for John taking acid on Patmos and penning revelation, except LSD wasn't synthesised until last century at the hands of one Abby Hoffman.

 

So what is manna then?

 

Wait a minute. Are you suggesting that the fictional account of the hebrews magically surviving on manna from heaven actually refers to God dropping joints on them? You tell me. What's manna?

 

What are the ingredients of the oils used for annointing - go on get your bible out and read it.

 

Let's see, one part olive oil, two parts stoner juice, one part weed ade, four parts extract of super duper kind weed, and 1/2 part afghani hash oil from a sherpa with a wooden leg. You give stoners a bad name, retard.

 

BTW, that "stalk" of hyssop on which the sour wine was passed to Jesu on the cross...I'll just bet it was really a cannabis stem! Of course it's hard to know the truth of anything by the time one gets to Luke...after all, the so-called hyssop started out in Mark as "a stick."

 

BTW, Professor Shitdick, what do you think the point would be of jamming a marijuana stem in a dying man's face?

[AKR]

You give stoners a bad name, retard.

 

 

and what, pray tell, are you doing for christians?

[heschel]

and what, pray tell, are you doing for christians?

 

Why should I do anything for christians? What are you doing for eunuchs?

[Vigile]

 

 

[neverclear5]

Anything that can dissolve in fat can pass through the skin. I wouldn't go so far as to say they we're definitely all stoned all the time but this is a simple fact. And drug use was very common back then. Also the john taking LSD thing, The cave he supposedly wrote it in is on an island covered in magic mushrooms mate. Many don't even think john wrote it. It doesn't read like any of his other writting and doesn't read like someone from his culture wrote it. It is thought it may have been a written by a refugee, fleeing the romans conquest and can be read like a nice account of this, with added crazy imagery (perhaps influenced by the mushrooms). Of course this is all interpretation of writting style and vague historical evidense, as is everything else taken from the bible. I really don't see why people put any stock in the thing anymore. Try interpreting it enough and you can probably "prove" it was written by a flying green dog!

[roman]

Well, the Xian agent provocateur thinks this story is bullshit.

 

Who's an Xian?

 

I know for a fact that one cannot get high by absorbing THC from the marijuana resins through the skin while handling, harvesting or even rolling around in it. This isn't acid we're talking about. You can't even get a buzz from eating it unless the THC is first dissolved into either oil or alcohol.

 

As far as the rest of the article goes, if you're looking for evidence of pot use because that's what you want to find, the bible is as ripe and ambiguous a tome as you could ask for concerning the wealth of ideologies it'll support if you read it selectively enough. I suppose I could make a case for John taking acid on Patmos and penning revelation, except LSD wasn't synthesised until last century at the hands of one Abby Hoffman.

 

So what is manna then?

 

Wait a minute. Are you suggesting that the fictional account of the hebrews magically surviving on manna from heaven actually refers to God dropping joints on them? You tell me. What's manna?

 

What are the ingredients of the oils used for annointing - go on get your bible out and read it.

 

Let's see, one part olive oil, two parts stoner juice, one part weed ade, four parts extract of super duper kind weed, and 1/2 part afghani hash oil from a sherpa with a wooden leg. You give stoners a bad name, retard.

 

BTW, that "stalk" of hyssop on which the sour wine was passed to Jesu on the cross...I'll just bet it was really a cannabis stem! Of course it's hard to know the truth of anything by the time one gets to Luke...after all, the so-called hyssop started out in Mark as "a stick."

 

BTW, Professor Shitdick, what do you think the point would be of jamming a marijuana stem in a dying man's face?

Wow. An idiot, a Xian, and no sense of humor. What a surprise. By the way, shit-for-brains, LSD-25 was synthesized in California by a cat named Owsley, not by the political activist Abbie Hoffman. You actually ARE stupid, aren't you?

[AKR]

and what, pray tell, are you doing for christians?

 

Why should I do anything for christians? What are you doing for eunuchs?

 

well, you're in the "apologists" group, and under gods, you have "the one," and this is an exchristian forum, so i'm going to go out on a limb and say that you're a christian, and you're here to defend christianity. you're going to have a hell of a time doing so when you act like a dick, and yet, defend a religion that says to love others and be humble.

 

when a christian tries to defend his religion, and at the same time, hurls insults, you make yourself look like a tool. a tool that doesn't actually believe what he's saying, because if he did, he would be following ALL of the teachers, and being kind, rather than verbally abusive. a lot of people judge a religion by it's followers, and whether they should or not, it doesn't matter. the point is, when its followers act like childish, little brats, you turn people away from your religion. you will convince no one of your religion when you don't even appear to believe it yourself. i see this all the time, and it just makes christians look like idiots. i don't know why they bother even arguing, as they are just convincing people of the opposite because of their crappy attitudes.

 

and THAT is why you should be doing something for christians. something ELSE, that is.

[heschel]

and what, pray tell, are you doing for christians?

 

Why should I do anything for christians? What are you doing for eunuchs?

 

well, you're in the "apologists" group, and under gods, you have "the one," and this is an exchristian forum, so i'm going to go out on a limb and say that you're a christian, and you're here to defend christianity. you're going to have a hell of a time doing so when you act like a dick, and yet, defend a religion that says to love others and be humble.

 

when a christian tries to defend his religion, and at the same time, hurls insults, you make yourself look like a tool. a tool that doesn't actually believe what he's saying, because if he did, he would be following ALL of the teachers, and being kind, rather than verbally abusive. a lot of people judge a religion by it's followers, and whether they should or not, it doesn't matter. the point is, when its followers act like childish, little brats, you turn people away from your religion. you will convince no one of your religion when you don't even appear to believe it yourself. i see this all the time, and it just makes christians look like idiots. i don't know why they bother even arguing, as they are just convincing people of the opposite because of their crappy attitudes.

 

and THAT is why you should be doing something for christians. something ELSE, that is.

 

Not a christian, Mr. Obtuse.

[AKR]

 

 

Not a christian, Mr. Obtuse.

 

then, what the hell are you?

[BuddhistCommunist]

I don't think he is a christian. Anyways good Job Heschel! I happen to be one of the biggest stoners in Beaumont and My religion is Weed!!! Well... we can't fully discredit that Cannabis was involved in the bible. But, I can't let you all debate without me! You cannot get high through the skin, Believe me I wish you could. Heschel Knows what he's talking about.

 

BC

[white_raven23]

Folks....friends...

 

You really gotta be careful about jumping on someone JUST because the site has issued them the yellow symbol.

 

The issuing of the yellow symbol depends on how the site interprets what you write in the Any Gods? Section.

 

Usually a new members belief status is cleared up within a few posts, and the yellow flying tri-thingy is removed.

 

But with only 18 posts for Heschel so far....it is quite likely this has happened. What he/she put in the "Any Gods?" section is somewhat vague. "The One" could mean Christiangod.....or it could simply mean Heschel thought the Matrix movies rocked.

 

Either way....he/she disagreed with the original post (it would have been nice if Heschel offered a counter-argument explaining the denial). I gotta remind you guys....burden of proof is on the one making the positive claim, so that means it's YOUR job to give Heschel more proof than a single article.

 

Telling him to prove it didn't happen is NO DIFFERENT than a christian coming in here demanding WE prove that god doesn't exist.

 

Don't be hypocritical.

[Guest NECRON]

Anybody reading Jun's post can see he is not taking sides, it's just a found article, food for thought.

Heschel made a posative claim

TOTAL BULLSHIT,AS IS, I SUSPECT, EVERY OTHER WORD OF THIS ARTICLE.

Heschel the scientist say's

GO AHEAD AND SAY IMPOSSIBLE, YOU WONT BE WRONG.

I have asked for Heschel to back his claim. and asked him to explain what manna is, and what are the ingrediencts of the oil's used for annointing.

 

I never refered to manna as cannabis I asked for him to explain.

However I think cannabis could have been used in the ingredients of oils used for annointing.

But I think Heschel the stoner would like joints to be dropped from the sky.

[pandora]

Heschel, you are cracking me up!

 

However, I do think it's possible that Jesus used marijuana, opium, and other medicinal plants. It WAS their medicine in those times. Alcohol drinking isn't mentioned a whole lot in the Bible because it was common (Jesus even turned water into wine, remember?) and wasn't really an issue. And apart from alcohol, the whole concept of illegal drugs and stigmatizing of users didn't really exist in the same way because they didn't understand how they work pharmacologically. I could be wrong on all that, but all I'm saying is that I wouldn't be surprised if someone could prove Jesus did use marijuana in some way, maybe not to get "high," but for one of the other hundreds uses of marijuana (and other medicinal/drug plants), which were more common before the advent of modern medicine.

 

I hate the High Times, though... they are a bunch of morons. Typos, misinformation, and all... ugh.

[BlueGiant]

So, dude, what were we talking about?

 

In all seriousness, most of the article above, if not bullshit, is exagerated to say the least Just considering the source tells me to check the information at least twice. Now coming on and dropping a straight that's bullshit with nothing else, well welcome to a good-old-fashioned messageboard Molotov. Meh.

 

You know what else was first described in the Bible? PMS.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You know, when Mary rode Joesph's ass all the way to Bethlehem.

[neverclear5]

 

You know what else was first described in the Bible? PMS.

 

 

You know, when Mary rode Joesph's ass all the way to Bethlehem.

 

difficult to get PMS when you're pregnant mate!

[Mythra]

Hmm. There could be something to this.

 

Jesus was obviously suffering from a severe episode of the munchies when he went up to that fig tree....

[♦ nivek ♦]

Gents..

 

Keep things fairly civil whilst gutting each other.. it is the season to be half assed fuckin' polite..

 

Hey, hemp is a ditch weed that has been found worldwide. I am a great fan of industrial hemp, fibres, oils, and materials made from the longest lasting natural fibre known to man...

 

As far is Jebuzz catching a whiff of hemp, that is as much speculation as the character Jebuzz himself..

 

Now back to your regularly scheduled guting and scalping..

 

kFL

[roman]

This guy heschel sounds a lot like that guy who got banned for using two personas...I forget what handle he was first known by, but his avatar was The Jesus...that purple-freak bowler from Big Lebowski.

[heschel]

This guy heschel sounds a lot like that guy who got banned for using two personas...

 

You sound a bit like a mongoloid schoolgirl with freshly soiled knickers. Who'd have thought panty sniffing could cause dain bramage?

 

It's heschel. There can be only one.