Posted on 07/02/2018 8:05:58 AM PDT by Red Badger
JESUS used cannabis and was an early champion of its medicinal properties, a growing consensus of experts agree.
And acceptance of this theory could help promote the controversial drug’s use in treating a range of illnesses.
Cannabis historian, author and journalist David Bienenstock is one who believes cannabis oil even explains the “miracles” attributed to Jesus.
Speaking exclusively to Daily Star Online, he said: “Historical records show that cannabis was widely available at the time – they would’ve known how to grow it and exploit its medicinal properties.
“There is nothing different in the efficacious cannabis oil used today that wouldn’t have been available to people in Jesus’ time – it’s simply a matter of concentrating the cannabis into the oil and absorbing it through the skin."
Scholars even point to a cannabis oil recipe in Exodus 30: 22-25: “Take also for yourself the finest of spices: of flowing myrrh five hundred shekels, and of fragrant cinnamon half as much, two hundred and fifty, and of fragrant cane two hundred and fifty … it shall be a holy anointing oil.”
Anointing is understood to mean to ceremonially confer divinity by smearing or rubbing with oil.
American Orthodox rabbi and scholar Aryeh Kaplan noted: "On the basis of cognate pronunciation and Septuagint readings, some identify Keneh bosem with the English and Greek cannabis, the hemp plant.”
Although other authorities identify the “fragrant cane” with cinnamon bark, Polish anthropologist Sula Benet argues that equating Keneh Bosem with sweet cane could be traced to a mistranslation in the Septuagint (the earliest Old Testament translation), which mistook Keneh Bosem, later referred to as "cannabos" in the Talmud (Judaism's Oral Torah), as "kalabos", a common Egyptian marsh cane plant.
Carl Ruck, professor of classical mythology at Boston University, agrees: “There can be little doubt about a role for cannabis in Judaic religion.”
Referring to the existence of cannabis in anointing oils used in ceremonies, he adds: "Obviously the easy availability and long-established tradition of cannabis in early Judaism would inevitably have included it in the [Christian] mixtures."
And there are even passages in the Bible where Jesus’ treatment of the sick tallies with modern accounts of cannabis oil treating epilepsy.
Mark 6:13, for example states: “They cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them.”
As David Bienenstock points out: “Someone of the religious mindset from that time, not understanding the scientific underpinning of how or why it works, would be likely to view that as a miracle.”
Mark 6:13 does appear to mirror the reportedly phenomenal response epileptics have had to the drug in modern trials.
Assuming the oil described in Exodus did in fact contain high levels of cannabis, the effective dose of the plant's medicinal compounds would certainly be potent enough to explain many of the healing miracles attributed to Jesus, as marijuana has been shown to be an effective treatment for everything from skin diseases and glaucoma to neurodegenerative conditions and multiple sclerosis.
In addition to arguing that Jesus used cannabis to heal, David Bienenstock posits he may even have used it himself: “Jesus himself was anointed, and if that anointing involved using cannabis oil, then he certainly did use it.
“When you examine the account of Jesus’ anointing it is described in terms of psychoactivity - it is described in terms of when Jesus has this profound experience that transforms him.
“This is a big indication of the centrality of anointing was to Jesus and his flock - that he would take the name ‘Christ the anointed’.”
The word Christ is a Greek translation of the Hebrew messiah, meaning ‘the anointed one’.”
Chris Bennett, the author of the book Sex, Drugs, Violence, and the Bible, is also a supporter of the cannabis oil theory: “The medical use of cannabis during that time is supported by archaeological records.
"If cannabis was one of the main ingredients of the ancient Christian anointing oil, as history indicates,” Bennett said, “receiving this oil is what made Jesus the Christ and his followers Christians."
The issue of cannabis oil has hit the headlines following the campaign led by Charlotte Caldwell and her 12-year-old son Billy, who suffers from epilepsy.
The Caldwell’s have been vocal in calling for non-psychoactive high-CBD cannabis legalisation in the UK, following its apparent effectiveness in treating Billy’s condition.
Billy was admitted to hospital after his medical cannabis oil was confiscated and his mother says his seizures are reduced when he takes the oil.
Speaking exclusively to Daily Star Online, David Bienenstock believes it is important for people of faith to be open to evolving interpretations of the saved text: “I realise there is a huge debate about the medicinal properties off this plant and it is important to pursue that because this plant can and does help a lot of people.
“It is a tremendous alternative to pharmaceutical drugs and having this debate can help bring healing to people who are suffering, and to me that at the ethical core of Christianity.”
The Yamnaya people, who swept out of Central Asia about 5000 years ago and left their genes in most living Europeans and South Asians appear to have carried cannabis to Europe and the Middle East.
It’s difficult to know whether the Yamnaya used cannabis simply to make hemp for rope or also smoked or ingested it.
But some ancient people did inhale - digs in the Caucasus have uncovered braziers containing seeds and charred remains of cannabis dating to about 3000 B.C.
No.
Also, Saint Peter invented the lava lamp.
Exo 30:22 Moreover the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
Exo 30:23 "Also take for yourself quality spices--five hundred shekels of liquid myrrh, half as much sweet-smelling cinnamon (two hundred and fifty shekels), two hundred and fifty shekels of sweet-smelling cane,
Exo 30:24 five hundred shekels of cassia, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, and a hin of olive oil.
Exo 30:25 And you shall make from these a holy anointing oil, an ointment compounded according to the art of the perfumer. It shall be a holy anointing oil.
I don't see the marihuana. The lack of knowledge about the Bible is stunning for me today. Even teachers and preachers have barley even read the Word of God. It's possible that they used cannabis back then, but it's not written about in the Bible. To attempt to make a whole branch of belief try to use this as a "creed", is ridiculous. Scripture says is was OK to drink a little wine, but it's a sin to be drunk. To believe getting high on narcotics would be acceptable to God makes no sense. It's possible it has healing properties, but that needs some proof. If that was the case, taking cannabis would be the same as taking antibiotics. Jesus left the earth at 33 yo. and never mentioned cannabis as the basis for His powers. It is the same as Jesus telling the disciples, "You know that stuff in Genesis about 6 day Creation,....well, all that's a lie and you really came from monkeys." He had the chance to straighten that out but never did. God wrote on the Tablets that He created the world in 6 days. Is God a liar? He mentioned the destruction of Sodom. Did that really happen? He spoke of a worldwide Flood and Noah's Ark. Did He lie there?
It's difficult to select some things you believe, and then say something else is a lie. The New Testament refers to the OT all the time. Why would Jesus have a secret healing medicine and not tell His people? His healing powers came from the Holy Spirit, just as the Spirit "brooded" over the waters of earth to produce life, and the Spirit "hovered over Mary to produce a baby from a virgin.
I've witnessed healing's in person, and no cannabis was used. We lay on hands, and anoint with oil, and have faith. The "gifts" come from the Holy Spirit living in me. I have none. The Healer lives in us and still does the work of the Father as He always has done. The reason many don't see healing is unbelief. Many haven't been Baptized in the Holy Spirit. It's like bringing a knife to a gunfight.
The Bible is true, both OT and NT. It's all one Book. It's everything we need to serve the Father and "marry" Jesus. Many,....many,...will hear," I never knew you" if they haven't been baptized in the Holy Spirit. "Knowing" in Scripture is a sexual term. If you haven't been made "One" with the Spirit of God, you WILL NOT have power from God. If you want to hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant.", you need the power of God living in you to perform your assigned tasks to serve God. Jesus told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they received POWER. They had NO power without it. You must ask for and desire the gifts of the Spirit to reside in you.(Luke 11:11-13)Smoking dope doesn't do it.
I don’t doubt those alive in Jesus’s time used cannabis. I’m sure they used many herbs they had around them for anointing or medicine.
It’s a bit much to say the miracles came from pot. Sorry. That is a bit too far. Didn’t happen.
Herbal remedies were used by all the healers back then, and they were as common to the people as Advil or antacids are to people today. The miracles were on a much greater level.
“They had critical CO2 and butane extract processes back then?”
You don’t actually need those to make cannabis oil. The active ingredients are soluble in all sorts of more mundane solvents, like regular old ethanol. The modern processes are just improvements on the ancient methods.
An ethanol extract would not separate out the various oils and resins, though. The CO2 process is “tunable” and can be very selective, this is where modern pure CBD oil comes from. Butane tends to specifically extract the THC type resins.
So yes they might have had tincture of cannabis in their apothecary, assuming they had distillation for the alcohol (or cannabis infused wine if they had no distillation), but it would contain many components.
There is a big difference between ignorance and rank stupidity. Not knowing exactly how medicinal plants work is an example of ignorance. The statement above by David Bienenstock is an example of rank stupidity. Just ask Galen or Hippocrates.
“”kalabos”, a common Egyptian marsh cane plant.”
Calamus acorus, sweet cane. In use today as a medicinal.
” a growing consensus of experts agree.”
The new standard for verified fact.
And then Jesus and his disciples snorted coke. /s
I agree
Itching ears of the Last Days of the Church Age.
Exactly right, Yaelle. Herbal healing had been around for thousands of years by that point in history and their capacities and limitations would have been well known. The best remedies in the most skilled hands would have still fallen well short of seeming miraculous.
The people of Jesus' time and place were far less knowledgeable than we are not dumber.
The best solvents for cannabis resins are fatty lipids like butter and olive oil. They had those.
Exactly. And I’ve seen cannabis growing in parts of the world as literal weeds on the side of the road. No doubt it was used for whatever, commonly. Not a miracle.
The oldest written record of the medicinal use of cannabis was from the Chinese Emperor Shen Nung in 2727 B.C. The oldest known human usage of cannabis comes from a hemp rope dating back to 26,900 BC which was found in Czechoslovakia in 1997.
No one had their beiber stuned by the uses of cannabis 2,000 years ago. LOL
Thinking themselves wise, they became fools.
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