# What was Jesus on? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 6, 2005, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-on/288619 "2005-02-06T05:26:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2005, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-on/288619/21 "2005-02-06T20:29:17Z")
> [@Happy Lendervedder](#): > > King James used smilies??? You should see some of the posts he made on [YeOldeSodomiteMessageBoard.com](http://YeOldeSodomiteMessageBoard.com) back in his youth! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2005, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-on/288619/22 "2005-02-06T20:34:10Z")
> [@prisoner6655321](#): > > For the enlightenment of the group, let’s reveal what Exodus REALLY says is in the recipe. > 22Moreover the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, > > 23Take thou also unto [COLOR=Sienna]thee principal spices, of pure myrrh five hundred shekels, and of sweet cinnamon half so much, even two hundred and fifty shekels, and of **sweet calamus two hundred and fifty shekels** , > > 24And of cassia five hundred shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, and of oil olive an hin: > > 25And thou shalt make it an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary: it shall be an holy anointing oil.[/COLOR] > > Nothing there about this kaneh-bosem. Of course the article says it’s in the original Hebrew version. So why was this not translated correctly in English? We didn’t really know that cannabis was so “bad” until recently. I’m not saying it’s not in the hebrew version. I’m just wondering. > > Hmmm… I wonder if this is proved to be true, could Christians and Jews start annointing each other with pot laced oil. Like the native americans have the right to use peyote and other mind altering substances, shouldn’t we get some kind of permission to use pot this way because of our protected rights to religious freedom? Very interesting. I wonder why the christian potheads haven’t tried it. Apparently _sweet calamus_ was the error in translation to the Greek from hebrew and was actually referring to kaneh-bosem. Evidently, this has been proven… > [@](#): > > Jeremy Erhart is incorrect in assuming that the anointing oil in Exodus did not use cannabis. Etymologist Sara Benetowa of the Institute of Anthropological Sciences in Warsaw discovered in 1936, the connection between kaneh bosm in the Old Testament as the original Semitic Hebrew origins of the word cannabis. Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1980 confirmed this information as correct. The five passages that experienced the “missing” are Exodus 30:23; Song of Solomon 4:14; Isaiah 43:24; Jeremiah 6:20; & Ezekiel 27:19. Kaneh bosm was mis-translated after the dark ages, where the Bible was prohibited by the Roman Empire. So sometime before the King James Version ( The Authorized Version ) kaneh bosm was included in the scripture. These five passages are where kaneh bosm was mis-translated to cane or calamus or sweet cane or fragrant cane or sweet smelling incense etc., depending on the translation. I look forward to the day we can enjoy the “unauthorized version” of the Bible in English. Isn’t the Roman Empire the bunch that fed the Christians to the lions? “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude.”-1 Timothy 4:4. > > I hope this will be helpful in bringing my fellow Christians closer together in our walk with God. > > Stan White, Dillon, Colo. ---
**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2005, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-on/288619/23 "2005-02-06T20:49:30Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Let the ideas stand and fall on their own, regardless of the hominem who related them, regardless of arguments from authority. I didn’t say it was wrong. What I said was that your links are thoroughly unconvincing evidence, more easily explained as pipe dreams (in a more-classical-than-usual sense) than as grounded in proper scholarship. **devilsknew** comes closer, though I’d still like to see a peer-reviewed journal citation for his last quote. ---
**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2005, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-on/288619/24 "2005-02-06T20:50:34Z")
> [@Happy Lendervedder](#): > > King James used smilies??? KJV uses semicolons at the end of parenthetical comments. This board renders such as smilies. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2005, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-on/288619/25 "2005-02-06T23:58:16Z")
> [@Happy Lendervedder](#): > > King James used smilies??? Let there be leet. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2005, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-on/288619/26 "2005-02-07T05:15:55Z")
> [@Mathochist](#): > > I didn’t say it was wrong. What I said was that your links are thoroughly unconvincing evidence, more easily explained as pipe dreams (in a more-classical-than-usual sense) than as grounded in proper scholarship. **devilsknew** comes closer, though I’d still like to see a peer-reviewed journal citation for his last quote. Well, this is the best and most authorative [source](http://web.acsalaska.net/~warmgun/sm410.html) I have found. I believe it is a convincing argument for the mistranslation of kaneh-bosm. I haven’t been able to find stand alone evidence of The Hebrew University of Israel’s 1980 confirmation of its etymology, however. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2005, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-on/288619/27 "2005-02-07T05:53:42Z")
Here’s something slightly better… getting warmer. [http://www.csp.org/chrestomathy/apples\_apollo.html](http://www.csp.org/chrestomathy/apples_apollo.html) > [@](#): > > Hence, the Nazarene was Lord and Savior, Iao’s agent in healing. The iao-root, moveover, fortuitously reinforces the assimilation of Iesous to the name of the mythical hero Iason (Jason), for Jason was so named for the ceremonial chrismation or anointing that made him a shaman. In the Hebrew tradition, Messiah is the name for the “anointed,” who in Greek is called Christos. It is as the Christ that Lord Jesus Savior can lay claim to the fulfillment of the prophesies, announcing the return of Iao. The ritual of chrismation had become a validation for the authority of kings and prophets; but the unguent of annointment originally conferred its power through the entheogen that made the recipients consubstantial with the sacred plant of their shamanism, for both kings and prophets were divinely inspired. They were a manifestation of the presence of god among us, which is the name Emmanuel." (pages 146-148) > > [footnote] 18. … Chrismation was also a mode of administering healing balms. In the Old Testament, chrismation involves pouring the anointing oil over the head, which functions to purify (obviously in a spiritual sense, not to cleanse physically) and to confer power, strength, or majesty. Its most common occurrence is the coronation of kings, which sometimes is accomplished by Yahweh, himself; but priests and prophet-shamans are also anointed, as also are objects to set them aside from profane use. In Exodus 30,23 sq., Yahweh specifies the ingredients for the chrism, making clear that such unguents contained herbal additives to the oil: Cannabis sativa (kaneh bosm, usually translated “aromatic cane”) is combined with perfuming spices (cinnamon, cassia, and myrrh) in oil. … > > The psychoactivity of the “spices” in the anointing oil, in addition to the Cannabis, deserves attention. Cinnamon and cassia are mild to moderate stimulants. Myrrh is reputed to have medical properties. … > > The first solid evidence of the Hebrew use of cannabis was established in 1936 by Sula Menet (Benetowa), a little known Polish etymologist from the Institute of Anthropological Sciences, Warsaw. Cannabis, usually thought to be of Scythian origin, has a much earlier occurrence in Semitic languages and appears several times through out the Old Testament. The word in question is kaneh bosm, which in traditional Hebrew is kannabos or kannabus. Kan means “reed” or “hemp”; and bosm, means “aromatic.” It is now translated as “calamus,” the mistranslation starting as early as the Septuagint. Kaneh bosm occurs also in Song of Songs 4.14, where it grows in an orchard of exotic fruits, herbs, and spices: on the Song of Songs as an ethnobotanical encomium of the entheogen. It occurs also in Isiah 43,24 where Yahweh lists amongst the slights received in sacrifice, the insufficient offerings of kaneh bosm; and Jeremiah 6,20, where Yahweh, displeased with his people, rejects such an offering; and Ezekiel 27.19, where it occurs in a catalogue of the luxurious items in the import trade of Tyre. Benet concludes that these references confirm that hemp was used by the Hebrews as incense and intoxicant. This conclusion has since been affirmed by other scholars. It is ironic that calamus “sweet flag,” the substitute for the alleged cannabis, is itself a known hallucinogen for which TMA-2 is derived. (pages 147 - 149) > > On first glance, it may appear to be only a strange coincidence that the Brahmans of India would have an anointing rite that closely resembles those of the early Greeks, Jews and, later, Christians; that there may be a causal link between all of them only comes into focus when scrutinized under the lens of ethnobotany. Amanita muscaria, the fly-agaric, is a mushroom of unusual effects and potency. Though usually consumed in its dried state, either alone of compounded with admixtures of milk, honey, berry juice or water, the dried mushroom can also be ground, with oil, into a paste of varying density and fluidity. The resultant mix can either be strained of its solids or left intact; either way its color will be reddish-gold, or amber, as was the ointment of the fiery bath of the Brachmanes. Drugs compounded with oil and rubbed into the skin are absorbed into the skin along with the oil, where the drug readily enters the bloodstream via the capillaries. The thinner the skin at the point of application, the more quickly and easily the drug will be absorbed. The human skin hangs, as it were, from the skull, where it is pulled taut and thin by its own weight, making it a prime site for anointing." > > … If enough of the drug enters the bloodstream, one is indeed initiated into a Mystery, one in which sensations of rising above the ground or even flying are not uncommon. The statement that the earth “billowed like the sea” refers to the liminal onset of the entheogenic experience, with auditory hallucinations, when all forms of matter appear to dissolve into waves of pure energy. > (pages 153 - 154) > > Excerpt: > The Apples of Apollo: > Pagan and Christian Mysteries of the Eucharist > > Ruck, Carl A. P.; Staples, Blaise Daniel, and Heinrich, Clark. (2001) > Durham, North Carolina: Carolina Academic Press. ---
**Author:** ![rukkus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b5ac83/32.png) [@rukkus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rukkus)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2005, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-on/288619/28 "2005-02-07T06:36:38Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > A cross, wasn’t it? this is what i thinx too. ---
**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2005, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-on/288619/29 "2005-02-07T07:35:13Z")
> [@devilsknew](#): > > Here’s something slightly better… getting warmer. Okay. Next we need a biochemist in here to verify that the amount of THC left in oil after steeping cannabis (and, mind you, cannabis before it had been selectively bred within the last century) is (a) sufficient to induce any psychoactive effects and (b) sufficient to be absorbed transdermally. The other tack is the use as incense, which again we’d need an archaeo-botanist to tell us how strong the smoke would be, and if much of a “contact high” would be expected. Is this something where it just smelled nice but didn’t really mess you up at all? ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2005, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-on/288619/30 "2005-02-07T08:51:44Z")
> [@](#): > > Kaneh bosm was mis-translated after the dark ages, where the Bible was prohibited by the Roman Empire. bzzzzzzt! It is true that in the _Latin Rite_ the vulgate (_i.e._ common, referring to the Latin into which Jerome translated the bible) edition was considered the _official_ version of Scripture. However, the Septuagint (2d century B.C.E. translation to Greek) remained the official translation for the Eastern Churches throughout that period. In addition, the Jews continued to use the Hebrew bible throughout their history, never resorting to either the Septuagint nor the vulgate. Therefore, while I cannot declare that no mistranslation is possible, the _reason_ proferred for the purported mistranslation is clearly wrong, casting more than a bit of doubt upon the rest of the claims. To get our bad translation, we must not merely posit that Jerome (or one of his later redactors) messed it up; we must also assume that the original translators of the Septuagint made the same error (or that they made the error that influenced Jerome’s error as with _almah_/_parthenos_), but we must also assume that Jewish scholars, scattered across Mesopotamia, Palestine, Egypt, and the European branches of the diaspora, also forgot what their own word meant and decided to accept a meaning taken from the Greek translation. Do we have any independent verification of the linguistic trail? Do we even have evidence that the citations in that text are to genuine works? (Jurgen has always been my favorite authority for these sorts of discussions.) ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2005, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-on/288619/31 "2005-02-07T09:38:35Z")
There’s an intriguing possibility that we may owe the last 2000 years of Christianity to an irascible gardener. \*\*Hic est, quem clam discentes subripuerunt, ut surrexisse dicatur, vel hortulanus detraxit, ne lactucae suae frequentia commeantium adlaederentur. \*\* (_This is He whom His disciples secretly stole away, that it might be said He had risen again, or the gardener abstracted, that his lettuces might come to no harm from the crowds of visitants!_ ) Tertullian, [De Spectaculis, XXX](http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/tertullian/tertullian.spect.shtml) Tertullian is, of course, mocking such stories, put about by the opponents of Christianity. (Another popular canard was that Mary had an affair with a Roman legionary called Panthera and that Jesus was the fruit of this liaison.) There’s definitely a movie in this somewhere. I see Mel Gibson as the the gardener. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2005, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-on/288619/32 "2005-02-07T10:00:23Z")
> [@](#): > > Kaneh bosm was mis-translated after the dark ages, where the Bible was prohibited by the Roman Empire. > [@tomndebb](#): > > bzzzzzzt! > > It is true that in the _Latin Rite_ the vulgate (_i.e._ common, referring to the Latin into which Jerome translated the bible) edition was considered the _official_ version of Scripture. However, the Septuagint (2d century B.C.E. translation to Greek) remained the official translation for the Eastern Churches throughout that period. In addition, the Jews continued to use the Hebrew bible throughout their history, never resorting to either the Septuagint nor the vulgate. Therefore, while I cannot declare that no mistranslation is possible, the _reason_ proferred for the purported mistranslation is clearly wrong, casting more than a bit of doubt upon the rest of the claims. To get our bad translation, we must not merely posit that Jerome (or one of his later redactors) messed it up; we must also assume that the original translators of the Septuagint made the same error (or that they made the error that influenced Jerome’s error as with _almah_/_parthenos_), but we must also assume that Jewish scholars, scattered across Mesopotamia, Palestine, Egypt, and the European branches of the diaspora, also forgot what their own word meant and decided to accept a meaning taken from the Greek translation. > > Do we have any independent verification of the linguistic trail? Do we even have evidence that the citations in that text are to genuine works? (Jurgen has always been my favorite authority for these sorts of discussions.) Yea, I’m not holding Stan White’s statement up as proof of anything and I believe he was editorializing with that and making a point in his full context as to the nature of the Church and its habit of withholding or suppressing information that is controversial or otherwise threatens the status quo and its interests. I do give more creedence to this, though. [QUOTE=The Apples of Apollo: Pagan and Christian Mysteries of the Eucharist Ruck, Carl A. P.; Staples, Blaise Daniel, and Heinrich, Clark. (2001)] The first solid evidence of the Hebrew use of cannabis was established in 1936 by Sula Menet (Benetowa), a little known Polish etymologist from the Institute of Anthropological Sciences, Warsaw. Cannabis, usually thought to be of Scythian origin, has a much earlier occurrence in Semitic languages and appears several times through out the Old Testament. The word in question is kaneh bosm, which in traditional Hebrew is kannabos or kannabus. Kan means “reed” or “hemp”; and bosm, means “aromatic.” It is now translated as “calamus,” the mistranslation starting as early as the Septuagint. Kaneh bosm occurs also in Song of Songs 4.14, where it grows in an orchard of exotic fruits, herbs, and spices: on the Song of Songs as an ethnobotanical encomium of the entheogen. It occurs also in Isiah 43,24 where Yahweh lists amongst the slights received in sacrifice, the insufficient offerings of kaneh bosm; and Jeremiah 6,20, where Yahweh, displeased with his people, rejects such an offering; and Ezekiel 27.19, where it occurs in a catalogue of the luxurious items in the import trade of Tyre. Benet concludes that these references confirm that hemp was used by the Hebrews as incense and intoxicant. This conclusion has since been affirmed by other scholars. It is ironic that calamus “sweet flag,” the substitute for the alleged cannabis, is itself a known hallucinogen for which TMA-2 is derived. (pages 147 - 149) [/QUOTE] > [@tomndebb](#): > > but we must also assume that Jewish scholars, scattered across Mesopotamia, Palestine, Egypt, and the European branches of the diaspora, also forgot what their own word meant and decided to accept a meaning taken from the Greek translation. It appears from an linguistic viewpoint that the only two possibilities that the translators had was which entheogen this was referring to- the cannaboid, kaneh-bosm or the hallucinogen, kaneh-bosm. ---
**Author:** ![Grimpen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/82dd89/32.png) [@Grimpen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grimpen)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2005, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-on/288619/33 "2005-02-07T13:59:12Z")
tomndebb quote: “Kaneh bosm was mis-translated after the dark ages, where the Bible was prohibited by the Roman Empire.” Two points to bear in mind: 1. The Bible was never prohibited by the Roman Empire. 2. Any plausible reading of “the dark ages” (if the term has any useful historical meaning at all) would put them after the fall of the Roman Empire. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2005, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-on/288619/34 "2005-02-07T22:54:39Z")
Quoth **Mathochist** : > [@](#): > > Sounds like they could judge [the quality of wine] well enough. At least, the master of the feast was able to judge, but it’s my understanding that he was a high-ranking servant, not one of the partiers. And the practice of serving the good wine first and then the cheap stuff seems to imply at least some impairment of the the drinkers’ ability to discern quality. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-on/288619.md?page=1)