Marijuana in the Holy Oil?

Cannabis in the Holy Anointing Oil? "Exodus 30:23"

New: Cannabis in the Holy Oil in Spanish

Exodus 30:23 Take thou also unto 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, 24 And of cassia five hundred shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, and of oil olive an hin: 25 And 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.

The original Hebrew for calamus, is Kaneh-bosem or Qaneh (Kaw-naw) Bosem. Some translations have this as “fragrant cane” or “aromatic cane.” Some researchers have argued that this is actually Sweet Cane or Sugar Cane, although the term sweet does not occur in the original manuscripts.

If you actually buy the Calamus translation for the Holy Oil, then you assume that God specified in Exodus 30:23 a drug commonly known as Ecstasy. Calamus contains an ingredient called asarone. This is a hallucinogen which is metabolized in the liver as trimethoxyamphetamine or ecstasy. The Middle Eastern version of this plant is far more toxic than its North American Cousin. This is deadly to flies and other insects. The Exodus 30:23 reference refers to sweet Calamus. If you look at this in the Strong’s concordance where they spell this as qaneh rather than kaneh, they pronounce this as Kaw-Naw, a reed, calamus, and cane are listed as possible translations. The term sweet used in Exodus 30:23 in Hebrew is Bosem. According to the Webster's New World Hebrew Dictionary, Bosem is perfume; scent. The Concordance: the Hebrew is Bosem #1314, fragrance, by impl. spicery; also the balsam plant:----smell, spice, sweet (odour). In some Bibles sweet calamus is translated as aromatic or fragrant Cane. It is where the bosem is fused to the word kaneh or qaneh that the cannabis translation becomes apparent. So then to pronounce this we have kaw-naw-bosem, and is spelled in English qaneh-bosem or kaneh-bosem.

In 1936, Sara Benetowa, later Known as Sula Benet, an etymologist from the Institute of Anthropological Sciences, in Warsaw wrote a treatise, "Tracing One Word Through Different Languages." This was a study on the word Cannabis, based on a study of the oldest Hebrew texts. Although the word cannabis was thought to be of Scythian origin, Benet's research showed it had an earlier root in the Semitic Languages such as Hebrew. Benet demonstrated that the ancient Hebrew word for Cannabis is Kaneh -Bosem. She also did another study called Early Diffusion and Folk Uses of Hemp. There is a reprint of this in Cannabis and Culture ISBN:90-279-7669-4. On page 44, she states, "The sacred character of hemp in biblical times is evident from Exodus 30:23, where Moses was instructed by God to anoint the meeting tent and all of its furnishings with specially prepared oil, containing hemp." On page 41 Sula Benet writes, : In the course of time, the two words kaneh and bosem were fused into one , kanabos or kannabus know to us from the Mishna. According to the Webster's New World Hebrew Dictionary, page 607 the Hebrew for hemp is kanabos.

Sara Benetowa discovered that the Kaneh-Bosm or Cannabis is mentioned 5 times in the Old Testament. The first occurrence appears in the Holy Anointing Oil as Calamus, (Exodus 30:23). Sara argued that the translation of Calamus was a mistranslation which occurred in the oldest Bible the “Septuagint” and the mistranslation was copied in later versions.

But what is the effect to the baptism?

You may argue that the Anointing with the cannabis based oil has no redeeming value. I would like to point out that all Orthodox Churches practice the Chrism anointing. What started me into The Fire Baptism and the Lost Sacraments is that not one Church uses the Holy Anointing Oil as described in Exodus 30:23 even with the Calamus translation.

The Bible is very clear that this was the only oil to be used.

The following is a post from Reverend Joshua Snider which was submitted to the web blog. This is a very well done study of cannabis in the Holy Oil and far more detailed than I was able to get into in the Film Script. For the truth seeker it is posted here for your convenience. Thank you Reverend Joshua for sharing the research.

Below I am posting Sarah Benetowa’s article from "The Book of Grass" (I know you’ve already read that but I’m including it so others have more context) followed by my articles. I hope these is more explanatory than what I sent you before. My appologies again.

As evidence now shows, in antiquity hemp was used in widely differing cultures. In the following article, Sara Benetowa of the Institute of Anthropological Sciences in Warsaw, attempts to find out through a comparative study of languages in what cultural environment hemp was first used as a narcotic.

After having compared the words meaning hemp in Indo-European, Finnish, Turkish and Tartar, and Semitic language groups, the conclusion was reached that, leaving aside all the obviously borrowed words, either Finnish, Turkish, Celtic, or Roman, there remained four groups to investigate: 1. Sanskrit-cana; 2. Slav-konopla; 3. Semitic, for example in Assyro-Babylonia-kannab; 4. Greek: cannabis.
In all these languages the words meaning hemp have a common root: kan. This root with the double meaning of ‘hemp’ and ‘cane’ is common to almost all the languages of antiquity.
It is easy to show that ‘canna’ means both ‘hemp’ and ‘cane’. But what is the meaning of the ending ‘bis’? The answer is not difficult to find if one notices an interesting detail encountered in several Semitic texts from Oriental antiquity. For example, let us look at the original text of the Old Testament and its Aramaic translation, the ‘Targum Onculos’. The word ‘kane’ or ‘kene’ sometimes appears alone and is sometimes linked to the adjective ‘bosm’ (in Hebrew) or ‘busma’ (in Aramaic) which means: odorous, smelling good, aromatic. As I demonstrate in detailed fashion in this study, the Biblical ‘kane bosm’ and the Aramaic ‘kene busma’ both mean hemp. The linguistic evolution of the terms in question leads to the formation of the unique term ‘kanabos’ or ‘kanbos’. This is encountered in the Mischna, the collection of traditional Hebrew law which contains many Aramaic elements. The astonishing resemblance between the Semitic ‘kanbos’ and the Scythian ‘cannabis’ lead me to suppose that the Scythian word was of Semitic origin. These etymological discussions run parallel to arguments drawn from history. The Iranian Scythians were probably related to the Medes, who were neighbors of the Semites and could easily assimilated the word for hemp. The Semites could also have spread the word during their migrations through Asia Minor.
Taking into account the matriarchal element of Semitic culture, one is led to believe, that Asia Minor was the original point of expansion for both the society based on the Matriarchal circle and the mass use of hashish.
Let us look for factors which could have contributed to the start of mass use of hashish in the matriarchal circle. One important factor is that in preparing fibre from the plant and during the harvest the strong odour intoxicates the workers. According to ancient customs still surviving in modern times, all work involving hemp is done in mass. Since antiquity the hemp harvest has been considered a holiday, especially for the young people. In many countries the harvest is a sort of reunion to which guests come with or without masks and give all sorts of presents to the workers. Here we see an obvious link with the masculine secret societies in the matriarchal circle in which there is mass use of hashish. Another factor is the making of sacrifices to the ancestors, which is common practice in the masculine secret societies.
Here is another obvious link between the character of this plant used in the cult of the dead and the masculine secret societies founded on that cult. Many peculiarities of the ancestor cult can be brought forth as evidence of this.
In Poland on the night before Christmas a ritual dish is served made of hemp seeds, called ‘hemp soup’, because according to popular superstition at that time the souls of the dead visit their friends and family to feast together. Another trace is the Polish habit of throwing a few hemp seeds in the fire ‘as a sacrifice’ during the harvest.
An obvious link between sacrifices in honour of the dead and the mass use of hashish is to be found in the Scythian funeral ceremony.
After the burial, the Scythians purified themselves in the following manner: they washed and anointed there heads and, after having planted posts in the ground and wrapped cloth around them, they through hemp into receptacles filled with red-hot stones.
By comparing the old Slavic word ‘kepati’ and the Russian ‘kupati’ with the Scythian ‘cannabis’ Schrader developed and justified Meringer’s supposition that there is a link between the Scythian baths and Russian vapor baths.
In the entire Orient even today to ‘go out to the bath’ means not only to accomplish an act of purification and enjoy a pleasure, but also to fulfil the divine law. Vambrey calls ‘bath’ any club in which the members play checkers, drink coffee, and smoke hashish or tobacco.
The tobacco imported from America spread so rapidly through Europe because the way had been prepared for it by hemp.

anascha-Russia hanpr-Norway
banga-Sanskrit haschisch-France
bangi-Congo hashish-Africa, Asia
bhang-India hemp-Great Britain
boo-USA hennep-Holland
cabza-India herbe-France
canab- Brittany hierba-Mexico
canaib-Ireland hsien ma tse-China
cannapa-Italy Indian hay-USA
canna-Persia intsangu-South Africa
cannapis-Rumania jive-USA
chanvre-France joint-USA
charas-India joy-USA
charge-USA juana-Mexico
dagga-South Africa juanita-Mexico
dawemesk-Algeria kanapes-Lithuania
diamba-Brazil kanas-Brittany
djamba-South Africa kanbun-Chaldean
esrar-Turkey, Persia kanebosm-Hebrew
ganjah-India kanebusma-Aramaicganjika-Sanskrit kanep-Albania
gauge-USA kannab-Arabia
goni-Sanskrit kanopia-Czechoslovakia
goo-USA kendir-Tartar
grass-USA kendiros-Tartar
grifa-Spain, Mexico khanchha-Cambodia
haenep-Old English kif-North Africa
hamp-Denmark kinder-Tartar
hampa-Sweden konop-Bugaria
hampr-Finland konopie-Poland
hanf-Germany konoplja-Russia
liamba-Brazil pajuela-Mexico
loco weed (confused with pot-USA
datura)-USA qunubu-Assyrian
maconha-Brazil rap-India
majoun-North Africa, Middle East reefer-USA
marihuana-Mexico, USA, Europe rosamaria-Mexico
marijuana-Mexico, USA, Europe rup-India
mary jane-USA so-la-ra-dsa-Tibet
matakwane-Sotho (South Africa) sonadora-Mexico
mbangi-Tanzania stick-USA
momea-Tibet suruma-Ronga (Africa)
mora-Mexico takouri-Tunisia
morisqueta-mexico tea-USA
mota-Mexico tiamba-Brazil
muggles-USA tirsa-Mexico
muta-USA umia-Xhosa (Africa)
nena-Mexico weed-USA
nsangu-Zulu wheat-Europe

1.Many people (even scholars!) speculate that the word cannabis moved to the Middle East and Europe from the Far East. Most English etymological dictionaries trace the word hemp-cannabis to the Scythians via the Greek historian Herodotus (approximately 500 B.C.). The word is however said to occur at least two hundred years earlier in the Assyrian tablet of Assur(i)banibal (in ritual use no less). The Assyrians were/are a Semitic people closely related to the Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic peoples.
The leading authorities on the etymology of both the German and Russian languages list a Sumerian cognate (these are ,,Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache" Kluge 23rd edition by Elmar Seebold 1999 on page 354, and ,,Russisches etymologisches Wörterbuch." Heidelberg: Winter by Max Vasmer 1950-1959 in three volumes, vol. 1 page 615 (there is also an expanded Russian language translation of this). Beyond this an Article written in Swedish lists both kunibu-cannabis and gamun-cumin as Sumerian words. This article is ,,Sumerna och deras kultur(The Sumerians and their culture)" föredragvid finska vetenskapsocietens sammanträde den 13 December 1943 av(by) Knut Tallqvist in ,,Societas Scientarium Fennica Årsbok- Vousikirja 22nd band No: 3, Helsingfors 1944 ? See page 22. This is important not only because it places the word cannabis in the region approximately 3000 years prior to Herodotus but also because cumin is usually given as a word that stems from Semitic (and Hebrew in particular). The Hebrew word for cumin only occurs three times in the Old Testament (once in Isaiah 28: 25 and twice in 28: 27).
I hope that you may also find the following insightful as well as interesting. A quote from "A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English" by Rabbi Ernest Klein, Carta Jerusalem, University of Haifa 1987, runs as follows "Since early times, humanity has tried to find out why things are called by the words that denote them; The Hebrew Bible offers quite a few instances e.g. Genesis 2: 23. The Greeks called this: finding the true meaning of the word, "true" being etymos, literally "that which is", and "etymology" meant originally "using words in their true sense". This "truth" was found by deriving existing words from other words, in the same or in another language. The first known systematic attempt to use such connections not for speculation as to the true nature of things, but in order to discover the meanings of words, was made by Jewish scholars in North Africa, Spain and later in Southern France, between 900 and 1350 C.E. They deduced the meanings of difficult Biblical words from corresponding words in Arabic and Aramaic, applying rules for which consonants in one language corresponded to a given consonant in another." This was an ingenious and amazing achievement but the fact that Arabic and Aramaic could have easily, by this time, lost many of the subtleties accompanying a variety of words like bosem for example (subtleties which may still be reflected in Medieval and Modern Hebrew, for example Klein’s dictionary gives Medieval and Modern Hebrew meanings which include spicing, perfuming, and becoming intoxicated or drunk, on the attached page (page 86) taken from this dictionary MH and NH stand for Medieval Hebrew and New Hebrew respectively ), this compounded with the inaccuracies contained in the long accepted Greek Septuagint could have very easily added an extra layer to the shroud covering the truth.

2.In my previous article I suggested that Arabic and Aramaic may have lost much of the original color that the word bosem may have originally conveyed. This is probably true although it can be seen from the following page (page 9 with definitions of "enjoy oneself, delight", and "annoint") taken from " A Syriac-English Glossary With Etymological Notes" by M.H. Goshen-Gottstein, based on Brockelmann’s Syriac Chrestomathy 1970, that at least Syriac Aramaic seems to have retained much of this ancient color.
The excerpt and reference below is taken from the article "Early Diffusion And Folk Uses of Hemp" by Sula Benet in "Cannabis and Culture" 1975

Another piece of evidence regarding the use of the word ‘kaneh’ in
the sense of hemp rather than reed among the Hebrews is the religious
requirement that the dead be buried in ‘kaneh’ shirts. Centuries later,
linen was substituted for hemp (Klein 1908).

Peace, Love and Respect to all.
Humbly submitted with my deepest apologies for prior oversights,
Rev. Joshua Snider

3.Although gifted scholars have suggested that the m in kaneh bosem represents a plural, it can be seen from the above material that bosem appears to be one of two complete morphemes (a morpheme is the smallest unit of sound containing meaning) making up the compound word from "fragrant" or "intoxicating grass or hemp" (for the definition of kanu as "denotes grass, reeds, &c" see ,,Assyrian Grammar; An Elementary Grammar; With Full Syllabary And Progressive Reading Book Of The Assyrian Language In The Cuneiform Type" by Rev. A, H. Sayce, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 150 West Broadway, Eugene Oregon 97401 May 2002, Samuel Bagster and Sons, 1875, page 48). I do however feel that these scholars seem to be on the right track. The similarity of the m in bosem to the m of the masculine plural would seem to have led to the reanalysis of kaneh bosem as a plural, leading in turn to the loss of this m in the kanbos of the Mishna and the Scythian and Greek cannabis. It is unlikely, even on account of syllables, that the word cannabis consists of only one morpheme. So far as I have seen, no other theory has yet been advanced attempting to explain the semantic meanings of the component morphemes of cannabis in any detail. This would be a fairly remarkable suggestion if Proto Indo-European were truly the source of this word considering the extent to which this language family has been exhaustively reconstructed and studied. Aside from no other theory being advanced, the weight of the above material suggests strongly that this scenario is not unlikely.

A closely related theory that does not strain the above account for semantics, is that bosem actually means hashish or intoxicating spice of kanu or hemp. I’d like to extend my thanks to the Right Rev. Gregory Davis for this interpretation. If kaneh bosem was reanalyzed as a collective plural in the form of hashish, kanbos could have easily been seen as the singular plant in pre-collected form. In either case, as can be seen above, the reason for lack of plural agreement between the adjective and noun is explained because bosem is not actually a truly historical plural and by the time it would have been perceived as such, kanehbosem would have already been seen as one word (simply a noun instead of a noun with a complementing adjective).

The two ancient Aramaic translations of the Torah, The Targum Onqelus and the Syriac Peshitta also use variations of kaneh bosem in Exodus 30: 23. The Targum uses (w)qnya busma (Targum (Chaldean) Bible.,, The Bible in Aramaic : Based on Old Manuscripts and Printed Texts. Vol. 1, The Pentateuch according to…. O.T. Pentateuque (arameen). onqelos by Alexander Sperber 1897, 1959,1973,1992., Leiden; New York; E.J. Brill, page 143 and the Peshitta uses roughly (w)qnya d busma ,,Peshitta (Syriac) Syrian Patriarchate of Antioch and all the East, Syriac Bible 63DC United Bible Societies 1979 UBS-EPF 1996-2M , page 67.