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Was Jesus a cannabis user?


Stellar

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http://www.cannabis.net/articles/jesus-cannabis.html

Claims of drug use by biblical figures surprisingly have susbtance,

says Professor Carl Ruck

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.

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I wouldn't be surprised.

People back then seemingly weren't that uptight about some of the "natural" drugs, like cannibus and opium...

Booze on the other hand... ;P

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Thats an interesting article. It contains within it's structure many layers. One thing that automatically popped in my head was old J.C puffin a fatty of some herbal jazz. Then thought how repulsive this idea would be to some.

It was at this point that I realized that this repulsion is actually a result of a strong stereotype that we have when trying to picture ancient events. Where as the repulsion of this image is in part because weed is illegal, for most people that is. I highly doubt that such laws were even thought about in ancient days, the fact that it is marijauna would have little consequence back then.

The utilization of nature was considered a necessary means of survival. The mastery of this means was a characteristic of many ancient figures....J.C included, I would assume, unless he was ignorant of these methods while others of his time and before were true priests in the natural sense of the word.

If I had to picture J.C smokin weed again, which I'm gonna, I'm going to alter this image somewhat in that he more than likely would not have smoked it but ingested it, as smoke would be harmful to the body temple and would be contradictory to his alleged philosophy.

Last supper, I don't know, lots of food, philisophical conversation, cannibis fortified wine....seems that if your gonna go, you should go in style. thumbsup.gif

Oh yes I forgot cannabis use would in fact be a holy thing and would be advocated by the Christian God himself:

Genesis 1:29 "Then I give you every seed bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree....."

Edited by Chauncy
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I have read the Bible form front to back of the New Testement. I do not remember anything about Jesus ever "burning one" I do on the otherhand believe that it is quite possible. I am part Sioux, and religous cerimonies and other festivities had were started by inhaling buring weed. Who realy knows what went on back then, I sure don't.

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production of alcohol is a perfectly natural process as well

Yeah but there are passages that say like "Take not a chug of fermented grains.." (It's 2:30am, I'm tired.. all things shortened)

I don't remember any that say "Thou shalt no toke a blunt..."

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Guest Lottie

That does not come as a great suprise that people within that time maybe smoked the'Holy weed' or anything else. I was under the impression that these type of plants have been around for a long long time...

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Consider the source where this article is written! This is obviously some messed up dude who's wasting his life away trying to advocate pot as a good thing to his government so they can legalize it. There's no way pot can cure blindless, total paralysis, leprosy, colds or even turn a little bit of food into a ton or could walk on water. Jesus got high...maybe he did. I don't know, but it certainly doesn't explain the miracles. I also wouldn't give one second or inch of credability to this guy though.

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Lol, saucy, he's not saying the miracles were caused directly by the weed, as in, the weed permitted him to literally walk on the water...

I however dont find anything incredible with this article. BTW, the article is not written by the person who made the site.

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Pot is an hallusinagen(I r gud spiller) Saucy...

It's the same kinda thing when they found that there was this mold, or fungus that grew on rye. Course, people back then didn't know about it... and used the rye for breads and what not...

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I think the ingestion of mushrooms would be a more plausible explanation for the miracles. I've never heard of anyone halucinating off weed. You never know though, JC might have had some good herb connections. thumbsup.gif

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I think the ingestion of mushrooms would be a more plausible explanation for the miracles. I've never heard of anyone halucinating off weed. You never know though, JC might have had some good herb connections. thumbsup.gif

It's not as strong as say, shrooms or peyote.. But some people do get a mild hellusinagenic effect.

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anyone who has ever used quality cannibus of the white widow strain , will likely tell you you that they met Jesus on that particular occasion.

wink2.gif

Edited by moe eubleck
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anyone who has ever used quality cannibus of the white widow strain , will likely tell you you that they met Jesus on that particular occasion.

wink2.gif

lol

If you smoke enough of it it is a hallucinogen. Hmm.... talking snake...pot... cooincidence? (Dont kill me, I'm joking and I know Adam and Eve were way before Jesus' time)

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apparently, the painting "the last supper" was originally titled, "the last doobie" but the church wasn't too keen on that title.

the church did temporarily agree to "got the munchies", but changed it after a parents group said the painting was promoting drug use amongst teens.

all agreed on "the last supper" and it's been that way ever since.

if you look close enough in the painting, you can see paul handing peter some papers.

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One thing nobody has brought up yet. Isn't Cannibis setiva a strictly New World plant? Where would Jesus get it to smoke/ingest it. I tend to think this is someone validating his own habit by connecting it to a well-known Religious Figure..

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Oh great...now when I reflect on the voice of Jesus all I can hear is a combination of Otto from the Simpmsons and Dennis Hopper from Easy Rider...

Oi. rolleyes.gif

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Oh great...now when I reflect on the voice of Jesus all I can hear is a combination of Otto from the Simpmsons and Dennis Hopper from Easy Rider...

w00t.gifw00t.gifw00t.gifgrin2.gif

That was way too funny Fluffy....jeez!

It give the saying "Burning Bush" a whole new meaning. whistling2.gif

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  • 2 weeks later...

Jesus would never use cannabis or any other drug. He drank wine for digestion.

He never got drunk or even close. He would not advocate drug abuse of anykind ever as a matter a fact he hates it very much.

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He drank wine for digestion.

He never got drunk or even close.

Really?.....how do you know? Mind you I would not say that JC was an abuser of anysort, but how would you know if he ever partook in libations in a celebratory fashion?......I get no indication that getting a little tipsy on the spirits was frowned apon in biblical era.

post-14-1086908771.jpg

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Dont kill me, I'm joking and I know Adam and Eve were way before Jesus' time)

Well, something made Adam hungry enough to eat the forbidden fruit....

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Jesus would never use cannabis or any other drug. He drank wine for digestion.

He never got drunk or even close. He would not advocate drug abuse of anykind ever as a matter a fact he hates it very much.

I believe I said before that, cannibus probaly, really, wasn't concidered a "drug" way back when. Heck it really wasn't made illegal untill sometime well into the Korean War.

hemp facts

So to answer the "Stricktly new world".. Nope. It's been around for rather long time. Granted this site primarily focuses on "Industrial hemp" the age of cannibus still stands, since they are practialy the same plant. The only difference is the THC. The kind we smoke, is the plant that has the higher THC.

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Another interesting point is that the plant is found almost every where on the planet, climate permitting.Its been utilized for centuries and beyond.

"The name hemp, from the Old English, hanf, came into use in Middle English by 1000 A.D. and still belongs primarily to cannabis sativa.

It is also used to designate the long fiber obtained from that plant: the earliest, best-known and, until recently, the most widely used textile fiber on Earth"

http://www.a1b2c3.com/drugs/mj018.htm

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