August 1, 2025 - This compelling evidence suggests that cannabis was indeed burned at this ancient temple site, possibly for ritualistic or psychoactive purposes to induce altered states of consciousness among priests or worshipers.

August 27, 2025 - The Times (UK) – Judean worshippers were high on cannabis, archaeologists reveal · Haaretz – Ancient Israelites Used Cannabis as Temple Offering, Study Finds: Analysis of altar residue shows worshippers burned pot at a Judahite desert shrine – and may have done the same at the First Temple in Jerusalem · Countless other news sources have verified this study. The term kaneh bosm, is now being discussed by Israeli researchers, as a potential ancient Hebrew name for cannabis, as discussed in this Haaretz interview LISTEN: High Priests, Holy Smoke and Cannabis in the Temple.

In this presentation, Chris Bennett ... of years. Evidence indicates that cannabis was an ingredient in the original Vedic Soma, and the Temple Incenses and Holy Oils of Judaism....

August 8, 2020 - A recent discovery at the ruins of a Judaic temple outside of Jerusalem validates historical theories on the sacramental use of cannabis in Biblical passages and rituals.

June 1, 2020 - In her essays ‘Tracing One Word Through Different Languages’ (1936) and ‘Early Diffusions and Folk Uses of Hemp’ (1975), Benet demonstrated that the Hebrew terms ‘kaneh’ and ‘kaneh bosm’ (also translated ‘qaneh’, and ‘qaneh bosm’) identified cannabis, by tracing the modern term back through history, noting the similarities with the later Mishna term for cannabis, kanabos, as well as comparing it to the ancient Assyrian word kunubu (also translated qunubu) which has long been regarded as identifying cannabis, and which was used in an almost identical ritual context as ka

June 1, 2020 - New research suggests the mind-altering substance may have been widely used in the ritual practices of the Kingdom of Judah

These are the facts concerning the Hebrew phrase qaneh bosem and as you can tell, there is no way to definitively say that it was, or was not, Cannabis.

November 27, 2024 - This suggests cannabis was smoked as part of ritual and/or religious activities in western China by at least 2500 years ago and that the cannabis plants produced high levels of psychoactive compounds.

March 8, 2019 - This holy oil that Moses made, the “שמן משחת קודש,” has been in hiding since the days of King Yoshiyahu in circa 445 BCE (see Talmud, Horayot 11b, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Beit Habechira 4:1), along with the Holy Ark and several other sacred items, which are destined to be rediscovered in the time of the Future Redemption. If cannabis is indeed the ingredient referred to as קנה בשם, “KaNeH BoSeM,” the pungent stalk listed in Exodus 30:23, the resurgence of cannabis in contemporary times would be a most fitting prelude to the discovery of the ancient oil that stores the fragrance of that original KaNeh BoSeM that Moses prepared 3,330 years ago!

October 8, 2024 - Meanwhile, the claim that cannabis is the “kaneh bosem” (aromatic cane) which was used for the purposes of worship in the temple was revived. In my humble opinion, these interpretations are unfounded and stem from a confusion between concepts or perhaps the needs of an academic rating. 3) The interpretation according to which cannabis is the “kaneh bosem” began as “Vort” i.e a nice little insight, a linguistic refinement resulting from a chance similarity of sounds, but without any scientific grip.

The final nail in the coffin of the Kaneh Bosm debate, Bennett’s scholarly book challenges everything we thought we knew about both Judaism and ancient cannabis use." -P.D. Newman, author of Theurgy: Theory and Practice: The Mysteries of the Ascent to the Divine "Chris Bennett’s Cannabis: Lost Sacrament of the Ancient World draws together scholarly and archaeological evidence for the use of cannabis in ancient magico-religious practices in a balanced, comprehensive and accessible manner.

June 18, 2020 - The earliest advocate of the religious burning of pot in early Judaism was Sula Benet (1967), who claimed that the plant kaneh bosem — which sounds like cannabis — is mentioned five times in the Hebrew Bible, and that a component of the holy anointing oil of the Book of Exodus was hemp, which derives from the marijuana plant. The theory that hashish, the plant’s resin, was widely consumed in ancient Israelite society received a major boost May 28, 2020, when the Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University published an article headlined “Cannabis and Frankincense at the Judahite Shrine of Arad.”

December 14, 2012 - Another exciting and concealed story emerges as well, that of the suppression of the worship of Astarte, also called Ashera, known to the ancient Semites as the Queen of Heaven. The first mention of kaneh-bosm in the Old Testament appears with the prophet-shaman Moses. At the beginning of his shamanic career, Moses discovered the angel of the Lord in flames of fire from within a bush. It is later in his life however, that a definite reference to cannabis is made. Sula Benet explains this reference as follows: The sacred character of hemp in biblical times is evident from Exodus 30:22-33, where Moses was instructed by God to anoint the meeting tent and all its furnishings with specially prepared oil, containing hemp.

Judahite worshipers in a temple at Tel Arad burned cannabis as part of their ritual worship some 2,700 years ago, new research has revealed. Furthermore, the finds at the site match closely with the reign and practices of Judah’s King Ahaz.

April 28, 2025 - Kaneh Bosem 101: The Botanical, Linguistic, Archaeological and Contextual case for Hebrew 'kaneh' as 'Cannabis ... The linguistic theory that the the Hebrew terms kaneh, קנה and kaneh bosem, קנה בושם Identified ‘cannabis’ has been around for 90 years now. It was the Polish anthropologist Sula Benet (1903-1982) who first suggested that the terms, in some references, originally identified ‘cannabis’ .

June 15, 2025 - THE ROOTS OF KANEH-BOSM The first solid evidence of the Hebrew use of cannabis was established in 1936 by Sula Benet, a little known Polish etymologist from the Institute of Anthropological Sciences in Warsaw.' The word cannabis was generally thought to be of Scythian origin, but Benet showed ...

May 29, 2020 - The study adds that the findings in Tel Arad suggest that cannabis also played a role in worship at the Temple of Jerusalem. This is because at the time the shrine in Arad was part of a hilltop fortress at the southern frontier of the Kingdom of Judah, and is said to match a scaled-down version of Biblical descriptions of the First Temple in Jerusalem. The remains of the temple in Jerusalem are now inaccessible to archaeologists, so instead they study Arad and other similar shrines to help them understand worship at the larger temple.

May 25, 2025 - However, in 2020, it was announced that cannabis residue had been found on the Israelite sanctuary altar at Tel Arad, suggesting that cannabis was a part of some Israelite rituals at the time. The primary advocate of a religious use of cannabis plant in early Judaism was Sula Benet (1936), who claimed that the plant keneh bosem קְנֵה-בֹשֶׂם mentioned five times in the Hebrew Bible, and used in the holy anointing oil of the Book of Exodus, was in fact cannabis, although lexicons of Hebrew and dictionaries of plants of the Bible such as by Michael Zohary (1985), Hans Arne Jensen (2004) and James A.