For Moses in his talks with God, and as part of the recipe for Jewish priests in their preparation of incense and holy oil ...but was mistranslated as callamus. Both callamus and cannabis are aromatic, but only cannabis figured into religious rites in an of itself in the west (thousands of years prior to any written explanations.)
Whether true or not, the claim has much more logic behind it than Klingenschmitt's... tho, actually, I think the right wing's irrational fear of cannabis makes sense in a round about way because the female plant of the (sexed) cannabis species is the most potent and is the source of buds that are now the gold standard of finely grown herb.
iow, it's female-sexed power that intoxicates and liberates from petty concerns the most. cannabis is also known as an aphrodisiac for some because it relaxes and allows people to disregard their anxieties and annoyances of the day, as well as helping people cope with aches and pains. it also heightens the senses, so touch feels more sensual, the tastes of kissing are amplified, and time is ignored - so doing something pleasant is something someone just wants to keep doing...
Right wingers love to state that women are supposed to suffer in childbirth... which, btw, offers another interesting aside - our own bodies produce anandimide when we are born - anandimide is the endogenous chemical that is the sister of THC - so we "forget" our passage from gestation to birth and produce a chemical to give us pleasure upon birth, as well as a way to mitigate any pain from the birth process itself - for the baby.
Cannabis was never referred to as a weed until it was vilified by capitalist society in the U.S., fwiw. Early uses were sacred and loving. If it's the kaneh referenced in the Song of Solomon... it's used to talk about his beloved...
Who is this coming up from the wilderness like a column of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and incense made from all the spices of the merchant?...Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates With choice fruits, henna with nard plants, Nard and saffron, calamus/cannabis (kaneh) and cinnamon, With all the trees of frankincense, Myrrh and aloes, along with all the finest spices.
Cannabis was long used as a balm - while calamus was chiefly used for fragrance (it's related to iris - i.e. orris root, used in perfumes, but not medicinally.)
ANYWAY...
via wiki - Semitic etymologist Sula Benet, of the Institute of Anthropological Sciences in Warsaw, has indicated the origin to be the Hebrew word קַנַּבּוֹס (qannabbôs) kaneh bosm. Benet, (also known as Sara Benetowa) is quoted saying:
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 have assimilated the word for hemp. The Semites could also have spread the word during their migrations through Asia Minor.
ANYWAY...
Greeks referred to the tribe as Scythians but Semites referred to them as Ashkenaz. They traded with one another. Herodutus first noted, for the western world, the use of cannabis for Scythians in religious ceremonies where they would throw cannabis on a fire in a tent and inhale the smoke, in honor of the goddess Tabiti-Hestia. Their burial rites included bags of cannabis seeds for the afterlife - these have been found as far north as Berlin, dated to 500 bce.
God appeared to Moses in the form of a burning bush... funny if that turned out to be cannabis...
Exodus 33
: As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses. - a scene that would've been familiar to Scythinans because this is how they employed cannabis for religious purposes - and Zoraster (Zarathustra), whose religious views/religion is traced to the 6th century bce, said all of life is a struggle between truth and lie. He used cannabis to bring him religious visions - so cannabis was part of truth-seeking (while current prohibition and right wing distortions of Christianity, we know, is part of the world of lies.) But, the important thing for all of these uses was respect for the power of the earthy herb, not dissolution as part of its use...something for moderns to ponder too, maybe.
ANYWAY...
Raphael Mechoulam and co-workers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem suggest an alternative etymology for cannabis: Greek cannabis < Arabic kunnab < Syriac qunnappa < Hebrew pannag (= bhanga in Sanskrit and bang in Persian). They explain that in Hebrew, only the consonants form the basis of a word and the letters p and b are frequently interchangeable. The authors think it probable that 'pannag', mentioned in the Bible by the prophet Ezekiel (27:17), is in fact Cannabis.[11]
The Biblical Hebrew term qěnēh bośem, literally "aromatic reed", (qěnēh-"reed", bośem-"aromatic"
, probably[12] refers to cannabis according to some etymologists,[9] but is more commonly thought to be lemon grass, calamus, or even sweet cane, due to widespread translation issues.[13] The Hebrew Bible mentions it in Exodus 30:23 where God commands Moses to make a holy oil of myrrh, cinnamon, qěnēh bośem and cassia to anoint the Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle (and thus God's Temple in Jerusalem).[14] Notably, this anointing oil is a special herbal formula that functions as a kind of polish and fragrance for the Ark and Tabernacle, and the Bible forbids its manufacture and use to anoint people (Exodus 30:31-33) with the exception of the Aaronic priesthood (Exodus 30:30).
Elsewhere, the Hebrew Bible simply uses "reed" qānēh as the name of a plant in four places whose context seems to mean "reed of balm" as a fragrant resin, Isaiah 43:24, Jeremiah 6:20, Ezekiel 27:19 and Song of Songs 4:14. The Hebrew name "reed of balm" comes from qěnēh (the noun construct form of qāneh) means a "reed" or "cane" and bośem means "balm" or "aromatic" resin. Hebrew may have adapted the name qannabbôs from "reed of balm" qěnēh bośem as a substitute for the ambiguous name "reed".
The Hebrew word qaneh, sometimes translated as cannabis, appears in the Bible 62 times...
(the above is also from wiki about the etymology of the word "cannabis."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/panorama/4079668.stm
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