Editing Entheogen (section)

=== Judaism ===
{{main|Cannabis and Judaism}}
[[File:Arad Debir 2.jpg|right|thumb|The shrine at Tel Arad, where the earliest use of cannabis in the Near East is thought to have occurred during the Kingdom of Judah]]

The primary advocate of the religious use of cannabis in early Judaism was Polish anthropologist [[Sula Benet]], who claimed that the plant ''kaneh bosem קְנֵה-בֹשֶׂם'' mentioned five times in the Hebrew Bible, and used in the [[holy anointing oil]] of the Book of Exodus, was cannabis.<ref>Benet, S. (1975). "[https://www.קנאביס.com/wp-content/PDF/EARLY-DIFFUSION-AND-FOLK-USES-OF-HEMP-SULA-BENET.pdf Early Diffusions and Folk Uses of Hemp]", in Vera Rubin; Lambros Comitas (eds.), ''Cannabis and Culture''. Moutan, pp. 39–49.</ref> According to theories that hold that cannabis was present in Ancient Israelite society, a variant of [[hashish]] is held to have been present.<ref>Warf, Barney. "High points: An historical geography of cannabis." Geographical Review 104.4 (2014): 414-438. Page 422: "Psychoactive cannabis is mentioned in the Talmud, and the ancient Jews may have used hashish (Clarke and Merlin 2013)."</ref> In 2020, it was announced that cannabis residue had been found on the Israelite sanctuary altar at [[Tel Arad]] dating to the [[8th century BCE]] of the [[Kingdom of Judah]], suggesting that cannabis was a part of some Israelite rituals at the time.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03344355.2020.1732046|doi = 10.1080/03344355.2020.1732046|title = Cannabis and Frankincense at the Judahite Shrine of Arad|year = 2020|last1 = Arie|first1 = Eran|last2 = Rosen|first2 = Baruch|last3 = Namdar|first3 = Dvory|journal = Tel Aviv|volume = 47|pages = 5–28|s2cid = 219763262|url-access = subscription}}</ref>

While Benet's conclusion regarding the psychoactive use of cannabis is not universally accepted among Jewish scholars, there is general agreement that cannabis is used in talmudic sources to refer to [[hemp]] fibers, not hashish, as hemp was a vital commodity before linen replaced it.<ref>Roth, Cecil. (1972). ''[[Encyclopedia Judaica]]''. 1st Ed. Volume 8. p. 323. {{oclc|830136076}}. Note, the second edition of the ''Encyclopedia Judaica'' no longer mentions Sula Benet but continues to maintain that hemp is "the plant Cannabis sativa called kanbus in talmudic literature", but now adds, "Hashish is not mentioned however in Jewish sources".  See p. 805 in Vol. 8 of the 2nd edition.</ref> Lexicons of Hebrew and dictionaries of plants of the Bible such as by [[Michael Zohary]] (1985), [[Hans Arne Jensen]] (2004) and [[James A. Duke]] (2010) and others identify the plant in question as either ''[[Acorus calamus]]'' or ''[[Cymbopogon citratus]]'', not cannabis.<ref>Lytton J. Musselman ''Figs, dates, laurel, and myrrh: plants of the Bible and the Quran'' 2007 p73</ref>