In pro-cannabis circles, it's often purported that Jesus used Cannabis-based anointing oil to heal/treat/perform miracles.

Is this historically accurate?


Jesus 'healed using cannabis'


Did Jesus Use Marijuana to Perform Miracles?


Cannabis and the Christ: Jesus used Marijuana

  • So... looks like the Guardian was quoting High Times, and that all three are basing their arguments, one way or another, on the assertion that the standard anointing oil at that time and place was cannabis oil. All three come from sources that are pro-pot, but not necessarily unreliable. Does anyone have anything on the core claim wrt cannabis oil being standard? – Ben Barden May 23 '17 at 13:44

The Bible records the Israelites as using kaneh-bosm as anointing oil, specifically in the Old Testament. The exact composition of the oil is unclear as kaneh-bosm is an Aramaic word, although most scholars believe that it was made from Calamus, a kind of palm.

Various sources which discuss the issue:

Wikipedia overview

Vice article

Although the consensus seems to be that the oil was made primarily from palm oil, a Polish anthropologist named Sula Benet claimed that kaneh bosm is really cannabis in the 1960s. Supposedly, it was merely been misidentified as calamus due to a mistranslation. From wikipedia:

Other possible identifications have also been made. Sula Benet in Early Diffusion and Folk Uses of Hemp (1967), identified it as cannabis. Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan notes that "On the basis of cognate pronunciation and Septuagint readings, some identify Keneh bosem with the English and Greek cannabis, the hemp plant. There are, however, some authorities who identify the 'sweet cane' with cinnamon bark (Radak, Sherashim). Some say that kinman is the wood, and keneh bosem is the bark (Abarbanel)." Benet in contrast argued that equating Keneh Bosem with sweet cane could be traced to a mistranslation in the Septuagint, which mistook Keneh Bosem, later referred to as "cannabos" in the Talmud, as "kalabos", a common Egyptian marsh cane plant.

This appears to be a minority view among scholars, but it appears to be pretty popular in certain popular subcultures. Quoting the Vice article:



Even if one were to believe that the anointing oil is cannabis, did Jesus ever use it?

I am not aware of a specific mention of Jesus anointing with kaneh-bosm. There are four mentions of anointing with oil in the New Testament, but two of them are in epistles that don't have anything to do directly with Jesus's life (James 5:14 and Hebrews 1:8-9), one is Mary using nard oil (Mark 14:3-9), and the final is a reference to the Disciples using oil (Mark 6:13).

So the link between Jesus and the specific Old Testament anointing oil is tenuous at best as well.

  • Are there any ancient Aramaic equivalents of "High Times" around? Maybe "palm oil" was a euphemism that ancient pot-smokers used to fool ancient Roman drug enforcement agents. :D – PoloHoleSet May 24 '17 at 14:31
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    Your answer is very clear, but I'm really missing a link. The kaneh-bosm is used in the Holy Anointing Oil en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_anointing_oil (see there for limit on the usage etc...) But I'm not able to find any reference that Jesus is using the same. One of the reference I've been able to find "James 5:14-16" but in the translation I've been able to read is not clear that (1) is the Holy Oil (that should not be used on common people) nor that Jesus provided it – lbenini May 24 '17 at 15:40
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    "The Bible records Jesus as using kaneh-bosm as anointing oil" - where please? – fdb May 24 '17 at 16:31
  • Agreed with above comments. Fixed. – KAI May 24 '17 at 16:58

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