Jesus & jane

Depending on who you ask, the Bible makes only vague references to cannabis or is entirely silent about it. The assumption commonly drawn from this is that cannabis was unknown to the writers of scripture. In fact it now appears more likely that a wide variety of intoxicants were known and in use throughout the ancient near east during and long before the time the of the Old and New Testaments. So jumping to conclusions based on alcohol-related references alone may yield an incomplete theology, at best. In this two part blog, we will be exploring not only what the Bible directly says (and doesn’t say) on this subject, but also the reasons why people have had such a long and consistent history with substances that effect our minds and bodies, specifically cannabis. PART ONE: What the Bible says about the use of psychoactive substances A recent review of decades of archaeological research concludes that humans worldwide have been using psychoactive substances including opium, alcoh

And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. (Gen. 1:29) And my, what a bounty the earth has produced! The fact is, if we just were to leave the earth alone, it would be covered in vegetation of myriad varieties, and this is essentially what it was like when people arrived on the scene, regardless of how "exactly" we ended-up here. But we haven't left it alone, we've cultivated it, fertilized it, multiplied the bounty of plants we particularly like through farming, breeding, and now even more through various kinds of scientific practice. Sure, the wisdom and efficacy of many of these can be debated, but for now let's just observe that it's happened, and overall, the earth has been remarkably fruitful. We enjoy — no, depend — on this, in fact. Beyond the obvious — food — there are also the countless ways the bounty of the earth