Space For Doubt

Humans are predictable creatures. Just as hunger and thirst are common to us all, we share many other things too. Music, art, social hierarchy, desire for companionship, and so on.

There is also this natural tendency towards belief in the supernatural, a higher power that brought us into existence and has some ultimate plan. Coinciding with that, there’s always been a desire for a more meaningful connection to this supernatural power. Yet how can a lowly human take a quantifiable step in doing that?

One common attempt is the use of psychedelic drugs in some or all aspects of deity worship. By altering one’s state of mind, perhaps this experience can be enhanced and deepened. Many cultures have historically seemed to think so.

At Tel-Arad, in the Beersheba Valley, researchers uncovered an 8th century BCE Jewish shrine that contained cannabis products on one of the alters. (source)

This shrine was in use during the reigns of Jotham (good guy) and Ahaz (bad guy). The shrine/temple bears a strong resemblance to the first temple in Jerusalem, made during king Solomon’s reign.

The stone pillar (altar) with the cannabis was found at the entrance to the “Holy of Holies” (the inner room).

The researchers stated that this cannabis sample contained enough of the plant’s psychoactive compound THC to have induced an altered state of consciousness by breathing in its fumes.

They further suggest that due to the Frankincense and many other similarities with the main temple, this practice may have been going on in Jerusalem as well.

This find has been a little uncomfortable among conservative Jews and Christians. There’s no way this could be true right? It has certainly brought the apologists out in force. 

That being said, let’s separate the facts from the researchers’ and apologists’ theories.

• We know cannabis products were burned on an altar, in a shrine that closely, but not perfectly, resembled Jerusalem’s first temple. Without any inscriptions, it’s hard to say with certainty what type of worship went on there.
• The people knew to burn this cannabis with a low combustion temperature fuel, so as to not ruin the THC.
• We know that YHWH and pagan deities were worshiped at these high places (Archaeologists have found evidence of this). Scripturally we see a desire of Hezekiah and Josiah to consolidate worship of YHWH to just the Jerusalem temple, in addition to removing the high places to eliminate any pagan deity worship.
• We know that burning of incense was common during worship. The Bible prescribes a few types of ingredients, however cannabis products are not listed. (Exodus 30:34-35)
• According to the scientists, there was enough THC that breathing the smoke would induce a high.
• We know this all occurred during a time period that spanned king Jotham and king Ahaz’s reigns. (Thanks scientific dating methods!)

And that’s about it for facts. Logical conclusions differ from facts, so let’s see where those land us. 

1.) Could this altar have been used for the worship of YHWH?

Yes. While not conclusive, the shrine was modeled after the Jerusalem temple, and contained Frankincense as well (another substance directed for use in the Bible). That’s not an unreasonable conclusion.

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Could it have been used for worship of another deity, and this cannabis have been used in that idolatrous worship? Also yes. We have other archaeological evidence of altars to these forbidden gods, where inscriptions describe them. Unfortunately though we get nothing of the sort here, despite these altars being in great shape.

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In short, we don’t know for sure what was being worshipped here.

2.) How do they know the Jews were actually getting high? 

I suppose you could say they don’t for certain. There could’ve been amazing airflow, and they just liked the cut (smell) of marijuana’s jib. Maybe they didn’t actually have any psycho-active experiences.

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Is that likely though? Most people don’t particularly enjoy the smell of burning marijuana. Why burn it if it smells bad?

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Common sense dictates they were at least attempting to get high, as they knew to use a lower temperature burning fuel for the cannabis altar (animal dung) vs the frankincense altar (animal fat).

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Let’s be real. All logic points towards these people getting high.

3.) Do they know for sure that cannabis was burned in Jerusalem too? 

No. To be fair though, there never existed the opportunity to excavate a preserved main temple site like this one. This site appears to have been intentionally and rapidly decommissioned and covered up (yet not destroyed). This resulted in the preservation of the altars’ contents for later analysis. 

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During king Ahaz’s reign, it would make more sense to find that drugs were being used in the Jerusalem temple. Why not? The guy supposedly did about every other terrible thing! The question would be, did it also happen during king Jotham’s reign? Was it ever practiced under a “good” king? Did they claim it was directed by God?

In any case, this drug use probably wasn’t at the express command of God, but rather a novel experience brought in by the early stages of the silk road trade. (That and some rowdy high power players wanting to have a little fun on the job.)

What was more interesting during the research of this post is how people responded to this information in the comments of these news articles. 

People’s absolute conviction that something had to be a certain way, precluded them from even considering a possibility where this could be true. And if it was true, it certainly wasn’t during a good king’s reign! And if it was, it certainly wasn’t during the worship of YHWH! And if it was, it was just bad people! (and on and on)

Isn’t it much more relaxing and freeing to just hold this information up and evaluate it without already deciding what it is allowed to say?

So what, if during even a good king’s reign, some ancient Jewish priests used cannabis during their worship to YHWH? This was a culture where marriage was not consensual, women were property, spousal rape was the norm, polygamy was common, genocide happened, and slavery was Biblically endorsed. 

You can overlook all that, but a little ceremonial drug use is crossing the line? That’s a step too far? 👀?!?!

It seems like everyone could use a little ceremonial drug use. Especially the apologists. Your world won’t fall apart if a priest almost 3,000 years ago might have inhaled some pot smoke. Relax buddy. Jesus made and drank wine.

People back then arguably had a much worse quality of life. We have modern antidepressants and caffeine to get us through our day. They had opium and cannabis. All of these make changes to the brain, but we’ve only demonized some of them. In 2000 years maybe people will be calling us the crazy drug addicted generations?

Until then,

Peace