Yaacov Apelbaum, the spooky, alleged ‘Israeli Spy’, out to discredit me, and claims of Biblical cannabis use.
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CANNABIS CULTURE – Although I doubt few readers have heard of Yaacov Apelbaum, I am sure they are familiar with many of the news stories that Apelbaum has been connected with. The Hunter Biden Laptop story, Trump’s media attacks on ‘activist judges’, The Voting Machine Breach Scandal, The alleged Michael flynn Coup to take over MAGA, Antifa infiltrating the January 6th protest, and more. As well, Apelbaum is embroiled in numerous high profile court cases. As we shall see, Apelbaum has also been accused of being a CIA or Mossad Spy, and he certainly has ties to the Intelligence community. But why would a figure like this take an interest in an admittedly obscure cannabis historian such as myself?
Apelbaum and me
I discovered Apelbaum, after he wrote a rather disparaging article mentioning me in 2024, Against the Claim of Cannabis Use In the Bible. I looked into him then a little, but did a deeper dive recently, with the release of his song about me, ‘Chris Bennett, The Cannabis Prophet‘ complete with with cheesy AI Kacey Musgrave vocals. Here are the lyrics.
Beneath the gray Pacific sky, Where ocean winds and whispers lie, There walks a man of dazed delight, A preacher bathed in amber light.
Not in robes of sacred thread, But tie-dye rags and eyes blood-red. His holy book, a film he saw, His gospel wrapped in rolling raw.
By fish plant walls, through midnight air, He found his cause, his cross to bear. Not through wisdom, nor through thought, But from the haze that cannabis wrought.
A thousand visions, green and bright, He saw in clouds of curling light. Revelations, bold and grand, Born from smoke and sleight of hand.
He carved his truth in hemp and ink, From waves he’d ride to joints he’d drink. A shepherd not of sheep but fools, Spinning tales and bending rules.
With T-shirts scrawled in sacred lore, And edibles he’d eat by score, He preached the herb, the path, the way, To light the mind and dull the day.
For every law, a rebel’s cry, For every doubt, a higher high. No crown, no pulpit, yet he led, A congregation, half-unread.
And so his sermon drifts and stays, Like pungent smoke in alley haze. A prophet low, yet held so high, A tale of clouds that pass and die.
As anyone who follows my work and blog knows, I have been writing about the evidence for indications of cannabis use in the Bible since the early 90s. In his article ‘Against the Claim of Cannabis Use In the Bible‘ Apelbaum attempts to dispel my own research and character, as well as that of Anthropologists Vera Rubin, and Sula Benet, who has played a particularly important pioneering role in this area of research. I’ll get into what Apelbaum wrote about myself, and other researchat the end of this article, but first let’s take a dive down the Apelbaum rabbit hole, to make his interest in my work, much more interesting!
Who is Yaacov Apelbaum?
Although not a household name, Yaacov has been discussed in various chat groups, like Reditt, where users seem to connect him to QAnon and other conspiracy circles. Journalist, Jacqueline Sweet, who writes for The Intercept, Rolling Stone and other news outlets, noted on her Bluesky thread about Apelbaum that “Laura Loomer has for years posted images watermarked from XRVision [Apelbaum’s facial recognition spyware company] with different propaganda and supposedly showing face AI tech, often about Ilhan Omar and other topics. It’s unclear where she gets it from.”
As a side note on Sweet, its worth mentioning that Trump besty, Musk, recently banned her from X :”No one should be surprised about it in this era, when the prevailing view in Silicon Valley is ‘Free speech for me but not for thee'” (Sweet 2025).
If you end up googling to find out about Yaacov Apelbaum, don’t get him confused with notable hacker, journalist and the equally controversial Jacob Apelbaum (Yaacov is the Hebrew name, ‘Jacob’ is derived from), at least I don’t think they are the same person, and you can see why I would raise that sort of question, when you look into what is known about either of them……
But of course Reddit and Bluesky are not the best places to look for a backgrounder on this guy, so let’s take a look at some of the headline stories this ‘spooky’ fellow has been involved with, starting with the Hunter Biden laptop story.
Apelbaum and Hunter Biden’s laptop
The Daily Mail ‘EXCLUSIVE: High living Hunter Biden blew tens of thousands on prostitutes, drugs and luxury cars, was desperate to avoid jail for $320k in unpaid taxes’, states that Apebaum “obtained documents from cyber analytics company XRVision. Yaacov Apelbaum, the firm’s New York-based chief technical officer, said he was asked to analyze the laptop’s hard drive by the repair store owner’s father after he became concerned its contents showed criminal activity and undue Chinese influence on the then-presidential candidate’s son.” Numbers of news stories and even a lawsuit refer to Apelbaum in connection with Hunter Biden’s laptop.
The NYpost article ‘Hunter Biden finally admits infamous laptop is his as he pleads for criminal probe’ describes how Biden’s Lawyer, Abbe Lowell , listed Apelbaum in a letter to Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings, in regards to illegally accessing Biden’s laptop:
In the 14-page letter to Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings, Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell claimed that repair shop owner John Paul Mac Isaac “unlawfully” accessed Hunter’s laptop data and worked with former President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to “weaponize” sordid and incriminating contents on it against Joe Biden.
“This failed dirty political trick directly resulted in the exposure, exploitation, and manipulation of Mr. Biden’s private and personal information,” Lowell wrote.
“Mr. Mac Isaac’s intentional, reckless, and unlawful conduct allowed for hundreds of gigabytes of Mr. Biden’s personal data, without any discretion, to be circulated around the Internet.”
Mac Isaac took possession of the laptop and hard drive late in 2019 after trying and failing for months to notify Hunter that the device was ready to be picked up. Once the shop owner saw the laptop’s contents — including emails detailing influence-peddling involving then-Vice President Joe Biden and videos of the younger Biden smoking crack and having sex with prostitutes and his work subordinates — he alerted the FBI.
The feds picked up the laptop in December 2019, but not before Mac Isaac made a copy which he gave to Giuliani’s personal lawyer, Robert Costello, in August 2020.
Giuliani provided The Post with a copy of the hard drive that October.
Lowell’s letter singles out Mac Isaac, Giuliani, Costello, former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon, former Trump White House aide Garrett Ziegler, Bannon associate Jack Maxey, and Yaacov Apelbaum, founder and CEO of cyber analytics firm XRVision and former aide to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), as parties who gained unauthorized access to the laptop’s contents and disseminated it to the media and lawmakers.
Apelbaum’s suit does not name an amount in damages and it’s dubious whether the court has jurisdiction. The basic claim, as I wrote in my response to his cease-and-desist, is that it’s defamatory to call an Israeli in the spyware business who by his own admission has done business with intelligence agencies an Israeli spy. His St. Louis attorney, Mr. Burns, did not get back to me about my requests for clarification. They decided to sue me instead.
It seems pretty clear to me that this suit is not intended to actually prevail, but to raise my costs to operate. (Bloom 2025).
An alleged image of Apelbaum from Arthur Bloom’s article – ‘The Role of Yaacov Apelbaum in the Hunter Biden Drama’. Part of the lawsuit against Bloom, is based on this photo, the only alleged web image of Apelbaum known, which Apelbaum denies is him, and wants removed. Ironic that someone in the Facial Recognition industry would be so protective over their own image.
Yaacov Apelbaum is in the spyware business. He’s even been accused of being a spy.
As the owner of a New York-based cybersecurity firm called XRVision, Apelbaum has spent much of the past decade developing sophisticated software to monitor and track people all over the world.
He has ties to foreign intelligence agencies and has contracted with the U.S. government to use facial recognition software on the border.
Apelbaum is hardly a household name, but he is known in some far-right circles. He thrust himself into the national spotlight in July with a lawsuit laying out how allies of former President Donald Trump bankrolled post-election voting machine breaches in multiple states.
….Is Yaacov Apelbaum a spy?
There’s no evidence to suggest Apelbaum, 60, is a spy. He has acknowledged contracting with government intelligence and defense agencies, but he’s tight-lipped about much of his background.
“I used to operate in that world,” he said, declining to elaborate.
Some of Apelbaum‘s close business associates have ties to foreign intelligence and military agencies, including the Israeli Defense Forces.
XRVision was founded in Singapore in 2015. It bills itself as a specialist in artificial intelligence technology and markets facial recognition software to governments worldwide.
In 2019, the company entered a seven-year contract with the Department of Homeland Security to provide the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency “software for wearable devices … for matching human face images.”
….He and his associates invented a facial recognition system using concealed mobile cameras in 2015. They also created a “knowledge management system” for municipalities to collect and store data on utilities, transportation, safety and security, health and education.
One of Appelbaum‘s co-inventors was Matavia “Mati” Zvi Kochavi, a former Israeli intelligence agent. Apelbaum worked directly with Kochavi at Asia Global Technology, which developed the controversial “Falcon Eye” mass surveillance system used by the governments of the United Arab Emirates and Nigeria.
…A former Trump White House staffer in 2021 accused Apelbaum of being an operative for the Cenral Intelligence Agency or the Israeli Mossad.
A cybersecurity company is suing Stefanie Lambert, claiming she urged employees to manufacture findings in her efforts to overturn 2020 election results for Donald Trump’s legal team.
New York-based XRVision [Apelbaum’s company] claims Lambert hired the firm to analyze voting machines used by a rural Pennsylvania county in the 2020 election and asked employees to falsely report finding “cheat codes” in software and evidence of hacking.
When employees refused to do her bidding, Lambert and her financial backer badmouthed the firm, damaging its reputation among members of the Arizona, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin senates and causing it to lose potential contracts, according to the lawsuit.
XRVision’s lawsuit accuses Lambert of defamation and breach of contract. It also names Pennsylvania businessman Bill Bachenberg, who served as co-chair of a committee to reelect Trump and who helped establish the state’s alternate slate of Trump electors in 2020.
XRVision alleges Bachenberg agreed to fund attorney fees and expenses related to the Trump-fueled fraud investigations. Bachenberg gave Lambert a $1 million line of credit toward these efforts, and he determined “which forensic experts to hire and which election controversies to pursue.”
….XRVision is demanding $10 million in combined compensatory and punitive damages from Bachenberg and Lambert.
Bachenberg paid XRVision nearly $200,000 through Lambert for inspections of voting machines from Michigan’s Antrim County, an endeavor labeled “Project Sampson” that took place between May 2021 and December 2021, according to the lawsuit.
When XRVision reported that the voting machines were not hacked or pre-configured to favor any particular candidates despite being “highly insecure,” the suit alleges that Bachenberg and Lambert became furious.
Attorneys for the company also say Bachenberg and Lambert still owe the company $550,000 for its work on the voting machine inspections.
Lambert claimed that Apelbaum uses various aliases, referring to him as “Applbaum, Yaacov “E”pplebaum, Yaacov Applebaum, or whatever false identity he is currently using”. The intrigue only increases from here.
Some of the many News stories and the court cases which came from the voting machine scandal
Apelbaum and Mary Fanning
Things get very interesting, in regards to another lawsuit related to the voting machine breach scandal, involving Apelbaum, and the equally curious Mary Fanning. The article Is Mary Fanning a Real Operative? the author and owner of The Post & Email, Sharon Rondeau notes that “A woman identifying herself in articles, audio interviews and tweets as “Mary Fanning” over the last decade may be a former CIA operative, The Post & Email has learned.”
The mysterious “Fanning” has no internet footprint, displays no photographs or history, and is only a voice over the telephone in numerous radio broadcasts and video productions over the last several years. A co-author of articles at The American Report, Fanning claims the credential of “national security” investigative journalist but has no track record in the field, let alone “journalism,” prior to the launch of the website in 2015.
Fanning was a star and producer of Mike Lindell’s film 2021 ‘Absolute Proof’. In this loony tune documentary, Lindell hosts numerous cybersecurity experts and anonymous persons, including Mary Fanning, whose testimonies allegedly support his claim that Chinese and Iranian hackers hacked into voting machines in order to influence the results of the election in favour of Biden. However, another story by Rondeau, Did Mary Fanning Cause the Downfall of Mike Lindell?, indicates that, like getting involved with Apelbaum, getting involved with Fanning can come at a price.
Millions of Lindell’s dollars were spent on the representations of Fanning, the disembodied voice over the phone line; no one, including Lindell, has ever seen or met her in the flesh, yet she was flying people around on Lindell’s private aircraft, mapping out the storyboards to Absolute Proof, becoming executive producer to the documentary, all the while pitching make-believe software, phony data and phony China stories, none of which were ever remotely corroborated by Fanning or anyone else. (Rondeau 2021)
Although Fanning is listed as a star and producer in Absolute Proof, only her voice is used in the documentary, and like Yaacov Apelbaum, its almost impossible to find an image of her. The alleged picture of Apelbaum, in this article, has been rejected as his image and there is a court case about it being used as his image. (This is why I clearly note it as ‘alleged’).
Fanning is particularly wound up with stories about a supposed super computer being used by intelligence agencies, ‘The Hammer’ . As Sharon Rondeau explains:
In March 2017, Fanning launched what became a lengthy series of articles at The American Report promoting the claims of former …of the existence of a government super-computer, “The Hammer,” which purportedly since 2009 was used by US intelligence agencies to spy on American citizens and collect their personal information without a warrant….
In a February 14, 2021article, Fanning wrote “Barack Obama’s intelligence chiefs John Brennan and James Clapper… illegally commandeered THE HAMMER to spy on Donald Trump and millions of other innocent Americans.” Fanning details all this further in her 2020 book THE HAMMER is the Key to the Coup “The Political Crime of the Century”: How Obama, Brennan, Clapper, and the CIA spied on President Trump, General Flynn … and everyone else.
Apelbaum and The Hammer
Fanning’s 2021 article for The America Report, ‘Attacks on Dennis Montgomery, HAMMER And SCORECARD, Have CIA Connections, had much to say about Yaacov Apelbaum.
Fanning raises many questions about Apelbaum and XRVision in her article ‘Attacks on Dennis Montgomery, HAMMER And SCORECARD, Have CIA Connections’. She has been in court with Apelbaum, and also claims this is his image, which he denies.
Reminiscent of accusations against Apelbaum, Rondeau also noted of Fanning in her expose:
Critics of Fanning’s work… saw Fanning turn her ire on them in an attempt to paint them as CIA, “Russian” or “deep state” operatives. Ironically, however, according to former CIA officer Kevin Shipp, she herself may have a connection to the CIA dating back many years.
Those she has defensively attempted to defame include former CIA officer Larry C. Johnson; XRVision founder Yaacov Apelbaum; The Gateway Pundit founder and publisher Joe Hoft
In the case TGP Communications, et al v. Brannon Howse, et al filed early in 2021, the plaintiff Apelbaum, claims defamation against Fanning and her co-writer, Alan Jones.
On July 25, former CIA officer Kevin Shipp tweeted a surprising revelation: “A source close to me alleges that while in the CIA, I offended Fanning by exposing a serious vulnerability she refuse to correct. She was drummed out of the CIA and became rogue, holding a vendetta against me. The facts of my case seem to fit. Checking.”
Another Tweet from Shipp, may give credence to background story behind The Hammer, noting Fanning “may have commited a serious security breach in the CIA, possibly involving classified computer networks.”
In response to MAGA figure Michale Flynn (who as we shall see is also wound up in this voting machine breach/Apelbaum stuff ) about attempts to prosecute Trump, were tantamount to assassination, Fanning responded with a comment about Apelbaum. “#Narrative_Assassination Just like Yaacov Apelbaum running a dirty operation against me — hiring a PI to take pictures through our windows and then push the false narratives. Fortunately the PI, Yaakov Apelbaum hired, who had been military Intel, gave sworn affidavits to the courts with copies of the bills to Yaacov Apelbaum and his company XRVISION. @GenFlynn“
Things with Flynn take an even more interesting turn.
Apelbaum, Michale Flynn and the inside MAGA Coup
Another weird story sprung from the Voting machine scandal, with Apelbaum again at the centre, is the AZ Central’s Trump allies orchestrate disinformation plot to take control of MAGA, spyware executive says.
A cybersecurity operative with ties to foreign intelligence agencies said ongoing efforts to subvert the 2020 election are part of a “disinformation campaign” that goes beyond restoring former President Donald Trump to power.
The owner of New-York based XRVision said his company was among a network of cyber firms recruited by lawyers and middlemen working on Trump’s behalf to attack election results across the country.
Yaacov Apelbaum said the goal never was to find and expose election fraud: Instead, it was an excuse to foment chaos around America’s voting system that political operatives could exploit to wrest control of the powerful MAGA movement.
Apelbaum said MAGA figure Michael Flynn, Patrick Byrne and others are “liquifying reality,” a term rooted in counterintelligence operations.
Former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne are among the key orchestrators attempting to take over what Trump started, Apelbaum told the USA TODAY Network.
“The group, the same crowd, they plant seeds and let them germinate … they want to destabilize faith in government,” he said. “A lot of activity by Flynn and others is to take over the movement.”
….Apelbaum was…. the first to detail how Republican allies of Trump bankrolled voting machine breaches in four swing states.
A federal lawsuit filed by XRVision in July accused a wealthy Trump donor of funneling money through a Michigan lawyer to a network of cybersecurity firms hired to carry out the scheme.
After getting stiffed on his bill, Apelbaum “responded with an intelligence-gathering operation. He targeted Flynn, Byrne and other key Trump allies who planned and executed data breaches shortly after Trump’s election loss in November 2020.” As the AZCentral story explains:
Apelbaum said he used cellphone and other data to establish the ties between a network of operators engaged in spreading conspiracy theories and false information about the security of elections. He said their activities overlapped in multiple states, and he connected them to operatives working in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
“I eventually put them all under surveillance,” Apelbaum said. “It revealed it is a network … always the same crowd.”
As with Flynn, many involved in the data breaches and election challenges had counterintelligence or security backgrounds.
They included retired U.S. Army Col. Phil Waldron, who specialized in psychological operations; former National Security Agency employee Jim Penrose; former Army Capt. Seth Keshel; and Russel Ramsland Jr., the leader of a security firm called Allied Security Operations Group, which counts former Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense and Secret Service members among its operatives.
State and federal indictments against Trump and members of his inner circle — who are starting to turn on him — closely track Apelbaum‘s allegations about efforts to breach voting machines and overturn the 2020 election.
MAGA, the campaign slogan and promise by Trump to Make America Great Again, has evolved beyond the former president, Apelbaum said. He described it as a financial and political juggernaut for whoever can harness its power.
….Apelbaum also called Flynn and Byrne fraudsters. He said their initial goal was convincing Trump to embrace, endorse and echo the election conspiracy after his 2020 loss — that the vote was rigged against him.
“Which is exactly what he did,” Apelbaum said….. Apelbaum said Flynn and Byrne ensnared Trump’s followers in a lie and positioned themselves to achieve their operational goal.
“They want to subvert the MAGA movement,” he said.
Apelbaum talks in the language of covert operations. He uses terms associated with Russian intelligence and political warfare for the network behind the voting machine breaches.
They are part of an “active measure,” he said, referencing a strategy to “create chaos … get rid of the truth.”
The Russian Federation coined the phrase “active measure” in the 1920s to describe a “combination of propaganda, political pressure, and sometimes covert military activity,”…
The Kremlin still employs active measures against the U.S. and other countries, according to intelligence analysts.
“You need to let go of the concept of disinformation and switch to the concept of active measure,” Apelbaum said. “An active measure encompasses many elements, including disinformation. A well-crafted active measure is living, breathing … and it spreads. They are pieces of art.”
He stopped short of saying Russia is involved in efforts by Trump allies to sow doubts in U.S. elections. But the network is well-organized and well-funded, he said, and its attacks on the electoral process pose a legitimate threat to democracy.
Apelbaum categorized those involved in the election schemes: Flynn and Byrne are orchestrators; former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell and lawyers working for her to facilitate data breaches are operators; and cybersecurity firms such as Cyber Ninjas, hired to obtain and analyze election data, are agents.
Rajat Khare, his company Appin, adds yet another layer of espionage and intrigue which you can read about in the 2023 Reuters story, How an Indian startup hacked the world : “Appin was a leading Indian cyberespionage firm that few people even knew existed. A Reuters investigation found that the company grew from an educational startup to a hack-for-hire powerhouse that stole secrets from executives, politicians, military officials and wealthy elites around the globe. Appin alumni went on to form other firms that are still active.”
Apelbaum and Trump’s bellowing about ‘Activist Judges’
Probably the most high profile news story that we can find Apelbaum embedded in are the recent Trump attacks on ‘Activist Judges’. In the first few months of the new Trump administration, Trump seemed to be dropping Executive Orders as fast as he was sending out toxic Tweets in the first Trump Administration. Many of these were seen to conflict with the Constitution and existing laws and were challenged by various judges.
On March 16th, 2025, Apelbaum dropped an article on the questionable rightwing news site The Gateway Pundit, titled Activist Judges and the Overreach of Judicial Authority: A Case for Sedition and Treason, citing various directions for legal grounds for going after what Trump and the MAGA Reich saw as ‘Activist Judges. As Apelbaum explained of his article:
The balance of power among the three branches of government is a cornerstone of the United States Constitution.
However, activist judges have increasingly encroached upon executive authority, undermining the separation of powers.
When judges exceed their constitutional authority by obstructing or overturning executive actions without legitimate constitutional grounds, they not only overstep their role but may also commit acts tantamount to treason and sedition.
This essay explores the legal basis for holding such judges accountable, citing relevant laws, cases, and precedents.
Apparently, this article made the rounds with the MAGA crowd, and with figures close to Trump like Laura Loomer being a known follower of Apelbaum’s output, not surprisingly made it to the Whitey House, and Oval Office. USA Today ran the article Trump shares post accusing judges of ‘sedition and treason’ for blocking his agenda, which we can be sure sent a chill through the Judiciary. The article tells us:
President Donald Trump reposted an article on social media accusing judges of “sedition and treason” when they use the court’s authority to overturn executive actions as the president continues to vent over federal district judges blocking pieces of his agenda.
Trump‘s post Sunday night on Truth Social comes after he was rebuked last week by Chief Justice John Roberts for calling for the impeachment of a federal judge who tried to stop the Republican administration from deporting hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members via the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law last used during World War II.
The president shared an article by Yaacov Apelbaum, published on the conservative website The Gateway Pundit, which argues when judges “exceed their constitutional authority by obstructing or overturning executive actions without legitimate constitutional grounds, they not only overstep their role but may also commit acts tantamount to treason and sedition.”
Apelbaum’s article goes on to argue “activist judges” violate the constitutional authority of the judicial branch by legislating or executing the law rather than interpreting it. “The U.S. legal system provides mechanisms to address such overreach, particularly under statutes concerning sedition and treason,” it says.
The New Republic story on this, Trump Suggests Frightening New Charges Against Judges Who Oppose Him: Donald Trump thinks the judges blocking his agenda in court should be punished, notes:
Donald Trump has escalated his attacks on judges ruling against his administration, suggesting that they could be charged with sedition and treason.
The president reposted an article from Gateway Pundit, a right-wing website known for trafficking in hoaxes and conspiracy theories, on his Truth Social account Sunday. The article attempts to make a legal argument that federal judges who rule against Trump’s policies and executive orders can be prosecuted for sedition and treason.Trump’s focus on ‘Activist Judges’ seems to have begun when the president shared an article by Yaacov Apelbaum, published on the conservative website The Gateway Pundit, which argues when judges “exceed their constitutional authority by obstructing or overturning executive actions without legitimate constitutional grounds, they not only overstep their role but may also commit acts tantamount to treason and sedition.”
The article makes wild claims about federal law concerning treason and seditious conspiracy, claiming that judges collaborating “with foreign or domestic entities to undermine national security-related executive decisions” would justify treason charges, while judges “intentionally obstruct[ing]executive functions and conspir[ing]to weaken presidential authority” could constitute seditious conspiracy.
Going even further, the article’s writer, Yaacov Apelbaum, argued that if judges’ rulings are “severely undermining the federal government’s operations,” that could constitute “aiding enemies or direct rebellion” under Article 3 of the Constitution.
If the president is giving serious weight to these legal theories, that goes far beyond his previous threats to impeach judges he doesn’t like, which has been echoed by Elon Musk and other right-wing figures and drawn a mealy-mouthed condemnation from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
It also suggests that Trump will stop at nothing to continue issuing legally questionable executive orders, which have decimated federal agencies created and regulated by Congress, and rushed through mass deportations and immigration penalties that very likely violate federal law and the Constitution. If Trump finds a way to sideline, impeach, or charge federal judges when they rule against him, he will have decimated the constitutional separation of powers and cemented himself as a dictator.
Apelbaum ‘Against the Claims of Cannabis Use in the Bible’
An illustration from Apelbaum’s article.
So the question begs, Why has a figure of espionage such the mysterious Yaacov Apelbaum, reached his tentacles of interest into myself, and claims of Biblical cannabis? Apelbaum begins his seemingly pejorative essay:
Over the past few years, the legalization of cannabis and its recreational use has skyrocketed. Yet despite these political and commercial gains, the cannabis industry is still fighting an uphill battle against the religious objection to to its use. To remove these roadblocks, the industry has launched large-scale influence campaigns like Hash Marihuana & Hemp Museum, Project CBD, Cannabis Culture, High Times, Mission to Share, and many others, targeting Jews and Christians alike. Their ultimate goal is the elimination of religious objections to the recreational use of cannabis.
Most of these counter-religious operations promote the following claims:
Cannabis use is permitted based on the verse in Genesis 1:29: “G-d said, “See, I give you every seed-bearing plant that is upon all the earth, and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit; they shall be yours for food.”
Cannabis was used as an ingredient in incense and anointing oil, as mentioned in Exodus 30.
Cannabis was used in King Solomon’s Temple.
Cannabis use is mentioned in other references in the Hebrew Bible.
Cannabis use is documented in the New Testament. Jesus was anointed with cannabis, and the early church followed this practice and used cannabis to anoint the sick.
Cannabis traces were found on an altar of an 8th-century BCE pagan sanctuary in Tel Arad, suggesting that it was used as part of an 8th-century BCE Jewish cult.
Too Apelbaum’s credit, his article is highlighted with hypertext links throughout, linking to a lot of mine and others source material. The concerns Apelbaum expresses, is that these cannabis groups are specifically targeting religions, particularly Jews and Christians, with propaganda created for the purpose of removing religious objections to cannabis use. I can’t say that is not a motivation for myself, and the hard fact is, cannabis has been connected to many religions historically, as my own decades of research, and that of others has well documented, an entheogenic role for cannabis can be found in the histories of numbers of religions such as Taoism, Shintoism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Islam, Judaism and possibly, as I have hypothesized to Apelbaum’s ire, Christianity. This is however based on history, not something created by a cabal of ‘vipers’ to seduce pious religious folk. It’s just a fact that cannabis has played a little known, but interesting role in the history of the World’s religions.
Apelbaum’s focus in the article, however, is on claims of Biblical use. He refers not only to my work, but that of anthropologists Sula Benet, Vera Rubin and the archaeological evidence for ritual cannabis use by the ancient Hebrews from tel Arad, Jerusalem.
In 1936, Sula Benet, a Jewish Polish anthropologist first suggested that the Hebrew terms kaneh, and kaneh bosm originally identified cannabis, but when the Hebrew was translated into Greek for the Septuagint, a mistranslation to ‘calamus’ took place and this followed into later English translations of the Bible. Benet maintained this theory for decades, writing about it in the 1970s in Vera Rubins anthropological anthology Cannabis and Culture (1975).
Anthropologist Sula Benet (1903-1982).
Basically, Benet suggested the Hebrew term kaneh, had the double meaning of ‘reed or cane,’ and ‘cannabis’ and this could be distinguished by context, Benet pointed to 5 specific references to the use of kaneh as ‘cannabis’ in the Old Testament texts, Exodus 30:23, Songs 4:14, Isaiah 43:24, Jeremiah 6:20 and Ezekiel 27:19.
In the Exodus 30:23 reference kaneh appears with the Hebrew term bosm, used to denote fragrant, and Benet suggested that in the later Mishna, the Mishna, these words fused and became kannabos קַּנַּבִּס.
From what Apelbaum states here, it becomes apparent, rather than a historical perspective, he is coming at the issue of a religious view, and this is apparent with the dates he uses for the composition of Exodus, based on religious views, rather than the historical evidence.
Apelabaum, only focuses on the term kaneh bosm, in his dismissal of Benet’s work, and ignores the other references to kaneh. This is the core of his misunderstanding, and its an issue with critics that I have experienced before, such as the work of popular podcaster and biblical scholar Dan McClellan, and anyone interested in understanding the actual etymological argument and corroboration of the claim that phonetic variations of kaneh were used for cannabis by people the Hebrews were in contact with, should read my well referenced blog post Is Dan McClellan Wrong About ‘Kaneh Bosem’ And ‘Christ’?
Apelbaum’s simplistic dismissal, is “it’s evident that she never bothered to verify it; a glance in the BDB Lexicon would have told her this was a made-up word interpretation”. Which is weird, because Benet’s whole point was, the word was mistranslated and this has continued into the modern day. Indeed, it is widely accepted that the traditionally used term ‘calamus’ a common marsh root, was a mistranslation among Hebrew scholars, and more than half a dozen other plants, besides cannabis have been suggested.
Apelbaum, mistakenly claims that the famous Genesis 1:29 reference about man being given all herb bearing seeds, was used by Benet, but she never referred to that term, and it does not include kaneh.
He focusses on the Exodus 30:23 reference alone in his dismissal, writing:
Even a superficial reading of these passages debunks this claim and shows poor familiarity with the Hebrew language. For example, Exodus 30 contains two relevant passages: (1) Exodus 30:23, specifies the recipe for the holy anointing oil. This passage mentions the word qanēh-bōśem as one of the key ingredients in the anointing oil, and (2) Exodus 30:34-38 contains the recipe for the incense used in the Tabernacle and later on in the Temple of Solomon.
Now it should be noted that the Holy Oil, was also sued to anoint the ‘altar of incense’ indicating it was also burnt, and the term kaneh bosm, may indicate a cannabis oil, or perfume, or a form of hashish (such a preparation was used at tel Arad), as this is what the Akkadian phonetic counterpart of the term kaneh bosm, qunnabu means. Qunnabu, was ritually burnt as an incense, used as a topical holy ointment, consumed and also used as a medicine. (The Hebrew kaneh can also be translated as qaneh, and this is the way Apelbaum phonetically translates it. Qunnabu can like wise be rendered Kannabu). And again, this is also discussed in much more detail, in my dismissal of Dan McClellan’s claims on kaneh bosm.
In regard to the recipe for teh incense consisting of “sweet spices” in,Exodus 30: 34, that these ingredients formed only part of the sacred incense formula is well established. Josephus says there were thirteen elements, and the Talmud names eleven, plus salt, and a secret “herb” which was added to make the smoke rise in a vertical column before spreading outwards at the top. Hashish smoke rises in this exact way. But the idea that kaneh also identifies cannabis, is in no way reliant on that interpretation, nor is the evidence that cannabis was also used as a Biblical incense.
The other references noted by Benet, do not mention the Holy oil, just the plant cannabis, and there are strong indications some indicate an incense. Moreover, these other references, as I will discuss shortly, tie the etymological case for kaneh with the archeaological evidence from tel Arad.
Apelbaum and tel Arad
in regards to tel Arad, Apelbaum writes.
The claim that cannabis was used ritualistically in the 8th century BCE pagan sanctuary in Tell Arad may be valid; of note is that apparently, the Canaanite custom was to mix the cannabis with animal dung and set it on fire for it to smoke. Their recipe doesn’t even come close to the recipe in Exodus 30:34. It is also clear from various scriptural passages that the Tel Arad incense burning and other idolatry practices of that time were considered an abomination to G-d and were rebuked by the prophets.
One example that illustrates this is:
Jeremiah 44:25 “Thus said G-d of Hosts, the G-d of Israel: You and your wives have confirmed by deed what you spoke in words: ‘We will fulfill the vows that we made, to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and to pour libations to her.’ So fulfill your vows; perform your vows!…”
Clearly, the Bible rejects these idolatrous practices. The Tel Arad cannabis claim is noteworthy because it shows how the cannabis industry is engineering its Bible narrative. The Wikipedia entry for Sula Benet now states that: “The Tel Arad temple finding of Cannabis reported by CNN on May 28th, 2020 confirms her theory now archeologically.”, which is not the case.
Here again, Apelbaum’s rejection comes from a believers perspective instead of a historical perspective.
In actuality, tel Arad is the only archaeological evidence we have for an ancient Hebrew temple site. Because it’s design is similar to the construction of the temple of Solomon, as described in the Bible. “The temple in Arad was built according to the plan of the Tabernacle described in the Bible and consisted of three parts: the inner courtyard, the temple and the Holy of Holies” and it was “in use from the 9th to the end of the 8th century BCE, i.e. concurrent with the Temple in Jerusalem” (Editors of the Madain Project).
Tel Arad documents the ritual Hebrew use of cannabis, in a ‘House of Yahweh’ as the site is identified in an inscription found at the 8th century BCE site. Apelbaum, weakly tries to write off tel Arad, as Canaanite idolatry, but that is a fringe view with academics. The Israel Museum in Jerusalem, has the actual altar room on display calling it Holy of Holies from the sanctuary at Arad and with the description:
A small sanctuary was uncovered in the Arad fortress on Judah’s southern border. It is the only Judahite temple ever discovered. Like most Ancient Near Eastern shrines, including the Temple in Jerusalem, it was composed of several spaces reflecting a hierarchy of sanctity. Deep inside was the Holy of Holies, with a smooth standing stone (biblical massebah), possibly signifying God’s presence, and two altars still bearing the remains of the last incense offered there. The sanctuary was intentionally buried in the time of King Hezekiah, who sought to abolish all public worship outside the Temple in Jerusalem.
The tel Arad ‘Holy of Holies, on Display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The left hand altar was used to burn frankincense, the right hand altar was used to burn cannabis.
Apelbaum’s dismissal here, though, is half correct. As what tel Arad, and the reference from Jeremiah show, is the controversial reason why cannabis disappeared from Hebrew religious life, and the basis of Hezekiah’s reforms, as well as why there may be some official desire on the part of the Israeli Government, to suppress such information.
In his dismissal, Apelbaum refers to the prophet Jeremiah condemning the burning of incense to the Queen of Heaven (Jeremiah 44), and the tel Arad piece mentions Hezekiah, as being responsible for burying the altars at tel Arad. These figures were contemporary with each other, and these events are connected together, and also to the references in Jermeiah 6:20 to kaneh, and this is part of the evidence that shows how tel Arad documents the etymological theory of Sula Benet, about kaneh being cannabis.
Apelbaum, conveniently ignores the Jeremiah 6:20 reference to kaneh :
“What do I care about frankincense from Sheba or sweet smelling kaneh from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable; your sacrifices do not please me.” (Jeremiah 6:20)
Notably here, the kaneh reference appears alongside, frankincense. As noted in the academic article that revealed the cannabis resins burnt at tel Arad, Cannabis and Frankincense at the Judahite Shrine of Arad, both were used at the controversial holy site. The larger altar was used for burning of frankincense and the smaller altar was used for cannabis. This is not the only place where kaneh appears alongside frankincense as we shall see.
Notably in the Jeremiah reference, the cannabis is strongly rejected! That the same plant described in Exodus as part of the Holy anointing oil, came to be so sourly rejected by the dour prophet Jeremiah, was a very puzzling situation for me in the early 90s when I fist began researching this stuff, too the point that I had to read the Bible thoroughly, and many books about the history of the Bible, to understand the context and why the change of heart with kaneh. The reason why, again connects kaneh with tel Arad.
The reason that the cannabis resins on the altar at tel Arad were so well preserved, is that the Holy site was partially demolished and buried in a day, it is believed by King Hezekiah, who sought to reform the polytheistic practices of the Hebrews, who worshipped Yahweh along other deities, and consolidate Hebrew worship (and all offerings and control) to the main temple in Jerusalem (Solomon’s temple).
Hezekiah’s reforms were particularly focussed on one particular Goddess popular with the Hebrews, Asherah, and this Goddess, had for some centuries prior to the time of Hezekiah’s reforms, was coupled with Yahweh (The Biblical ‘Jehovah’) as his wife! This has caused some scholars to refer to Asherah as The Hebrew Goddess. Moreover, this is the ‘Queen of Heaven’, that Jeremiah is so riled up about the people burning incense to in Jeremiah 44, and the reason for the rejection of kaneh, in Jeremiah 6:20!
2 Kings 18:4 records how Hezekiah, “destroyed the high places. He broke the memorial stones and cut down the Asherah poles [symbols of the Goddess]. He broke into pieces the bronze snake that Moses made, for until then the Israelites were burning incense to it.” The Brazen Serpent, that he destroyed, alongside symbols of the Goddess Asherah, were in the main temple in Jerusalem, that had been built by Solomon. One of Asherah’s epithets was ‘Lady of the Serpent’.
The basis of the claim, that Asherah was coupled with Yahweh as his wife, is not present in the Bible, which was composed long after the times time of Hezekiah’s reforms, including it is believed, the vast majority of the Hebrew texts the Old Testament is based on. Rather the claim of this pairing is based on a number of surviving inscriptions and depictions that refer’ Yahweh and Asherah’. The Bible was composed by monotheists, after this point, who directed the texts of the Hebrew Bible, to portray a monotheistic past, and in order to do this, Yahweh’s former wife, was demonized as idolatry.
In this regard it should be noted that in the Bible, Solomon, who was said to have built the main temple in Jerusalem, is condemned for worshipping the Goddess and Burning incense on the High Places, such as tel Arad, which is built upon a hill.
Solomon, also ‘burned incense’ to the Goddess “Solomon loved the LORD and followed all the decrees of his father, David, except that Solomon, too, offered sacrifices and burned incense in high places” (1 Kings 3:3). According to the Bible, Solomon worshiped Asherah under one of her other regional names. “For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians…” (1 Kings 11:4-5). “Ashtoreth, Asherah, Astarte, and Ishtar are all manifestations of the same goddess who was worshiped in different regions, where people were divided by language and geography. Ashtoreth (a Hebrew name) was the supreme female deity of the Phoenicians, associated with Baal, the supreme god” (Brooklyn Museum). In reference to Solomon’s worship of the Goddess, Dr. Harry Thomas Frank noted in An Archaeological Companion to the Bible that “Asherah” who is “seemingly interchangeable with Ashtaroth in the Hebrew Scriptures, is by far the most widely known fertility goddess in the Old Testament” (Frank, 1972).
Now this is particularly interesting in regards to another of Benet’s chosen references to kaneh, the Song of Songs 4:10-14, and in the wider passage, we see ‘frankincense’ as well. Interestingly, Solomon’s Songs, one of the most poetic entries of the Bible, has been seen to be the Hebrew version of the Hieros Gamos, or Sacred Marriage. This is a ritual based on the heavenly marriage between the God and Goddess, and in the Hebrew case this would have been Asherah and Yahweh. This would have been active at the time of Solomon and the building of both the main temple in Jerusalem as well as the smaller version of it at tel Arad. (See Marvin H. Pope’s monumental Song of Songs (1977) for an in depth analysis of the Songs as being part of the Near East Hieros Gamos traditions.)
As well, Jeremiah is not the only indication of kaneh as an incense, or its clear coupling with frankincense. In Isaiah 43:23-24
“I have not burdened you with offerings, or wearied you with frankincense. You have not bought me sweet kaneh with money, or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins; you have wearied me with your iniquities.” (Isaiah 43:23-24)
As Benet noted, “In Isaiah… ‘kaneh‘ is translated as ‘sweet cane’ although the word ‘sweet’ appears nowhere in the original”. Here we can see that at this point in the kingdom period, kaneh is a desired sacrifice of Yahweh’s. In my book Cannabis: Lost Sacrament on the Ancient World (2023) I argue that the reference to ‘sins’ and ‘iniquities’ In Isaiah 43 ties it to another verse in isaiah, where a smoke filled encounter sees Yahweh’s desire for fragrant incense appeased and the burden of sins and iniquities were removed. The phrase “the house was filled with smoke” comes from this passage, and the ‘House’ is the ‘House’ of Yahweh, ie the Main temple in Jerusalem. The ‘smoke’ is often interpreted as a symbol of God’s glory and presence, according to some interpretations of the passage
“…the temple was filled with smoke…. Then one of the seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a glowing coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And with it he touched my mouth and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your iniquity is removed and your sin is atoned for.” (Isaiah 6:4-7)
Isaiah taking a hit from a coal off the altar, by Matthaeus Merian I, 1630
“The House was filled with smoke”
These two accounts in Isaiah, 43:23-24 and 6:4-7, are clearly connected. In Isaiah 43:24 God complains that he was not brought any cannabis (kaneh) “but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities”. However, after Isaiah’s lips touch the tongs and a coal of incense from the altar In Isaiah 6, these are both cleansed: “this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged” (Isaiah 6:7). A redemptive act, comparable to the consumption of the later Eucharist, in the way it relieves one of the burdens of sin and iniquity, and also which clearly connects the two verses. In one verse are lifted through the use of incense, in the other God complains of being burdened by Sins and Iniquities without an offering of kaneh. This connection follows through into the original Hebrew as well. Isaiah 6:7 and 43:24 “sin” חַטָּ֑את chatta’ah Strong #2403 ; Isaiah 6:7 “Iniquity” עֲוֺנֶ֔ךָ ‘ă·wō·ne·ḵā , Isaiah 43:24 plural “iniquities” בַּעֲוֺנֹתֶֽיךָ׃ ba·‘ă·wō·nō·ṯe·ḵā Strong #5771 in both cases.
We see both kaneh (cannabis) and frankincense together in Isaiah, both of which were recovered from the altars at tel Arad and there is a clear connection here. Both kaneh and frankincense will be found together again in the Jeremiah 6:20 reference, and as noted this was the case with the Song of Songs 4:14. In relation to tel Arad, it should be noted that the inner temple or Holy of Holies, where the cannabis and frankincense were burned, was about the size of a broom closet, making it ideal for hotboxing and this same is indicated in Isaiah, with the “house filled with smoke”! This also indicates the sacred use of cannabis incense by the Hebrews, prior to the reforms of Hezekiah and later his grandson Josiah, who made equal efforts to rid the land of any evidence of Yahweh’s former wife, Asherah, other deities and various aspects of what now became ‘idolatrous’ practices, such as burning cannabis, in the new form of the religion, monotheism.
Also connecting it with tel Arad, is Jeremiah referred to the kaneh coming from “a distant land”, and an item of foreign import is indicated in the final reference noted by Sula Benet, in regards to kaneh, “…and casks of wine from Uzal they exchanged for your wares; wrought iron, cassia, and kaneh were bartered for your merchandise.” (Ezekiel 27:19). In relation, the archaeologists behind the study that revealed the cannabis resins burned at tel Arad, concluded that the cannabis was not grown in the region, but was rather imported.
Now, there is a lot to unpack here, and in this regard, and this is but a short condensed description of some of the information at play in all of this, I would direct people seeking a deeper understanding of this material, to listed to the presentation by myself and Ed Dodge, author of A History of the Goddess: From the Ice Age to the Bible, put together for History Valley, Kaneh Bosm and Tel Arad’s use and Rejection of Cannabis, or for an even more analysis my latest book Cannabis: Lost Sacrament of the Ancient World. Thus, it is with good reason, that tel Arad, has been seen as validation of Sula Benet’s etymological theory on kaneh and kaneh bosm despite Apelbaum’s zealous efforts to discredit this claim.
Apelbaum’s bizarre claims about my work
Apelbaum erroneously states that I have claimed:
…[T]he New Testament references the use of cannabis are based on the argument that the Greek word for oil (ἔλαιον elaion) is cannabis… No Greek lexicon mentions cannabis as an interpretative option for the word oil or olive oil. But, even if the Greek translation for olive oil were cannabis (which would be unlikely as these are two different plant species), the claim would still be baseless linguistically and substantively. That’s because the etymology of the word oil, used by the apostles, would’ve come from Hebrew or Aramaic. Neither of these two languages translates the word “oil” (Hebrew = שֶׁ֚מֶן shémen and Aramaic = מְשַׁח mashákh) as cannabis. (Apelbaum, 2024)
What is odd here, is that I have never stated anything close to this about the meaning of the word Oil in Greek or Hebrew. Apelbaum is either misunderstanding what I have written about, or giving a purposeful misrepresentation of what I have stated on the subject, or has not read what I actually wrote about it. from what I can see, after googling around, is that Apelbaum is not referring to my own work, but another authors attempt to discredit me, who is equally confused, J. Alan Branch, who serves as professor of Christian ethics at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Branch’s article posted Christian sites such as The Pathway and For the Church, titled “Cannabis is in the Bible?”: Debunking an Interpretative Myth. Although written two years after the tel Arad find, Branch’s sloppy research seems to have missed the archaeological research validating the Hebrew use of cannabis, completely! As I noted of Branch’s work in Cannabis: Lost Sacrament of the Ancient World:
Dr. J. Alan Branch…recently wrote an article rejecting Sula Benet’s hypothesis, and made a rather novel generalization about the term kaneh bosm. “Benet’s bizarre assertion is not substantiated by the definitive Hebrew lexicon, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, which says the term qanēh-bōśem [kaneh bosm] is referring to a type of balsam oil. Balsam simply refers to aromatic resins derived from certain plants, and not cannabis” (Branch, 2022) As the recipe given in Exodus 30:23 is elsewhere quite specific on both measurements and ingredients, and includes already a distinct variety of aromatic plants to be prepared in Olive oil, this suggestion seems particularly doubtful, and is not found among the numerous Hebrew sourcesI have cited in my work. Although writing his article, in 2022, Professor Branch seems to be sadly unaware of the discovery of cannabis resins on an altar in tel Arad, two years prior.
In regards to my own work, Branch writes:
Bad ideas used to support popular causes rarely go away quietly. Benet’s careless word study was taken even further by Canadian cannabis advocate Chris Bennett who insists the same cannabis-based ingredients Benet says were in the incense of the temple were used by Jesus’ apostles. When Mark 6:13 says Jesus’ twelve apostles “were anointing with oil many sick people and healing them,” Bennett insists the apostles used a cannabis-based oil to heal people.[3] Bennett then claims the early church followed this model and used cannabis-based products to anoint the sick (James 5:14).
Bennett’s claims are complete and utter nonsense and demonstrate a fundamental lack of understanding of anything closely related to the historical background of the New Testament. His argument is ever so weakly based on Benet’s academic madness. The Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, the definitive lexicon of New Testament Greek, simply defines the word for oil in Mark 6:13 as “olive oil.” The oil used in Mark 6:13 and James 5:14 was certainly olive oil, and serves as a symbol of the presence, grace, and power of God. No lexicon mentions cannabis as an interpretative option for the Greek word for oil. Bennett’s assertions have absolutely no traction with Greek scholars. (Branch, 2022)
No where have I suggested that the Greek or Hebrew word for ‘oil’ means cannabis, and I am not sure how either Branch or Apelbaum came to this conclusion, as it is not something I have seen anywhere else. What I have suggested is that the Hebrew term ‘kaneh bosm‘ as an ingredient in the Holy Oil (Exodus 30:23) as first noted by Sula Benet in 1936, was used to anoint the Messiah (anointed one) and following Benet, that the Hebrew terms kaneh and kaneh bosm, identify ‘cannabis’ . My hypothesis is this cannabis infused Holy Oil followed into the Christian period, with ‘Christ’ being the Greek translation of the Hebrew term ‘messiah’, and that a holy oil was used for both healing and enlightenment, based on New Testament and Gnostic references, as first detailed in my 1998 article Cannabis and the Christ: Jesus used Marijuana. Notably there was a point of conflict in the early Christian period, between Christian groups now identified by the generic term ‘gnostics’ and what became the Roman Catholic Church, over water baptism vs anointing with oil.
Although anointing with oil is a little practiced rite of modern Christianity, at one time it was paramount to becoming a Christian. For the most part, baptism has replaced anointing in modern Christianity and this dates back to the rise of the Catholic Church. It is worth noting in this context, that Jesus baptized none of his disciples in the New Testament account, but instead, in the oldest of the synoptic gospels, Mark, Jesus sent out the Apostles with this Holy Oil, “And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them” (Mark 6:13). Casting out “many demons” could mean things like treating epilepsy, which was thought to have been demonic possession. There are Assyrian references that are believed to indicate the use of cannabis to treat ‘hand of ghost’ which was believed to be epilepsy. As well, the alchemist Paracelsus (died 1541) left us a recipe for a topical preparation of cannabis to treat epilepsy. Even today, parents who see their children’s epilepsy treated successfully with cannabis, see it as a miracle.
Jesus used a poultice to cure a man’s blindness (Mark 8:22–26) so the idea that more than a mere laying of hands is used in other so-called ‘miracles’ is not without question. Many of the ailments cured in the Gospel, are ailments that have been historically treated by cannabis, skin diseases, crooked limbs, menstrual problems etc.
We get a better idea when we look at early Christian texts that were left out of, and even suppressed from the official canon of the New Testament, as the Roman Catholic Church emerged as one of the sole bastions of Christianity. The later 4th century Christian text The Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles is written to demonstrate Jesus’ own view of the importance of this rite in healing, when he gives the disciples an “unguent box” and a “pouch full of medicine” with instructions to go into the City of Habitation, and heal the sick. He tells them you must heal “the bodies first” before you can “heal the heart”. The 3rd century The Acts of Thomas, gives us a prayer to go with the holy oil’s application:
“…[T]he holy Apostle… the oil, and cast (it) on her head, and said: “Holy oil, which wast given to us for unction, and hidden mystery of the Cross, which is seen through it—Thou, the straightener of crooked limbs, Thou, our Lord Jesus, life and health and remission of sins,—let Thy power come and abide upon this oil, and let Thy holiness dwell in it. And he cast (it) upon the head of Mygdonia, and said: ‘Heal her of her old wounds, and wash away from her, her sores, and strengthen her weakness.’ And when he had cast the oil on her head, he told her nurse to anoint her…”
The idea that Jesus may have used a healing cannabis ointment, has garnered international media attention, in reputable news sources like the BBC, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Vice, and other media. Check out my article Did Jesus Heal With Cannabis? For more on that theme.
The Oil of the Spirit
As well, the New Testament gives us some indications that this same Holy oil, may have been used for entheogenic purposes. “. . . you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. . . . the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit – just as it has taught you, remain in him.” (1 John 2: 27). So just the application of this oil, gave some sort of experience, ‘a teaching’.
Through this open distribution the singular Christ, “the Anointed”, was extended to become the plural term “Christians”, that is, those who had been smeared or anointed with the holy oil. This was an important point in Christianity of the first few centuries. After water baptism, “We are thoroughly anointed with a blessed unction, (a practice derived), from the old discipline, wherein on entering the priesthood, then were wont to be anointed with oil from a horn, ever since Aaron was anointed by Moses. Whence Aaron is called ‘Christ’” Tertullian of Carthage ‘On Baptism’ (160 – 225 AD). As Theophilus of Antioch (181AD) proclaimed “Are you unwilling to be anointed with the Oil of God? Wherefore we are called Christians on this account, because we are anointed with the oil of God.” “[T]he oil as a sign of the gift of the Spirit was quite natural within a Semitic framework, and therefore the ceremony is probably very early…. In time the biblical meaning became obscured”(Chadwick 1967).
These groups were in deep conflict with what would become the Roman Catholic Church, and baptism vs anointing was a point of specific contention. In an attempt to save their manuscripts from the editorial flames of the Roman Catholic Church, certain Christians, now considered Gnostic heretics, hid copies of their scrolls in caves. One of these ancient hiding places was rediscovered in upper Egypt in1945 and the large collection of early Christian documents was named the Nag Hammadi Library, after the Egyptian area where they were found. Prior to this discovery, what little was known of the Gnostics came from a few fragmentary texts that had made it down through the centuries in private hands, and the many polemics written against them by the fathers of the Catholic Church.There is no reason to consider these ancient Gnostic documents as less accurate portrayals of the life and teachings of Jesus than the New Testament accounts, unless it is might over right.
Gnostic Christian ‘Anointing’
Gnostic descriptions of the effects of the anointing rite make it very clear that the holy oil had intense psychoactive properties, which prepared the recipient for entrance into “unfading bliss”. In some Gnostic texts like the Pistis Sophia and The Books of Jeu, the “spiritual ointment” is a prerequisite for entry into the highest mystery. (Both the Book of Jeu, and the claim that Jesus healed with a cannabis infused Holy Oil were the subject of a recent Spanish language edition of The History Channel, and a documentary about the secret history of Jesus.)
In the first few centuries AD, Christian Gnostic groups such as the Archontics, Valentians and Sethians rejected water baptism as superfluous, referring to it as an “incomplete baptism”. In the Gnostic tractate, “the Testimony of Truth, water Baptism is rejected with a reference to the fact that Jesus baptized none of his disciples (Rudolph 1987). On the other hand, being “anointed with unutterable anointings” the so-called “sealings” recorded in Gnostic texts, can be seen as a far more literal event, than the many metaphorical baptisms that are referred to. “There is water in water, there is fire in chrism.” (Gospel of Philip). “The anointing with oil was the introduction of the candidate into unfading bliss, thus becoming a Christ”(Mead 1900). The surviving Gnostic descriptions of the effects of the anointing rite make it very clear that the holy oil had intense psycho-active properties that prepared the recipient for entrance into “unfading bliss”.
In the Gospel of Philip it is written that the initiates of the empty rite of Baptism:
“go down into the water and come up without having received anything. . . The anointing (chrisma) is superior to baptism. For from the anointing we were called ‘anointed ones’ (Christians), not because of the baptism. And Christ also was [so]named because of the anointing, for the Father anointed the son, and the son anointed the apostles, and the apostles anointed us. [Therefore] he who has been anointed has the All. He has the resurrection, the light. . . the Holy Spirit. . . [If] one receives this unction, this person is no longer a Christian but a Christ.”
Similarly, the Gospel of Truth records that Jesus specifically came into their midst so that he “…might anoint them with the ointment. The ointment is the mercy of the Father. . . those whom he has anointed are the ones who have become perfect.”
Apelbaum seems to be either willfully ignorant or unaware of what the actual claims are about kaneh bosm, the term ‘Christ’, the archaeological evidence for cannabis at tel Arad, and how all are intricately related, or lacks the comprehension of what has actually been written on the subject, or possibly only gave the subject a cursory reading, and missed most of it. However, what is weird about that is Branch’s article is not cited by Apelbaum, yet he links to articles by myself and others, as well as youtube presentations that thoroughly go over the material discussed, as his sources:
References The Adverse Effects of Marijuana References to marijuana in the Holy Bible, True or false? Was Jesus a Stoner? Cannabis Culture- Chris Benet Did Jesus Heal With Cannabis? How Moses and the Israelites Used Cannabis Cannabis use in Salomon’s Temple Kaneh Bosm and Tel Arad’s Use and Rejection of Cannabis | Ed Dodge and Chris Bennett 1st high: Ancient Israelites at Biblical shrine used cannabis to spark ‘ecstasy Cannabis and the Christian: What the Bible Says about Marijuana Is Cannabis Against Your Religion?
Having read through various news stories about Apelbaum, and noting that some reporters have been questioned his motivations in them, as I’ll return to shortly, a part of me wonders if Apelbaum’s motivation here was in fact to draw attention to this material, in a covert act of publishing an article that is seemingly critical of it?
Failing at a serious critique, Apelbaum turns to an assault on the characters of myself, Sula Benet, and the anthropologist Vera Rubin, (editor of Cannabis and Culture (1975) an anthology that featured one of Sula Benet’s articles on kaneh.)
Apelbaum’s attempts at character assassination
His short bio of my background, is a curious mix of fact and fiction.
Chris Bennett is a 61-year-old cannabis merchant/propagandist from British Columbia. He started his illustrious career as a historian and a biblical scholar in the 1990s while working as a night shift security guard at a fish-packing plant. When not chasing/catching fish burglars, he spent most of his free daytime hours surfing up and down the coast of British Columbia and smoking pot. Most of what he learned about the “diverse uses for cannabis and hemp came from a documentary film shown to him by a friend.”
A number of drug-induced hallucinations sparked his interest in the Book of Revelation, and he began reading the Bible (unclear which one). It wasn’t until he had another drug-induced “religious epiphany that he realized the divine nature of the cannabis plant and its seemingly endless benefits to mankind.” Since that transformative moment, he has been a tireless crusader for cannabis legalization for purely altruistic reasons.
Smoking pot has changed his life, and he “quickly became a strong part of the first wave of marijuana and hemp activism emerging from British Columbia, helping to spread the message even before the arrival of the drug dealer and a convicted felon Prince of Pot Marc Emery to the province. He began avidly researching the historical relationship between humankind and the cannabis plant, which dates further back than any existing religion. He found that many dominant religions, including Christianity, have utilized cannabis as a way to communion with their respective gods or godheads.”
Over the years, Chris made hand-drawn posters and T-shirts, produced edible hemp products (and ate most of them), and began speaking to the media about the benefits of hemp and “the cruelty of marijuana prohibition.” In 2000, he was hired by Emery to manage a new video-streaming Internet network called Pot-TV, where he produced episodes of his show Burning Shiva.
Apelbaum refers to a film that seemingly taught me everything I know about cannabis. Well there was a tv show, that did get me started, but it by no means taught me everything. However, it did introduce me to the many industrial uses of the hemp plant, and this was one of the pivotal points which directed me to my life’s work. This was an episode of ‘The 90s’, released in 1990, about cannabis and hemp and which you can check out here.
As for my religious experience, again, not quite like he tells it, and although it does little to add to my credibility, it was in fact the light switch moment, where I began on the path I am still on 35 years later. I retell the story of my ‘revelation’ here, in this 2003 video. (I should note that for some time I have not seen The Book of Revelation as a form of ‘prophecy’. Revelation, in my view, was written in the 1st Century CE, and describes the situation with the Jews, early Christians and the Roman Empire. However, the collective belief in Revelation has kept it alive, and in my view, projected it back out into reality, through movements like Christian Zionism). Besides that, his description of me is fair enough, and he even refers to me as “altruistic”.
Unable to dig up much dirt on me, he refers to a number of convictions of my former employer Marc Emery, who I worked for from 2000-2005, for things like cannabis and challenging censorship laws. Apelbaum refers to Emery as my ‘Patron Saint’, and places my guilt by association. The cases Apelbaum refers to, came from noble intentions, although, due to differing moral and political views, I have not talked to Marc in close to a decade. I stand by his activist efforts from that time though.
Apelbaum portrays Sula Benet and Vera Rubin as potential Russian Spies
Besides a misrepresentation of my work in his critique, Apelbaum tries to disparage Anthropologists Sula Benet, and Vera Rubin. “Assessing Benet’s social/professional linkages, funding sources, and areas of academic research suggests that she may have been a Russian agent” (Apelbaum, 2024). Of Rubin, he claimed “Vera Rubin concluded after a comprehensive survey of chronic marijuana use that marijuana had no adverse effects on the users. Linkage analysis of the RISM researchers who promoted cannabis shows that they came from Columbia University, had both family and professional ties to Russia, and published and promoted pseudo-scientific materials that included known Russian Active Measures (like legalizing drugs is in the West, telepathy, and telekinesis)” (Apelbaum, 2024). Sounds to me like McCarthyism.
These loose accusations of being spies, are particularly ironic from Apelbaum, for as we have seen, he is currently in litigation over the issue of being called an Israeli or CIA spy in an article by a well known journalist.
Conclusions on Apelbaum
Now, this is not the first time someone has written a critical article on me, but it is the first time that someone who has been connected to International intrigue, being accused of as being a Israeli Spy, and whose articles are shared by Trump, has taken such a keen interest in me. After that deep dive, however, I don’t have and conclusions, only more questions….. I have no idea, what is motivating Apelbaum, or his agenda, in general, let alone why this interest in me. I do have some working hypothesis though.
Is Apelbaum MAGA?
His material certainly seems to be shared by MAGA influencers, Matt Gaetz, and Laura Loomer come to mind, as well shared by the Qanon crowd. But I wonder, and I say this with caution, are they being played? You look at the facial recognition story Gaetz picked up from Apelbaum, that Gaetz claimed exposed Antifa infiltrators at the January 6th protest, on that story, Gaetz was made a fool of, when Apelbaum said the facial recognition technology, had instead identified known neo-Nazis and Proud Boys. When he was hired by MAGA figures to find evidence of a Voting Machine Breach, he found nothing, the perpetrators who hired him were instead exposed, and taken to court for stiffing Apelbaum on his bill. This then led to the claims there was an inside coup involving Michael Flynn, to wrestle the MAGA movement away from Trump. These claims did little to shake the relationship between Trump and Flynn)
“I think some of these judges think that they are beyond and above the law, and they are not. And we’re sending a very strong message today… we don’t care who you are. … We will come after you and we will prosecute you. We will find you.”
Tucker Carlson, a Balaam cursing for gold, White trash shyster who’s bought and sold. He saw the MAGA rallies, felt the pull— Now drapes in God’s armor, a wolf in wool.
He speaks of God, of a demon fight, Casting shadows left and right. Paid anti semite is his new game, Jew hatred—he now fans the flame.
With every speech, he spreads disease, A bubonic Muslim rat, eager to please. A Qatari slut, a washed-up whore, Bra stuffed with cash, begging for more.
Apelbaum, posted this in a comment on his poem/song about Tucker Carlson, indicating he sees criticism of Israel as a grift, not out of humanitarian concerns over Israel’s ethnic cleansing, land theft from and genocide of the Palestinians.
Within the IsraeliAdministration, archaeology comes under the auspices of the Staff Officer for Archaeology (SOA). In the article ‘Appropriating the Past: Israel’s Archaeological Practices in the West Bank‘ we read:
The SOA is authorized to decide where to undertake archaeological excavations, what to excavate, how to manage the excavation, what will be published about it, what will happen to the site after the excavations have been completed, how to present the site to the public, which artifacts will be foregrounded, which audiences the site will serve, and how to shape the visitors’ experience.
This authority gives Israel the power to shape the historical narrative, which it presents through archaeological discoveries. The archaeological activity is intended to prove and to strengthen the historical, religious and cultural affinity of the Jewish people and the State of Israel to the West Bank in an attempt to appropriate history and efface the heritage and historical narratives of other peoples and cultures.
In addition, Israel continues to use its position as the administrator of archaeological sites in the West Bank as a means to deepen its control over West Bank land, to expand the settlement enterprise, and extend the policy of dispossession of Palestinians from their lands and cultural assets. Although the takeover of land through archaeology is not the main method of achieving Israeli control over land, it is significant because of its symbolic aspects and impact on public awareness.
But the idea that the State of Israel would feel threatened from an obscure researcher like me, seems to be a little grandiose when I write it out now.
Is Apelbaum religious?
Another possibility is that Apelbaum’s concerns about Biblical claims for cannabis use, come purely out of religious concerns. Perhaps the idea of Moses and other Biblical prophets, hot boxing the Tent of the Meeting, or the inner chamber of the Holy of Holies, and the implications that proposes, is just to distasteful for Yaacov. Many of the articles and poems he has posted there, certainly indicate he has some very deep religious beliefs.
Apelbaum’s concerns here would not be unfounded, as I have firmly stated many times, when understood, the evidence of the ritual use of entheogens at the formation period of religion, could be seen as, as much of a threat to orthodox beliefs, as Darwin’s theory of Evolution was to theMyths of Adam and Eve in the Book of Genesis, in that what is revealed is the plant based shamanic origins, of religion itself. Which would be a real Revelation.
Such deep religious belief, even has a hold of the academic study of the archaeological findings, and in this respect, I point to one of Israel’s most respected botanists, Prof. Zohar Amar‘s similar rejection of tel Arad as a Hebrew religious site, and any connection with kaneh bosm, which I have addressed in my article Prof Zohar Amar is demonstrably wrong about tel Arad, ‘kaneh bosm’ and the ancient use of cannabis.
In this regard, it should be noted that archaeologist Eran Arie, of the University of Haifa, School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures and lead researcher on the paper Cannabis and Frankincense at the Judahite Shrine of Arad, has referred to my book Cannabis: Lost Sacrament of the Ancient World, in a lecture in Israel, as well as the claims of Prof. Amar, and has stated that he sees my work as closer to the mark, than Zohar’s.
Undoubtedly, orthodox believes could be both threatened and angered by the implications of such research. Apelbaum may be in this category.
Is Yaacov Apelbaum just some hack?