wutang_forever said:
I'll charitably interpret this as a request for elaboration, and I suspect you didn't read my link.
First question, a botanical one, did the
Acacia spp. present in ancient Palestine even contain appreciable amounts of DMT? I think that's more from the Australian ones, but I'm open to correction ... but anyway, yeah, Ismene is right. The only thing in the Bible (and I know my Bible) that really sounds
trippy in the subjective sense of this prolific drug user is Ezekiel's wheel (at 1:16 et seq.), and that, together with the visionary experiences in the Apocalypse and elsewhere, seem more like transcendent, revelatory, endogenous experiences than drug effects. And if you're from a historical-critical model doesn't the Burning Bush etc. make more mythological sense than the sense of being a trip report, and don't the apocalyptic books (Daniel, Apoc., etc.) seem more allegorical than anything else? Clearly with parallels to the world around the writers. Hardly something that needs serious drugs to wrest out of one's consciousness if we're seeing it merely as a literal product. If we see it as a product of divine inspiration, well, that's another question, but inasmuch as we are talking about drugs-
qua drugs, and the Bible is rather explicit on this, there is only real lead, despite stoner conjecture about "every green leaft ..." and wild botanical speculations about
Acaciaand
Peganum spp. (the latter's significance in terms of constructing drug brews in ancient Palestine is questionable and the latter, while available, is a stretch to assume it was incorporated to some kind of concoction). That lead is the NT
dis legomena φαρμακεία, from whence the Lt.
pharmakos and our "pharmacology," etc which in most Eng. Bible translations is usually rendered as "witchcraft" or "sorcery." looking at the Classical Gk. sources a better definition would be
divination by means of potions which sounds rather like ayahuasca. And all the references to φαρμακεία (cf. Gal. 5:20, Apoc. 18:23) are uniformly
negative, and in reference to various Greco-Roman pagan rites.
Now, the idea that Moses was tripping on ayahuasca reminds me of a certain trend in late 19th century Biblical criticism that tried to simultaneously de-supernaturalize and affirm the literal truth of Biblical narratives, i.e., the parting of the Red Sea was due some freakish weather patterns. C.f. my link above to
Parallelomania and just generally, this is some discredited stuff. This is all over the
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, which is published around 1915, final ed. 1934, and is an excellent example of this trend while simultaneously being a great example of the finest 19th century Christian scholarly tradition of seeing both the forest and the trees, almost up there with Schaff's
History of the Christian Church -- possibly my favorite book) ... basically this trend was reaction of conservatives to the better arguments of the Higher Criticism while still maintaining the literal truth of the Scriptures that were passed down. Seeing as this is not a very popular hermeneutic today we can make judgement as to it's efficacy in integrating the two perspectives. Once cultural attitudes towards religious orthodoxy changed, it was simply laughed out of town, and people divided into unbelievers, liberals (who think basically that Christ had a message that we ought to be nice to one another and promote social justice), conservatives (who seek to maintain the
status quo ante ... this is where I fall) and reactionary fundamentalists (protestant) and radtrads/sedevacantist types (Catholics) (who are, more often than not, a bunch of florid lunatics although they have a number of quite respectable intellectual talents among their number.)
I am a believing Catholic and if that discredits my opinion, IMO that's on you, but I'm not speaking from a sense of my Scriptual hermenuetic, but just the fact that it is plain and simply eisegetical to read modern New Age/ancient South American uses of drugs into ancient Palestinian scriptures. It's a fun fantasy for the rather expansive and fluffy New Age drug enthusiast but from a historical and scriptural hermeneutic perspective it's patent nonsense.
too funny.
