Sula Benet

Sara Benetowa, later known as Sula Benet (1903–1982), was a Polish anthropologist of the 20th century who studied Polish and Judaic customs and traditions.

Born in Poland, Benet was fascinated with peasant culture of Poland since her early youth. This interest eventually led her to enroll as a student of literature and philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities in the University of Warsaw, graduating with a degree in anthropology. Upon receiving her degree in 1935, she attended graduate school at Columbia University, where she received her doctorate in 1944. Also at this time (1936) she first made known at a seminar in Warsaw her theory that "calamus" in the Bible is hemp.

Benet discovered that the Biblical plants or spices "kaneh" (Ez. 27:19; Is. 43:24; Ct. 4:14), "kaneh ha-tob" (Je. 6:20), and "kaneh-bosem" (Ex. 30:23), which are usually translated as "sweet calamus" or "sweet cane", were actually hemp. "Kaneh-bosem" was an ingredient of the holy anointing oil:

30:22 Moreover the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 30:23 Take thou also unto thee principal spices, of pure myrrh five hundred shekels, and of sweet cinnamon half so much, even two hundred and fifty shekels, and of sweet calamus (Hebrew kaneh-bosem) two hundred and fifty shekels, 30:24 And of cassia five hundred shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, and of oil olive an hin: 30:25 And thou shalt make it an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary: it shall be an holy anointing oil.

— Ex. 30:22-25, King James Version

This ingredient is, however, not mentioned amongst those prescribed in Ex. 30:34, from which the incense (ketoret) for the Temple was to be prepared.

According to Julius Wellhausen's documentary hypothesis, Ex. 30:23 belongs to a priestly (P) source, composed sometime between the 8th and the mid-6th century B.C.

Based on similar words in cognate languages (Sanskrit śana, Assyrian qunnabu, Persian kenab, Arabic kanab) Benet concluded that "kaneh" and "kaneh-bosem" refer to hemp. In many ancient languages, including Hebrew, the root "kan" had a double meaning, both hemp and reed. The error originated from the oldest Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, Septuagint, in the third century B.C., where the terms "kaneh" and "kaneh-bosem" had been (mis)translated as "sweet kalamos". In the many Bible translations that followed, including Martin Luther's, the same error was repeated. Benet further claimed that the Scythians, who were described by Herodotus as ritual hemp users in the fifth century B.C., were at least one millennium older than has been previously assumed.

Sulah Benet's claim has found increased support in the academic community among lexicographers and botanists. The standard reference lexicons of Biblical Hebrew, and reference works on Hebrew Bible plants by scholars such as University of Jerusalem botanist Michael Zohary mention Benet's suggestion, while others argue the word refers to an either different species of hemp or a different plant entirely. Celsius (Hierobotanicon) has suggested sweet flag (Acorus calamus), which grows in Egypt, Judaea, and Syria, containing in its stalk a soft white pith with an agreeable aromatic smell, and forming an ingredient of the richest perfumes. Royle identified the "sweet cane" (A.V.) of Scripture (Is. 43:24; Je. 6:20) with the Andropogon calamus, a plant extensively cultivated in India, from which an oil, deemed to be the famous spikenard of antiquity, is extracted. According to Boissier (Flora Orientalis), "kaneh" was the common marsh reed, Arundo donax L. Some biblical scholars and botanists believe that the qaneh is probably sugarcane.

In Hebrew, "kanebas", "kanebiys", "kanebos" (קַנְבָּס, קַנְבִּיס, קַנְבּוֹס), derived from Greek "kannabis", first appear in the Mishnah (Kilayim 2:5; 5:8; 9:1, 5, 7). The Jerusalem Talmud (Kilayim 9:5, 32d) notes that while in mishnaic times hemp was an important commodity because of the difficulty of cultivating linen, in the days of the amoraim linen replaced it.

• Konopie w wierzeniach i zwyczajach ludowych (1936)
• Song, Dance, and Customs of Peasant Poland (1951)
• Festive recipes and festival menus (1957)
• Riddles of many lands Carl Withers, Sula Benet (1956)
• Early Diffusion and Folk Uses of Hemp (1967)
• Abkhasians: the long-living people of the Caucasus (1974)
• How to live to be 100: the life-style of the people of the Caucasus (1976)