Biblical Hebrew Forum

[<tladatsi AT charter.net>]

Hello Peter & al.

I don't think it is clear that the Hebrew word QNH or more specifically 
QNH-BSM refer to Cannabis (either Indica or Sativa).  In particular, QNH-BSM 
refers to a resinous and armotic reed.  Cannabis is of course not a reed but 
it could be mistaken for one and of course the authors of the Bible were 
systematic toxonomists so the word QNH might refer to a broad range of 
plants.  However, the resin of Cannabis is not particularlly aromatic and 
there is no record of Cannabis ever being used for the production of aromatic 
oils.  Cannabis seed oils have been produced but the treatment of wood, like 
linseed oil.

Even if QNH did refer to Cannabis, why would the Greeks need to borrow a word 
from a foreign language for a plant they were well acquainted with?   When 
Herodotus (450 BCE) and Dioskarides (70 CE) refer to Kannabis, Hebrew was 
already a dying language.  There would not seem to be any reason for a loan.

At the very best, assuming QNH-BSM did refer to Cannabis, it would only be a 
faux ami.



--
Jack Tladatsi

---- Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org> wrote: 
> On 20/05/2006 18:14, tladatsi AT charter.net wrote:
> > ... In any event I cannot think of any non-religeous Hebrew loan words to 
> > Greek, certainly not before the CE.  ...
> >   
> 
> How about Greek KANNA and KANWN (W = omega; cf English "cane" and 
> "canon") from Hebrew QANEH, or at least from its Semitic cognates? This 
> is of course semantically and lexically very close to the hypothesised 
> KANNABIS loan. In fact KANNABIS, if not Scythian or Thracian, could well 
> be a Greek compound of KANNA and something else, although probably the 
> latter element is not Hebrew BSM.
> 
> Also of course we have most of the names of the Greek letters of the 
> alphabet, which are clearly loans from NW Semitic. It is of course 
> almost impossible to distinguish loans from Hebrew from loans from its 
> closely related languages, unless this is clear from a religious context.
> 
> -- 
> Peter Kirk
> peter AT qaya.org (personal)
> peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
> http://www.qaya.org/