Benny Shanon, the Israeli academic who suggested that Moses may well have been in a state recognisable to Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty when he was receiving the 10 Commandments on Sinai, now claims that he was misquoted by the newspapers.

He writes in The Guardian that he never used the words “drug” or “trip or “high” or “stoned”, but rather claimed that Moses might have consumed a psychoactive plant which could have affected the experience for him, much as the Amazonian drug ayahuasca did to Shanon while in South America.

He adds: “The plants are just instruments which induce higher sensitivity, greater insight, spiritual sentiments and creativity.”

Far out, man.