What-does-Pharmakeia-mean-in-Greek-in-Context-of-the-BibleWhat is Pharmakeia?

In our bible, many have made a big deal out of this one word and have totally missed the meaning being put forward.

It is the word sorceries or witchcraft, Strong’s G5331, and in Greek is pronounced as pharmakeia. Here are two verses it is found in.

Galatians 5:20 MKJV
idolatry, sorcery G5331, hatreds, fightings, jealousies, angers, rivalries, divisions, heresies,

Galatians 5:20 KJV+
Idolatry, witchcraft G5331 hatred, variance, emulations ,wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

Revelation 18:23 MKJV
And the light of a lamp will never more shine at all in you. And the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride will never more be heard at all in you. For your merchants were the great ones of the earth; for by your sorceries G5331 all nations were deceived.

From this, many assume that all medicine/drugs/remedies made in a pharmacy is witchcraft, or sorcery, and to be avoided. This became a big hullabaloo over the vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

So, just reread the verse and insert the current misunderstood word. Instead of saying “for by your sorceries were all you nations deceived” say, “For by your chemists or pharmacies or modern medicines, were all the nations deceived.” This is ludicrous. That is not what Yehovah is conveying to us. Notice what Thayer has to say about this word and take note of #4.

G5331   (Thayer) φαρμακεία pharmakeia  Thayer Definition:

    1. the use or the administering of drugs
    2. poisoning
    3. sorcery, magical arts, often found in connection with idolatry and fostered by it
    4. metaphorically the deceptions and seductions of idolatry

It is the mixing of religious ideologies. The worship of false gods and pagan worship is the mixing of it with the worship of Yehovah and thinking it is all good. Covering all the bases as it were. Or it is believing all roads lead to Yehovah. This is utterly false, and it is an abomination.

Let’s look at this word in the Old Testament.

1 Samual 15

In 1 Samuel, Saul did not obey the commands of Yehovah and read how Samuel rebuked him.

1 Samuel 15:19-23 MKJV
(19) Why then did you not obey the voice of Jehovah? Why did you fly on the spoil and do evil in the sight of Jehovah?
(20) And Saul said to Samuel, Yes, I have obeyed the voice of Jehovah, and have gone the way which Jehovah sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have completely destroyed the Amalekites.
(21) But the people took from the spoil, of the flocks and herd, the best of the things devoted to sacrifice to Jehovah your God in Gilgal.
(22) And Samuel said, Does Jehovah delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of Jehovah? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice! To listen is better than the fat of rams!
(23) For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idol-worship. Because you have rejected the Word of Jehovah, He has also rejected you from being king!

Like Saul, many today also say, “Yes, we have obeyed the voice of Yehovah, and follow His Commandments.”

Samuel says to him that his rebellion at not obeying is like the sin of witchcraft, and he associated this sin with idol worship. Idol Worship? Saul did not obey Yehovah’s commands, and that is likened to idol worship!

At first, Saul did as God commanded him: “Saul attacked the Amalekites, from Havilah all the way to Shur, which is east of Egypt” (verse 7). Yet, for some reason—perhaps it was a personal or political aversion to slaying a fellow king—”Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them” (verse 9). For this act of disobedience, God rejected Saul as king over Israel (verses 11, 23, 26), and in the process of time, gave the throne to David.

There is a bit of irony in the fact that, when questioned about sparing Agag and the livestock, Saul frames his disobedience as a way to honour God: “[The people] have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the LORD your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed” (verse 15). The prophet Samuel, justifiably, tells him to shut up.

After some back and forth, in which Saul doubles down on his excuse, Samuel explains why the king’s disobedience was such a great sin in the eyes of God:

1 Samuel 15:22-23 MKJV
And Samuel said, Does Jehovah delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of Jehovah? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice! To listen is better than the fat of rams!  (23)  For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idol-worship. Because you have rejected the Word of Jehovah, He has also rejected you from being king!

Saul had convinced himself that God would accept an extravagant offering of animal flesh, bestowing on Him great honour and glory for their victory over the Amalekites, in place of his simply doing what He said. Put another way, the king had prioritized a pious demonstration of worship (read, appeasing gift) over obedience. Samuel’s inspired response is essentially, “Sorry, Saul, but you got it completely backward!”

As the prophet says above, “To obey is better than sacrifice”. And, also see what we were commanded in:

Mark 12:33 MKJV
And to love Him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love the neighbor as himself, is more than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.

God looks more favourably on a person who takes His Word at face value and single-mindedly follows its direction than on someone who blithely excuses his failures and reframes them as “opportunities” to bring God glory. This latter attitude is perilously close to the apostle Paul’s rhetorical question, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” (Romans 6:1).

The explanation for Samuel’s declaration of God’s priorities appears in:

1 Samuel 15:23 MKJV
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idol-worship. Because you have rejected the Word of Jehovah, He has also rejected you from being king!

Not doing as God says is not merely disobedience, but rebellion: “open opposition toward a person or group in authority,” as the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it. In other words, it is a manifestation of an individual’s active, anti-God nature. Disobedience to God’s commands puts a person on the wrong side of the battle line dividing right from wrong. Such a one may as well have taken up arms against God!

His comparison of rebellion to witchcraft can seem strange at first, since insurrection and sorcery appear to have little in common. However, the comparison is not focused on the kinds of sin they represent but on their magnitude: Rebellion is just as bad as witchcraft.

Disregarding God’s clear commands is just as spiritually dangerous as getting involved in demonism. In fact, rebellion is one of the demons’ great sins. Both rebellion and divination lead a person away from God, and without repentance, open a place for him in the camp of the demons. This is why God rejected Saul as king over His people. He would not have a declared enemy ruling over Israel.

How many of us are the same as Saul? We obey at first but then change the Torah or those things Yehovah commands us to do, to suit our way of thinking.

Judges 17

We have another example of the word, witchcraft, but it does not use the word witchcraft. You must look at the story and understand it. Then, as now, there was no king over Israel, and every man did what was right in his own eyes.

It is the story of Micah in the book of Judges.

Judges 17:3-6 MKJV
And when he had given back the eleven hundred of silver to his mother, his mother said, I had wholly given the silver to Jehovah from my hand for my son to make a graven image and a molten image. And now I am giving it to you.  (4)  And he gave the money back to his mother. And his mother took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to a refiner, who made of it an engraved image and a molten image. And they were in the house of Micah.  (5)  And the man Micah had a house of gods, and made an ephod and household gods, and anointed one of his sons, who became his priest.  (6)  In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his eyes.

This is the story of Micah, who is not the prophet Micah from Morasthite in the book of Micah.

This Micah stole some money from his mum, repented, and returned it to her. In return, his mum consecrated the silver to the Lord to make an idol. This idol was joined by several other ‘worship items,’ and a Levite was hired to be Micah’s priest. Then, Micah’s shrine and priest were stolen by the tribe of Dan. And they became an object of worship for that whole tribe.

This story shows how they merged the worship of Yehovah with pagan practices. It is just reported as a historical event with no indication that this was a problem. The only indication that something was wrong was the phrase, “In those days, there was no king, and everyone did what they thought right.” So, it would appear that Micah and the others in this story did not see anything wrong in their actions.

How guilty are we of doing what Micah did? Mixing, or merging, the worship of Yehovah with idolatry and never even realizing what we are doing? Most of us would probably vehemently deny that we are guilty of such a thing.

But idols take many different forms. Think about that… what do we, what do you, ‘mix or merge’?

Let’s now let’s return to: A Menu of Important Things.