StrongerBible

pharmakos

φάρμακος

GreekG5333“sorcery, witchcraft, ...”

Appears 3 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Rev 9:21Rev 21:8Rev 22:15
Word studyResearch-gradeFAR-mah-kosnoun

What pharmakos means

sorcery, and the sorcerer who practices it: forbidden magic worked through drugs, potions, and spells, always bound up with the worship of false gods

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

In everyday Greek this word could swing either way. The related word for a "drug" named a substance that might heal or might kill, and the person who mixed it stood somewhere between a pharmacist and a witch. What settled the meaning for the biblical writers was the Greek Old Testament, which reached for this family of words to translate the Hebrew term for sorcery (כשׁף) and used it for Pharaoh's magicians, the spells of Babylon, and the practices Israel was forbidden to touch. By the time of the New Testament the healing sense had dropped away, and the word carried only the dark meaning: the forbidden magic of a pagan world.

The New Testament uses the family in three closely linked ways, which is why one entry covers them all:

  • the practice, sorcery itself, listed among the works of the flesh and named as the deception that seduces the nations;
  • the person, the sorcerer, placed in the lists of those shut out of God's city alongside idolaters and murderers;
  • the potions themselves, the drugged charms of the magic rites, which people refused to give up even under judgment.

Across every use the offense is the same: reaching for hidden power through drugs, spells, and ritual instead of trusting God, which is why it travels hand in hand with idol worship. The broader word for magic (μαγεία) names the same illicit power in a wider way; this word keeps the flavor of the potion and the drug.

Nuances

1athe practice of magic arts: working spells and potions to bend hidden powers, treated as part of pagan idol worship
Gal 5:20Rev 18:23
1ba sorcerer: a person who works magic with drugs, potions, and spells
Rev 21:8Rev 22:15
Rev 22:15

Whether the sorcerers of Revelation 22:15 (and 21:8) carry an overtone of the ancient Greek pharmakos, the human scapegoat expelled to purify a city, a word almost identical in spelling.

  • majorityThe term simply means "sorcerers." The Greek Old Testament had long fixed this word at "sorcerer" to render the Hebrew term for sorcery, and Revelation's exclusion lists derive from the Jewish-Christian catalogue of vices, not from Greek scapegoat ritual.; David E. Aune, Revelation 17-22 (WBC 52C; Nelson, 1998), 1222; G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (NIGTC; Eerdmans, 1999), 1141-42
  • minorityThe scapegoat figure hovers behind the term: the sorcerers and "dogs" evoke the cult of Hecate and the scapegoat rite that the purified community of the Lamb leaves behind.; Rick Strelan, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice: Sorcerers in Revelation 21:8; 22:15," Australian Biblical Review 51 (2003): 148-57; Mark R. Bredin, "Hate Never Dispelled Hate: No Place for the Pharmakos (Revelation 22:15)," Biblical Theology Bulletin 33 (2003): 105-13
1cthe drugged potions and charms used in the magic rites: the substances of sorcery
Rev 9:21

Disputed

Whether the New Testament use of this word (especially in Galatians 5:20) specifically includes drugs that cause abortion, or means sorcery only in a broad sense.

  • majorityThe word is a generic term for the practice of magic arts, not a technical term for abortifacient drugs; the pairing with idolatry shows sorcery in the broad Jewish-polemical sense is meant.; Richard B. Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament (HarperCollins, 1996), 447; Douglas J. Moo, Galatians (BECNT; Baker, 2013), 358-59; Hans Dieter Betz, Galatians (Hermeneia; Fortress, 1979), 283-84
  • minorityThe term denotes, or prominently includes, the use of drugs with occult properties for abortion and contraception, a range well attested in ancient medical writers and echoed by the earliest Christian moralists.; Ceslas Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament (Hendrickson, 1994), s.v.; Michael J. Gorman, Abortion and the Early Church (Wipf & Stock, 1998)
Variants

The same word in another spelling or form.

φαρμακεία“sorcery”φαρμακεία (pharmakeia) is the abstract noun sorcery, the magic art practiced by a φάρμακος (a sorcerer). It names the practice itself rather than the person who does it, but it is the very same word as φάρμακος, so everything said about the sorcerer word applies to the practice it names.

What scholars say about pharmakos

In wider Greek the noun group (φάρμακον, φαρμακεία, φαρμακεύς, φάρμακος) ranged across healing drug, poison, love-philtre, and magical charm; LSJ and BDAG (3rd ed., 1049-50) map the ambivalence, and Chantraine and Beekes (both s.v. φάρμακον) treat the paroxytone φάρμακος "sorcerer" and oxytone φαρμακός "scapegoat" as one Pre-Greek word-family differentiated by accent. The decisive inheritance for the New Testament is the Septuagint, which uses the group about two dozen times, almost always negatively, to render Hebrew כשׁף and to describe Pharaoh's magicians (Exod 7:11), the sorceries of Babylon (Isa 47:9, 12), and the abominations forbidden Israel (Deut 18:10); Muraoka's LXX lexicon and Wevers's Notes on Exodus stress this deliberate polemical choice, and Foerster (TDNT 9:359ff.; cf. Böcher, EDNT 3:415) concludes the drug-element is subordinate to the offense of idolatrous, occult power. Galatians commentators are unanimous in rendering φαρμακεία "sorcery" and reading its collocation with idolatry as decisive (Betz, Hermeneia 283-84; Longenecker, WBC 41, 254; Bruce, NIGTC 247; Martyn, AB 33A, 496-97; Moo, BECNT 358-59). In Revelation, Aune (WBC 52B, 546-47) and Osborne (BECNT 387) note that 9:21 uses the concrete term for the potions of the rites (NA28 φαρμάκων against the Byzantine φαρμακειῶν), 18:23 alludes to Isa 47 and Nah 3:4, and 21:8; 22:15 place the plural of φάρμακος in standard Jewish-Christian exclusion lists. Two debates remain live: whether the term specifically includes abortifacient drugs (Spicq's TLNT and Gorman argue yes in whole or part; Hays and the mainstream commentary tradition argue it is a generic term for magic, with the abortion link belonging chiefly to the early Christian reception in Didache 2:2 and Barnabas), and whether the Greek scapegoat rite hovers behind Revelation's φάρμακοι (Strelan and Bredin argue yes on philological and Girardian grounds; Aune, Beale, Osborne, Koester, and Mounce do not).

In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDAG (Bauer-Danker-Arndt-Gingrich), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 3rd ed. (Chicago, 2000), 1049-50lexicon
  • LSJ (Liddell-Scott-Jones), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed. (Oxford, 1940), s.vv. φάρμακον, φαρμακεία, φάρμακοςlexicon
  • Werner Foerster, "φάρμακον κτλ.," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Eerdmans, 1964-76), 9:359ff.theological-dictionary
  • O. Böcher, "φαρμακεία κτλ.," in Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (Eerdmans, 1990-93), 3:415theological-dictionary
  • T. Muraoka, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint (Peeters, 2009), s.vv.lexicon
  • Ceslas Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament (Hendrickson, 1994), s.v.lexicon
  • David E. Aune, Revelation, 3 vols. (WBC 52A-C; Nelson, 1997-98)commentary
  • G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (NIGTC; Eerdmans, 1999), 519-20, 923-24, 1141-42commentary
  • Grant R. Osborne, Revelation (BECNT; Baker, 2002), 387commentary
  • Hans Dieter Betz, Galatians (Hermeneia; Fortress, 1979), 283-84commentary
  • Douglas J. Moo, Galatians (BECNT; Baker, 2013), 358-59commentary
  • Richard B. Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament (HarperCollins, 1996), 447monograph
  • Rick Strelan, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice: Sorcerers in Revelation 21:8; 22:15," Australian Biblical Review 51 (2003): 148-57article

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of φάρμακος

dative m p

φαρμάκοις

Rev 21:8

genitive n p

φαρμάκων

Rev 9:21

nominative m p

φάρμακοι

Rev 22:15