[Note: The following are prepared notes for a split sermon given to the Portland congregation of the United Church of God on Sabbath, January 24, 2026.]
Introduction
Words matter. In Scripture, they matter not merely as vehicles of meaning but as instruments of revelation. When the Bible repeatedly uses a term, especially in contexts of moral warning and spiritual judgment, it demands careful attention. One such word is the Greek term pharmakaia (φαρμακεία). It appears infrequently, yet when it does, it is surrounded by the gravest warnings in the New Testament and is rooted deeply in the religious and cultural practices of the ancient world.
In recent years, pharmakaia has been invoked carelessly—sometimes sensationalized, sometimes politicized, sometimes stripped from its historical context and pressed into service for modern agendas. This split sermon seeks to do something more disciplined. We will first examine how Scripture itself uses the term, then consider how the wider Greek world understood it, and finally reflect soberly on what this term means for us today—not as speculation, but as moral instruction.
I. Pharmakaia in Scripture: A Biblicist Examination
A. New Testament Usage (NKJV)
The Greek word pharmakaia appears explicitly in three New Testament passages, all of them within lists of sins that exclude one from the Kingdom of God.
1. Galatians 5:19–21
“Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
The word translated “sorcery” here is pharmakaia. Notably, it appears immediately after idolatry. This is not accidental. Paul is not describing a technical magical practice but a category of rebellion against God—a means of manipulating reality, people, or spiritual forces apart from obedience to the Creator.
2. Revelation 9:20–21
“But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.”
Again, pharmakaia appears alongside idolatry and demon worship. The emphasis is not curiosity or medicine but spiritual allegiance. These practices are part of a broader refusal to repent.
3. Revelation 18:23
“For by your sorcery all the nations were deceived.”
This verse is especially illuminating. Pharmakaia here is explicitly linked to deception on a civilizational scale. Babylon does not merely practice sorcery privately; she uses it to mislead nations, distort perception, and secure allegiance.
B. Septuagint Background
The Septuagint (LXX), the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, provides essential context. While Hebrew often uses terms like kesheph (כֶּשֶׁף), the Septuagint frequently renders these with pharmakaia or related words (pharmakon, pharmakeus).
1. Exodus 7:11
“Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers; so the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.”
Here, pharmakeis refers to court magicians who used ritualized knowledge and substances in service of political and religious power. They used knowledge as a means of gaining and preserving power over others, including Israelites and slavery and those calling for Egypt to let God’s people go.
2. Isaiah 47:9
“But these two things shall come to you in a moment, in one day: the loss of children, and widowhood. They shall come upon you in their fullness because of the multitude of your sorceries, for the great abundance of your enchantments.”
The context is Babylon—again linking pharmakaia with imperial deception and false security as well as the problem of empire and domination and control.
C. Biblical Meaning Summarized
From a biblicist perspective that looks at the text of the Bible as being the authority for how we should understand and obey God’s word, pharmakaia consistently denotes:
- Illicit spiritual mediation
- Manipulation of reality apart from God
- Practices tied to idolatry and deception
- A rejection of repentance and submission to God
- A desire to control or dominate others
Scripture does not define pharmakaia narrowly as “drug use,” nor does it limit it to theatrical magic. It is a moral category, not a technical one. And it is a moral category far more relevant to us than references to sorcery would indicate at first glance.
II. Pharmakaia in the Wider Greek World
To understand the biblical usage properly, we must briefly examine how the Greek-speaking world used this term.
A. The Root: Pharmakon
The word pharmakaia derives from pharmakon, a word with a deliberate ambiguity. In classical Greek, pharmakon could mean:
- A medicine
- A poison
- A charm or spell
- A substance used in ritual transformation
The same substance could heal, intoxicate, kill, or deceive depending on intent and context.
B. The Pharmakeus
A pharmakeus was not a physician in the Hippocratic sense. He was a ritual specialist—someone who used substances, incantations, and symbolic acts to alter perception, behavior, or fate. These figures often operated on the margins of society and were both sought after and feared. These people would sell love potions to people who sought to coerce others into relationships. They would plan spectacles for political leaders to deceive and fool others for their own benefit. These are tendencies we obviously need to avoid in our own time as well.
If we want to look at a biblical example of a Pharmakeus, even though that precise term is not used specifically, the most obvious example is Simon Magus. Let’s turn to Acts 8:9-11 and see what it has to say and what that means for us. Acts 8:9-11 reads: “But there was a certain man called Simon, who previously practiced sorcery in the city and astonished the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great, to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is the great power of God.” And they heeded him because he had astonished them with his sorceries for a long time.” Let’s look carefully at this passage as Luke is saying a lot in a little space. First, Simon had practiced his “magic arts” and astonished the people of Samaria, dazzling them with his charisma and fakery. He claimed he was someone great, a classic sign of someone practicing pharmakaia, as being someone important and associating with the important people and taking pride in that is a major red flag here. Before the coming of the Holy Spirit, everyone heeded him, and that kind of power and influence is just what a pharmakeus, a sorcerer, wants. We see the same problem in people today who wish to be influencers, not so that they are accountable, but because their influence over others makes them feel important and special and of high status. This is all clearly relevant to our own times and especially the pharmakeia of the contemporary attention economy.
C. Cultural Function
In Greco-Roman society, pharmakaia served three main functions:
- Control – influencing others’ emotions or actions
- Protection – warding off perceived threats
- Access – mediating with spiritual forces
It was fundamentally about power without submission—knowledge without obedience. The whole goal was seeking mastery apart from character, seeking to dominate others rather than serve others as God commands from leaders.
III. What Pharmakaia Means for Us Today
A. Avoiding Anachronism
It is a mistake to flatten pharmakaia into a modern political or medical debate. Scripture does not condemn medicine, nor does it equate all substances with sorcery. Luke, after all, was a physician.
The sin is not treatment, but manipulation. Not healing, but control.
That said, we must remember that a substantial portion of our contemporary medical system and its political context is designed for control and manipulation and for the medication of symptoms without demanding behavioral change. When children with too much energy are medicated into a stupor to be easier to control, that is pharmakaia. When one seeks to manipulate and deceive through misinformation and control of institutions of communication, that is pharmakaia. When one self-medicates suffering rather than honestly addressing what is wrong, that is pharmakaia. Such problems are all around us in our world today, but rather than toss the word around too much, we need to examine a deeper issue that unites these various issues together.
B. The Deeper Issue: Deceptive Mediation
At its core, pharmakaia represents any system that:
- Promises transformation without repentance
- Offers power without submission
- Replaces trust in God with technique
This can appear in:
- Occult spirituality
- Technological utopianism
- Ideological indoctrination
- Systems and behaviors that numb conscience or pain rather than form character
- Uses of medicine and science that seek to control people rather than bring health
Revelation 18 reminds us that entire nations can be deceived—not merely individuals.
C. Ownership and Domination
One of the ways that we see this is in the ubiquity of rentier economic situations in the present world. The contemporary world is obsessed with ownership. Media companies regularly abuse procedures of flagging video commentary of copyrighted materials to keep adverse reviews from being visible and available to see by others. Even book reviewers who write critical reviews receive threats by writers who are afraid of economic losses for their intellectual property.
We also see this as an economic model by people who seek to “own” space. Whenever you hear someone whose language is full of this sort of language of wanting to own rhetorical or technological space, and such talk is very familiar among a certain strain of influencer and entrepreneur, we are dealing with a similar desire for domination and the manipulation of people to force them to benefit you economically rather than focusing on how you can serve them with your offerings.
D. A Call to Discernment
In light of all this discussion of what pharmakaia is, it is worthwhile to examine the other side. The opposite of pharmakaia is not ignorance, but wisdom. Not fear, but faithfulness. Scripture calls believers to test spirits, examine claims, and submit every power to Christ. Not domination and control but service and generosity, following the example of Christ in our lives.
Paul contrasts the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit. Where pharmakaia seeks to control people and outcomes, the Spirit produces patience. Where pharmakaia deceives, the Spirit leads into truth.
Conclusion
Pharmakaia is not a curiosity for conspiracy theories, nor a weapon for culture wars. It is a warning. A warning against the perennial human temptation to grasp power, certainty, and transformation apart from obedience to God. This warning, though it is not to be uttered carelessly and thoughtlessly, does have a lot to say to our own times, driven as they are by desires for control apart from service, technique and mastery apart from character, and calls for change apart from repentance to God and obedience to His ways.
From Egypt to Babylon, from Galatia to Revelation, the message is consistent: God rejects all attempts to bypass trust with technique, repentance with ritual, and faith with force. We are called to serve, not to dominate.
May we be a people formed not by deception, but by truth; not by manipulation, but by obedience; not by sorcery, but by the Spirit of the living God, not by domination and control but faithful and gracious service.
