Pharmakeia drugs or sorcery

[Daveisonthisforum]

Hello. I’m told there are some Greek speakers here.

Does anyone have insight about Revelation 9:21 which in most English translations is “sorcery” but when I look at a lexicon the word pharmakeia is the word is says is from the Greek.

To an English speaker the word pharmakeia obviously seems like the word pharmaceutical and that is also what it seems to mean. I even found a modern Greek bible online and pasted the text into google translate and it translated the word to “drugs”.

I can find very little online or in commentaries except that drugs were often used in connection with witchcraft. If that is the case, why was the word for drug used but not the word for witchcraft?

Was the modern Greek bible I found typical in that it used the word “drugs” and if so, do the Greeks have a different understanding of the verse than English speakers?

Do the Orthodox Church have a universal teaching on it?

 

[HTacianas]

Hello. I’m told there are some Greek speakers here.

Does anyone have insight about Revelation 9:21 which in most English translations is “sorcery” but when I look at a lexicon the word pharmakeia is the word is says is from the Greek.

To an English speaker the word pharmakeia obviously seems like the word pharmaceutical and that is also what it seems to mean. I even found a modern Greek bible online and pasted the text into google translate and it translated the word to “drugs”.

I can find very little online or in commentaries except that drugs were often used in connection with witchcraft. If that is the case, why was the word for drug used but not the word for witchcraft?

Was the modern Greek bible I found typical in that it used the word “drugs” and if so, do the Greeks have a different understanding of the verse than English speakers?

Do the Orthodox Church have a universal teaching on it?

Well you're right so far. The meaning of the word is in fact drugs. But it is in the context of hallucinogenic drugs meant to cause a trance that induces visions. Those visions are then passed off as prophecies. Probably the closest you'll find to it in modern times is the use by some of peyote, meant to cause the same types of visions. The translators of the King James Version of the bible chose to translate it as sorceries. It causes a lot of confusion.

 

[ArmyMatt]

it probably was being specific about drug induced magic, which is why it used that word.

 

[SavedByGrace3]

Hello. I’m told there are some Greek speakers here.

Does anyone have insight about Revelation 9:21 which in most English translations is “sorcery” but when I look at a lexicon the word pharmakeia is the word is says is from the Greek.

To an English speaker the word pharmakeia obviously seems like the word pharmaceutical and that is also what it seems to mean. I even found a modern Greek bible online and pasted the text into google translate and it translated the word to “drugs”.

I can find very little online or in commentaries except that drugs were often used in connection with witchcraft. If that is the case, why was the word for drug used but not the word for witchcraft?

Was the modern Greek bible I found typical in that it used the word “drugs” and if so, do the Greeks have a different understanding of the verse than English speakers?

Do the Orthodox Church have a universal teaching on it?

My understanding is that the drugs were hallucinogenic and were taken to elicit "dreams" and vivid images in their brains. Hence, witches, sorcerers, and others of the occult ilk would use them for that purpose.

 

[prodromos]

I believe drugs were also procured to induce abortions

 

[prodromos]

You may be interested in St Anastasia Pharmakolytria (deliverer from potions/poisons)

Why is Saint Anastasia Known as the "Deliverer From Potions" (Pharmakolytria)?

www.johnsanidopoulos.com