Christians and Pharmaceuticals
by William Finck
The Greek words
pharmakon, pharmakos, and pharmakeia are usually rendered “sorcerer”
or “sorcery” in the King James Version of the Bible. That
version was translated by 1611, and ever since then most theologians
have followed in its footsteps, and have kept the interpretations of
the medieval Englishmen of that time, while the rest of the world has
become “modern”, and has updated its language. Or have we?
Here are the
definitions of those words, from Liddell & Scott’s An
Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford University Press,
Impression of 1999, First edition 1889. I will supply English
transliterations in place of all of the original Greek words:
pharmakon: “a
drug, medicine, Homer etc.: the pharmaka applied outwardly were
christa, egchrista, epichrista (ointments), and pasta, epipasta,
kataplasta (plasters), Theocritus, Aristophanes; those taken inwardly
brosima, and potima, pota, pista, Aeschylus, Euripides, etc… 2. In
bad sense, an enchanted potion … so a charm, spell, enchantment …
also a drug, poison … II. a remedy, cure, Hesiod …. ”
pharmakeia: “the
use of drugs, potions, spells, Plato. 2. poisoning, witchcraft …
Demosthenes. II. remedy, cure, Aristotle.”
pharmakos: “a
poisoner, sorcerer, magician, N.T.”
Note that Liddell &
Scott gave only the New Testament as a source for their definitions
for this use of the word pharmakos. And why did they not give
secular Greek definitions? Because they would have had to put
“apothecary”, “pharmacist” and “druggist”, yet perhaps
that was already not politically acceptable by 1889, and so instead
they put nothing! The large and scholarly Ninth Edition of the
Liddell & Scott Greek-English Lexicon does likewise, defining the
word in this sense identically, and citing only the Septuagint and
the N.T., even though it cites the secular Greek writer Herodianus
(2nd c. A.D.) on the pronunciation of the word. This is the only
time that I have seen Liddell & Scott limit their definition of a
word to the manner in which Bible translators have treated it, when
the word appears also in Greek writers outside of the Bible. There
is another sense in which the word pharmakos is used, and that will
be discussed below.
Here is a lengthy
citation concerning physicians from Strabo’s Geography, Book
15:1:60: “As for the Garmanes, he says that the most honourable of
them are named Hylobii and that they live in forests, subsisting on
leaves and wild fruits, clothed with the bark of trees, and
abstaining from wine and the delights of love; and that they
communicate with the kings, who through messengers inquire about the
causes of things and through the Hylobii worship and supplicate the
Divinity; and that, after the Hylobii, the physicians are second in
honour, and that they are, as it were, humanitarian philosophers, men
who are of frugal habits but do not live out of doors, and subsist
upon rice and barley-groats, which are given to them by everyone of
whom they beg or who offers them hospitality; and that through
sorcery they can cause people to have numerous offspring, and to have
either male or female children; and that they cure diseases mostly
through means of cereals, and not through means of medicaments; and
that, among their medicaments, their ointments and their poultices
are most esteemed, but that the rest of their remedies have much in
them that is bad; and that both this class and the other practise
such endurance, both in toils and in perseverance, that they stay in
one posture all day long without moving; and that there are also
diviners and enchanters, who are skilled both in the rites and in the
customs pertaining to the deceased, and go about begging alms from
village to village and from city to city; and that there are others
more accomplished and refined than these, but that even these
themselves do not abstain from the common talk about Hades, insofar
as it is thought to be conducive to piety and holiness; and that
women, as well as men, study philosophy with some of them, and that
the women likewise abstain from the delights of love.”
The word for sorcery
which Strabo used above is pharmakon. Note that it is used of
physicians, and their medicaments, or medications. However those who
practice divining and enchanting are discussed separately following
the discussion of the physicians! Therefore “sorcery” describes
the use of pharmaceuticals, and not the magic or divining arts. The
word pharmakeia, from the above definitions and examples, means
little else but drugs – whether taken internally or applied
topically.
It is clear to this
writer that our word pharmaceutical and all related words were
derived from these Greek words, and that they bear the same meanings.
Our language isn’t really “modern” after all! It may be
argued that a pharmaceutical is a drug, and not a potion, and that
the Bible is talking only about potions. That argument is entirely
subjective. The Bible makes no such distinction, but talks of
pharmakeia in general. There is absolutely no proof supporting any
such distinction between drugs and potions or sorceries: the
distinction did not exist at all until the foundation of the modern
pharmaceutical industry and the money of the international bankers
who created it!
Here are all of the
Scripture references where those words appear in the New Testament,
from the Christogenea New Testament:
“20 And the rest
of the men, those who had not been killed by these plagues, did not
even repent from the works of their hands, that they do not worship
demons and idols, things of gold and things of silver and things of
copper and things of stone and things of wood, things which are able
neither to see nor to hear nor to walk. 21 And they did not repent
from their murders nor from their drugs [pharmakon] nor from their
fornication nor from thefts.” ( Revelation 9:20-21, CNT )
“23 And the light
of a lamp shall not shine in you hereafter! And the voice of the
bridegroom and a bride shall not be heard in you hereafter! Because
your merchants were the great men of the earth! Because by your
pharmaceuticals [pharmakeia] have all the nations been deceived!”
(Revelation 18:23, CNT )
“8 But for the
cowards and the faithless and abominable and murderers and
fornicators and drug-makers [pharmakos] and idolaters and all those
who lie, their fate is burning in the lake in fire and sulfur, which
is the second death!” ( Revelation 21:8, CNT )
“15 Outside are
dogs and druggists [pharmakos] and fornicators and murderers and
idolaters and any who love and make a lie.” !” ( Revelation
22:15, CNT )
“19 Manifest are
the deeds of the flesh, such things are fornication, uncleanness,
licentiousness, 20 idolatry, use of drugs [pharmakeia], hostilities,
contention, rivalry, wrath, intrigues, dissensions, sects, 21
envyings, drunkenness, revelries, and things like these; which I have
announced to you beforehand, just as I have said before, that they
who practice such things shall not inherit Yahweh’s kingdom.”
(Galatians 5:19-21, CNT )
For the purposes of
this paper, I am only going to cite here one Old Testament reference
for the use of the word pharmakeia, Isaiah 47:9 from the KJV: “But
these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss
of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their
perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great
abundance of thine enchantments.” How can “sorceries” be
connected to the loss of children, and to widowhood? Think about
birth-control pills. Think about the declining birthrates which many
tie to the modern chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Think
about the premature deaths of so many people who have substituted
fast food and prescription drugs in place of sound nutrition and
exercise. Do we see a problem today with wizards and sorcerers
deceiving all of the nations, as we have just read in Isaiah and the
Revelation? Or do we see the whole world captivated by a need for
drugs? Read all of Isaiah chapter 47, and one should realize with
certainty that it is much the same language as Revelation chapter 18,
where pharmakeia is also condemned, and that both chapters are
talking about the same thing: the condemnation of the great whore
and mystery Babylon!
The Christian should
look to Yahweh his God for healing, protection or deliverance from
evils and enemies, and a long and healthy life. Those very things
are promised to those who keep His laws, for instance the commandment
at Exodus 20:12 states “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy
days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.”
And the law also states, as Paul quotes Lev. 18:5 at Romans 10:5:
“Moses writes of the justice which is from of the law, ‘That a
man who practices these things shall have life by them.’” It is
no mistake, that our English-speaking forebears used the word crises
to describe what evils befell a man. For the word is directly from
the Greek krisis, meaning judgement.
When men circumvent the
laws of their God and Creator, they are forced to seek their own
remedies for the resultant evils which befall them. Hence the search
for pharmakeia in order to solve our troubles. This has opened a
veritable Pandora’s Box, and our society’s dependence upon
pharmaceuticals grows larger and larger with each passing day. We
have become so alienated from our God, and have strayed so far from
His laws, that even our infant children are pumped with all sorts of
unnatural substances almost as soon as they are born, and we as a
people have become drug-dependent at every stage of our lives!
Drugs have become our escape both from the realities of life, and
from the natural punishments resulting from our deviant behavior.
But that escape is only a temporary illusion. For we know not what
greater damage we have brought upon ourselves as a result of our turn
away from God and towards our own devices.
When man was created,
he was told that every green herb was for him for food. There are
thousands of natural remedies that are useful for alleviating various
ailments or which act as preventatives for those ailments. Very
little capital is put into the development of the knowledge of these
remedies. The reasons for this are solely economic: investment
bankers cannot control what grows out of the ground, and once the
studies are done and the results published, the prospects for
financial profit are quite dim – the people will simply grow their
own product! Instead, pharmaceutical companies scour the globe
looking for naturally-occurring substances, especially in the plant
world, and examine what those substances may be good for. Once a
discovery is made, the drug companies strive to guard the
information, and then they synthesize the substance, hoping to then
profit from it once they patent it. Christians, in turning away from
Yahweh their God, have now put their health and their lives into the
hands of the anti-Christ jews: and what good will ever come from
that? None whatsoever!
Pharmaceuticals and the
laws of clean and unclean foods.
WhateveChristianity and
Pharmaceuticals, Part 2
A few days ago I put
out an article of this title, and many people have made further
inquiry, or were even upset, because they have already been
captivated by the pharmaceutical industry by one means or another.
Yet I shall stand by my article, even if it does not address the
immediate needs of people in general, as being wholly Scriptural.
However here I will attempt to put some things into perspective: for
those who are currently victims of the medical/pharmaceutical complex
need not do anything rash.
Paul told the
Corinthians: “ A bondman, you have been called? It must not be a
concern to you, but then if you have the ability to become free,
rather you use it. 22 For he who is called a bondman in the Prince is
a freedman of the Prince; likewise he who is called free is a bondman
of Christ.” (I Corinthians 7:21-22, CNT )
In a paper I wrote
several years ago, Sin and the First Epistle of John, I said this,
commenting upon 1 John 3:4-12: “All men sin, as we have seen John
himself state above at 1:10, as Paul also did at Rom. 3:23, and so
John can’t possibly be stating that all men are of the False
Accuser. The children of Israel, who are the children of Yahweh, have
an Advocate in Yahshua Christ even if they do sin, as John has
already told us in his epistle at 2:1-2 and 12. Yet here John uses a
phrase which he did not use in chapter 2 in respect to sin.
Where earlier only the
verb hamartanō is used to describe the act of sinning, here the verb
poieō is used in conjunction with the noun hamartia to describe the
practice, or even the creation of sin, at 3:4, 8 and 9, and so John’s
intent here must be distinguished from, and understood within the
context of, his earlier remarks concerning Israel and sin. It should
be obvious here that John makes reference not to the occasional
sinner, but to the authors of sin. John must mean not the fool who
lusts and buys a pornographic video or magazine, but the pornographer
himself; not the weak or sickly man who turns to drugs, but the drug
manufacturer; not the desperate man who takes out a usurious loan,
but the usurer himself.
All men have weaknesses
which they are entrapped by at one time or another (note Paul’s
warning at Gal. 6:1), yet one who is tempted by such weakness is
certainly not “of the False Accuser”, and no Israelite is “of
the False Accuser”! The authors or creators of sin are of the False
Accuser, and history reveals who they are. The panderers are the evil
ones, not those who are weak!” (Emphasis added.)
Understanding all of
this in the context of Scripture, I would not advise anyone to act
rashly. I would not want you to run and flush your insulin down the
toilet. Of course, neither can I give medical advice. I can only
present the Scriptures as they were given, in the context of the
culture and history of the times. Paul is cited above as having said
“A bondman, you have been called? It must not be a concern to
you…”, and so you should not be distressed if you are currently
held captive. Yet Paul’s admonition to those who are held captive
is that “if you have the ability to become free, rather you use
it.” For many ailments there are natural remedies, and one should
seek those if one can, and in conjunction with a pure heart and
honest prayer, seek also the mercy of our Father, that you may be
freed from your captivity. And if one is not in a position to do
those things, then it would be best simply to realize and admit that
one is a captive, but do not trouble yourself over it, and likewise
with a pure heart and honest prayer, also seek the mercy of our
Father.
William Finck
Christogenea.org
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