The Greek word, pharmakeia, the original of our “pharmacy,” had a
rather mixed history in its native language. It does not seem to have
exactly deteriorated, as words in all languages have a habit of doing,
for from the earliest times it was used concurrently to describe
the preparation of medicines, and also through its association with
drugs and poisons and the production of philtres, as equivalent to
sorcery and witchcraft. It is in this latter sense that it is employed
exclusively in the New Testament. St. Paul, for instance (in Galatians,
v, 20), enumerating the works of the flesh names it after idolatry.
The word appears as witchcraft in the Authorised, and as sorcery in
the Revised Version. Pharmakeia or one of its derivatives also occurs
several times in the Book of Revelations (ix, 21; xviii, 23; xxi, 8,
and xxii, 15), and is uniformly rendered sorcery or sorcerers in both
versions, and is associated with crime. Hippocrates uses the verb
Pharmakeuein with the meaning of to purge, but he elsewhere employs the
same word with the meaning of to drug a person, to give a stupefying
draught. In Homer the word “Pharmaka” appears in the senses of both
noxious and healing drugs, and also to represent enchanted potions or
philtres. The word “pharmakoi” in later times came to be used for the
criminals who were sacrificed for the benefit of the communities, and
thus it acquired its lowest stage of signification. It is remarkable
and unusual for a word which has once fallen as this one did to recover
its respectable position again.