Comments on Revelation 18:23

Who are these people?

[Edit, 12/29/24: This post is in need of a major rewrite. My comments about the Greek language should be somewhat OK, although I need to review them (as mentioned in the previous edit, but my understanding of prophecy needs more than just a review. With that caveat, feel free to read on, but do read the footnotes as well.]

[Edit, 7/6/24: Footnoted comments added. I would hope, in the future, to also include material from Greek-level commentaries written by people who understand the Greek far better than I do.]

There is something I have been noticing and wanting to understand and then share concerning "deception" and prophecy. It involves a particular verse in Revelation that I have puzzled and prayed over for years, whose common translations don't make much sense, Revelation 18:23. There is considerably more to it than the reference to deception and the presence of a Greek word that begins with "pharma", aspects that have been widely mentioned.¹ The passage contains what I call "the two ὅτι's, ('because's), and this sequence strikes me as highly relevant to our present world situation and to the deep sea of deception in which we live.

The NASB offers a decent translation, although it is not terribly illuminating:

Rev. 18:23 …and the light of a lamp will never shine in you again; and the voice of the groom and bride will never be heard in you again; for your merchants were the powerful people of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your witchcraft.

The first portion of the verse in the NASB is a tight translation from the Greek; I have no issue with the part about lamps and weddings -- it is quite exact, right down to placing "groom" before "bride". It's the last part that begs for a closer look, perhaps because the translators didn't fully understand what they were translating.² The powerful people of the earth? Witchcraft? There are better possible translations. I assume readers know something about "witchcraft", but let's look at "merchants" and "powerful people". I would call these translations understatements!

"Merchants" appears earlier, in verses 3 and 11, as "the merchants of the earth" (οἱ ἔμποροι τῆς γῆς). "Of the earth" (τῆς γῆς) is also applied to the "the powerful people of the earth" (οἱ μεγιστᾶνες τῆς γῆς) in v. 23. They are related both through ὅτι and through τῆς γῆς. So who are these people, anyway? We do seem to be dominated by them and their deception, and it might be nice to start naming them properly.

To me, οἱ ἔμποροι τῆς γῆς suggests "transnational corporations" and their owners. That one is a little harder to pin down in modern terms, but then the situation we are in today exceeds what was extant in the 1st century, making things a little tough for John. What he had to work with was "merchants" (ἔμποροί), and specifically "merchants of the earth" from v. 3 & 11. This is the word from which we take the word "emporium". In John's time they were traders/merchants that boarded ships and traveled the known world, buying and selling things.

The other word is easier. These "powerful people", or "important ones" (BDAG: "a person of high rank, great man, courtier, magnate") "of the earth" would appear to me to be what we now refer to as the "global elite". Think about who it is that attends gatherings of the World Economic Forum and other similar organizations.³ That's them. The global merchants of the global elite.⁴ The text says that the merchants were (ēsan) the elite. They had been (before their final demise) deceiving the nations, and using sorcery to do it. But John was given the task of writing down the indescribable.

I don't think I need to say too much about φαρμακείᾳ (“pharmakeia”). I feel that "sorcery" is a better translation. "Witchcraft" leans toward magic spells (in modern terms, perhaps "medical gaslighting" could be an example), while "sorcery" leans toward medicines and particularly medicinal poisons. And by the way, the history of western medicine encompasses the history of medical poisoning. Hippocrates referred to φάρμακον (medicine, another "pharma" word), but precluded deadly/fatal ones (θανάσιμον); i.e. poisons.⁵ That part of the oath, not surprisingly, was removed (compare old/new versions) more recently, since the medical and pharmaceutical industry has been poisoning people for centuries with lethal agents such as mercury and arsenic. I am surprised that it took so long for them to change the oath.⁶ But the point is, this poisoning was going on even back in Jesus' time and the Greek word for "medicine" had already taken on the additional meaning of "poison".

(Side note: "pharmaceutical" has a slightly different etymology -- see https://www.etymonline.com/word/pharmaceutical.)

What does Rev. 18:23 actually say, then, in modern language for the time in which the prophecy is to be fulfilled. My suggestion is something to the effect of:

…and the light of a lamp will never shine in you again; and the voice of the groom and bride will never be heard in you again because your transnational/global corporation owners were the global elite, because with your sorcery you deceived the nations.

(Disclaimer: I am not a biblical Greek scholar equipped to translate, and I am not trying to look like one. But to what translation would I turn for these observations?)

That wording wouldn't sell any additional Bibles, but have you seen any nations being deceived through the sorcery of the global elite and their merchants lately (let alone all!)? Do you know the published mechanisms of action⁷ of the modRNA (not mRNA) injections that have been administered to billions of deceived people, with even more formulations yet in the pipeline and coming soon? It is sorcery, every bit in the biblical sense.⁸

(Another side note: every attribute of the originators and promoters of these shots can be found in Rev. 21:8, an enumeration of kinds of people that are destined for the Lake of Fire.)⁹

Note that "deceived" in Rev. 23:18 is a particular inflection of the verb πλανάω (planaō) that also appears in Matt. 24:4 and in quite a number of other warnings.

One last thing. The word φαρμακείᾳ first appears in the NT in Galatians 5:20. It may be translated "sorcery", or other words may be used. What I want to point out is the extreme warning in v. 21:

"…envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."

That's harsh! The same warning applies to idolatry (v. 20). I understand it as a warning to the deceivers, and not so much the deceived. Within the church, I suspect the problem is more with the practice of "medical idolatry" than with the practice of sorcery (and woe to those leaders that promote and idolize such practices) but great caution is advised either way. "Political idolatry" is another topic. And that is all I will say about that. For now, anyway.

1. By me and others.

2. My commentaries disagree, and I am beginning to see why. More research needed!

3. The present day is what I was thinking about when I wrote this. It seems, however, that this stuff has been going on, in more or less its present form, for centuries, involving the ancestors, literal and ideological, of some of the very same people. Transnational corporations and all. This is not to say that the matter couldn’t now be reaching a critical tipping point. Time will tell.

4. There is so much more to this matter, I now realize, but it is not something I am likely to want to research and write about. Others have done so, but I don’t quite know what to believe.

5. The Greek text of the Hippocratic Oath: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0249%3Atext%3DJusj.%3Asection%3D1

Several English translations are also available through links in the upper right corner of the page.

6. My understanding now is that medical doctors are no longer taking any version of the oath. Some nursing schools may still use it. I have not researched this matter, however.

7. Oops, it turns out that the published information may itself be lies, not representing what was actually administered. And the problems appear to extend far beyond that of so-called mRNA products. Live and learn, I guess, and a re-write of this post is due. Also, see the next footnote.

8. This again reflects my understanding at the time I originally wrote this. I now note that while modRNA shots are a 21st century innovation, other kinds of harmful injections, pills, and poisons introduced into foods have been foisted upon us for centuries. In addition, the mechanisms of action of the modRNA injections aren’t anywhere near as clear as what I had imagined, and the level of deception has proven to be greater than I could earlier have imagined.

9. This applies to the present-day perpetrators and to their forerunners. It has parallels in Revelation 22:15 and Malachi 3:5-6, and the language of the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) is similar to that of the New Testament Greek (all quotes from the NASB):

Revelation 21:8 - “But for the cowardly, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and sexually immoral persons, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

Revelation 22:15 - Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral persons, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.

Malachi 3:5-6 - “Then I will come near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, those who oppress the wage earner in his wages or the widow or the orphan, and those who turn away the stranger from justice and do not fear Me,” says the LORD of armies. “For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, the sons of Jacob, have not come to an end.