Is Money the Root of All Evil? 1 Timothy 6:10 Exegesis — Philargyria, the Anarthrous Rhiza, and the Skipped Verses 17-19

"Money is the root of all evil" is one of the most-quoted and most-misquoted lines in the Bible. The actual verse — 1 Timothy 6:10 — does not say that.

What it says is more precise, more devastating, and more pastorally useful. The Greek text: "rhiza gar pantōn tōn kakōn estin hē philargyria" — "for a root of all sorts of evils is the love of money."

Two corrections matter. First, the verse condemns the love of money (philargyria), not money itself. Second, it identifies money-love as a root of all kinds of evils — not the root of all evil. This study walks through the Greek, the Ephesus context, the surrounding paragraph (vv. 6-19), and the practical theology that emerges.

Audit your philargyria

1 Tim 6:10 is a diagnosis, not a curse. The cure is autarkeia (contentment, v. 6) and active generosity (v. 18). Build margin for giving with our Budget Calculator and grow it with our Generosity Calculator.

The text — 1 Timothy 6:6-10

"But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs." (ESV)

The Greek — philargyria

The word translated "love of money" is philargyria (φιλαργυρία), a compound of philos ("loving, fond of") and argyrion ("silver, money"). Literally "silver-love."

The compound is significant. Greek had multiple words for desire, including epithumia (general craving) and pleonexia (desire to have more). Paul chooses philargyria — affection, attachment, fondness. The kind of love one might have for a person.

The condemnation is precise. The same money in two hands produces opposite fruit: the heart that loves it (treats it as relational object of devotion) is the heart that "wanders from the faith" and "pierces itself with many griefs." The heart that uses money as tool, with God as Lord, is not in view.

The grammar — "a root of all kinds of evils"

The Greek noun rhiza ("root") is anarthrous — it has no article. "A root," not "the root." Philargyria is not the sole root of all evil (pride, lust, unbelief have their own roots). It is one root capable of producing a remarkable range of fruit.

The genitive pantōn tōn kakōn ("of all the evils") with the plural noun under the article means "all kinds of evils" or "all sorts of evils" — not "every individual evil." The verse claims philargyria produces a comprehensive variety of evils, not that every individual sin descends from it.

Both corrections matter. The popular misquotation ("money is the root of all evil") overstates the verse in two directions: it condemns money itself (which the Bible never does) and it makes money the source of every sin (which the verse never claims).

"Those who desire to be rich" — verse 9

Verse 9 supplies the action-side of the diagnosis. The Greek hoi boulomenoi ploutein ("those willing/intending to be rich") names a settled volitional state — not the man who has wealth, but the man whose horizon is the pursuit of it.

This is critical pastorally. Paul does not condemn wealth in v. 9. He condemns the orientation that targets wealth. A wealthy Christian who became wealthy through faithful labor and stewards it for kingdom purposes is not hoi boulomenoi ploutein. A poor Christian whose every waking energy is bent toward getting rich is.

The consequences in v. 9 are graphic: "peirasmon kai pagida" (temptation and a snare), "epithumias pollas anoētous kai blaberas" (many senseless and harmful desires), "buthizousin tous anthrōpous eis olethron kai apōleian" (which plunge people into ruin and destruction). The verb buthizousin means "submerge, drown" — the imagery is shipwreck.

"Pierced themselves with many griefs"

Verse 10b is one of the most evocative phrases in the Pastoral Epistles: "it is through this craving that some have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs."

The Greek periepeiran heautous odynais pollais uses the verb peripeirō ("to pierce all around, impale, transfix"), here in middle voice — they did this to themselves. The image is of a person impaled on stakes from every side, self-inflicted.

The odynais ("griefs, pangs") are the grinding pains of money-love's harvest: damaged marriages, lost integrity, alienated children, conscience injury, sleeplessness, broken friendships, eventual financial ruin or empty success. Paul's pastoral observation is that no one talks the person who loves money into the misery. They build the stakes themselves and walk onto them.

Verses 6-8 — the positive opposite

The diagnosis is bracketed by the cure. Verse 6: "godliness with contentment (autarkeia) is great gain." Autarkeia — self-sufficiency, independence from circumstance — was a Stoic value Paul redefines by attaching it to eusebeia (godliness). Christian contentment is not stoic indifference; it is settled satisfaction in God that holds in plenty and want (cf. Phil 4:11-13).

Verse 7 grounds it eschatologically: "we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world." The simplest meditation on a coffin destroys the rationale for philargyria.

Verse 8 sets the threshold: "if we have food and clothing (diatrophas kai skepasmata), with these we will be content." The Greek arkesthēsometha is future passive — "we will be made sufficient." Paul is not asking the impossible; he is announcing the achievable contentment that grace produces.

Verses 17-19 — the part everyone skips

Most preaching on 1 Tim 6:10 stops at v. 10. Paul does not. Verses 17-19 are addressed directly to those who are rich, and they are a constructive five-command sequence:

1. "Charge them not to be haughty" (mē hypsēlophronein) — wealth produces a default upward tilt of the chin; the Christian rich must consciously resist it.
2. "Not to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches" (epi ploutou adēlotēti) — money is the literally uncertain object; hope in it is misplaced trust.
3. "But on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy" — God is named as both the secure object of hope and the lavish provider of enjoyment. Paul does not call enjoyment of God's gifts unspiritual.
4. "To do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous (eumetadotous) and ready to share (koinōnikous)" — two specific Greek words. Eumetadotous ("ready-to-distribute") and koinōnikous ("partnering, fellowship-minded"). Wealth deployed as kingdom partnership.
5. "Storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life" — kingdom-investment is the only investment that survives the grave.

The full counsel of 1 Tim 6 is not "money is bad"; it is "money-love is destructive; here are five commands for the wealthy Christian to deploy money faithfully."

The Ephesus context

1 Timothy is addressed to Timothy in Ephesus (1 Tim 1:3), one of the wealthiest cities in the empire. Acts 19 documents Ephesus's silver trade (the Artemis temple's silversmith guild, vv. 24-27), its banking centrality, its book trade (vv. 18-20). The Pastoral Epistles' repeated warnings against "filthy lucre" (aischrou kerdous, Titus 1:7, 11; 1 Tim 3:8) and "lovers of money" (philarguroi, 2 Tim 3:2) reflect a specific local pastoral problem.

Paul is not writing abstract financial ethics. He is addressing a wealthy port city's church whose elders, deacons, and members were facing daily commercial pressure to compromise. 1 Tim 6:10 is field-tested pastoral counsel.

Six diagnostic applications

1. Test for "willing to be rich." Where is the horizon of your daily energy actually aimed? If wealth-acquisition is the answer, philargyria is operating.
2. Audit the griefs. Marriage tension, child distance, conscience injury, sleep loss — Paul's "many pangs" are present-tense. If they map to money-pursuit, the stakes are already in.
3. Trace the wandering. Verse 10b — "some have wandered from the faith." Where is your faith presently colder than it was three years ago? Where did the cooling correlate with a financial decision?
4. Set the v. 8 floor. Food and clothing is the apostolic floor for contentment. Below that, work hard for provision; above it, the gap between necessity and current lifestyle is the territory God may be calling you to redeploy.
5. Practice the v. 18 verbs. Do good, be rich in good works, be ready-to-distribute, be fellowship-minded. These are practiceable today.
6. Store the v. 19 treasure. Kingdom-investment is the only investment that survives. Audit your giving as a portion of net worth, not just income.

Continue your study

Continue with our full 1 Timothy 6:10 exegesis, our contentment in the Bible, our corrupting wealth study, and our Jesus and money. The full Scripture hub.

All Scripture quotations from the English Standard Version.