Love of Money Is the Root of All Evil

The Phrase Today

"The love of money is the root of all evil" is one of the most frequently misquoted and productively misunderstood phrases in English. The common misquotation - "money is the root of all evil" - drops the crucial qualifier "love of" and shifts the meaning from a statement about human desire to a statement about money itself. The misquotation is actually more radical than the original: it condemns the object rather than the attachment. Both versions, however, have been enormously influential in economic ethics, literary critique of wealth, and everyday moral vocabulary. The phrase appears in political speeches, pop lyrics, business ethics discussions, and everyday conversation whenever someone wants to connect wealth to moral corruption.

Biblical Origin

1 Timothy 6:10 (KJV): "For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows."

The Greek is rhiza gar panton ton kakon estin he philarguria - "for the root of all evils is the love of money." Philarguria compounds philos (lover/friend) with argyros (silver/money) - literally "silver-loving" or "money-loving." The phrase is the conclusion of a passage warning against the dangers of wanting to get rich: "But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare" (v. 9).

The verse does not say money is evil - it says the love of it is "a root of all evils" (not "the" root - some manuscripts and translations prefer the indefinite article, suggesting a root among roots rather than the unique and only root). Paul's concern is the disposition of the heart, not the possession of wealth. Abraham, David, and Solomon were wealthy; what Paul condemns is the orientation of covetousness, the drive to acquire wealth as the primary goal of life.

How the KJV Cemented It

The KJV's rendering "the love of money is the root of all evil" - with the definite article "the" - gave the phrase an absolutism that the Greek panton (of all evils) only partially supports. Earlier translations had rendered it "of all evils a root" (Geneva Bible). The KJV's more categorical form was more memorable and more preachable, and it became the standard English version. The misquotation that drops "love of" then took the KJV's categorical form and made it even more absolute.

The Misquotation's History

"Money is the root of all evil" is so widespread that it has become a standard English proverb in its own right. The misquotation circulates independently of its biblical source. Many people who use it have no idea it is a misquotation, still less that it is biblical. The misquoted form has appeared in song titles (the Everly Brothers, The Flying Lizards' 1979 post-punk version, P.M. Dawn), political speeches, and economic critique.

Interestingly, the misquotation makes a stronger claim - that money itself is corrupting, not just attachment to it. This stronger claim is more useful for certain kinds of social critique (wealth inequality, capitalist exploitation) but is also more easily refuted (money is also used for feeding the hungry, building hospitals, and creating art). The original's focus on love of money is both more precise and more defensible.

Economic Ethics

The phrase has been central to Christian economic ethics for two millennia. Church Fathers debated whether wealthy Christians could be saved (Clement of Alexandria's Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? in the second century). Medieval theologians developed elaborate accounts of usury (lending at interest) as a form of money-love. The Reformation's engagement with capitalism - Weber's famous thesis about the Protestant work ethic - is partly a story about how Protestant cultures reinterpreted the 1 Timothy 6 tradition.

Liberation theology in the twentieth century made the love-of-money passage central to its critique of economic inequality. The text was used to argue that structural economic systems organized around profit-maximization embody institutionalized money-love, and that Christian ethics requires confronting those systems.

In Literature and Culture

Dickens's A Christmas Carol (1843) is the most famous literary exploration of the money-love theme: Scrooge's greed as spiritual death, and his transformation through supernatural visitation as a redemption narrative. The explicit theological framework - Marley's ghost suffering for his money-love, the conversion of Scrooge - makes the novella a sustained meditation on 1 Timothy 6.

In popular music, the phrase appears in contexts ranging from gospel (the warning against covetousness) to hip-hop (critique of materialism). The Flying Lizards' postmodern rendition, O'Jays' "For the Love of Money" (1973), and Kanye West's "Gold Digger" all engage with the money-love theme in ways that are shaped, however indirectly, by the biblical phrase.

Cross-Linguistic Reach

German: Denn die Geldliebe ist eine Wurzel alles Ubels (Luther, more literal). French: Car l'amour de l'argent est une racine de tous les maux. Spanish: Porque raiz de todos los males es el amor al dinero. Most translations use the indefinite article ("a root") or preserve the Greek's plural ("of all evils"), making the English KJV's definite article form somewhat more absolute than the original warrants.

Related Biblical Phrases

"Golden calf" (Exodus 32) is the foundational biblical image for idolatrous attachment to wealth. "You cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24) is Jesus's parallel statement, using the Aramaic word mammon for money/wealth. "Sell all that thou hast and give to the poor" (Matthew 19:21) is Jesus's direct challenge to the rich young ruler - the most demanding application of the money-love critique. "Reap what you sow" (Galatians 6:7) is the companion principle of moral causation.

Common Misconceptions

The most common misconception is that the verse condemns money itself. Paul does not condemn wealth; he condemns the love of money as a driving motivation. A second misconception is that the KJV's "the root of all evil" means money-love is the only cause of evil; the Greek construction is better rendered "a root of all kinds of evil" - meaning it is a source that can produce every kind of evil, not the sole source of everything evil. Third, many people assume the verse is primarily about wealthy people; in context, Paul is warning Timothy about teachers who use religion for financial gain (1 Timothy 6:5) and about ordinary people who "desire to be rich" - the warning is about covetousness as an orientation of the heart, not about the amount of wealth one possesses.