I don’t remember when I first learned that the phrase is “the love of money is the root of all evil.” However, it now irritates me when I heard people say “money is the root of all evil” because that’s not true.
However, it also irritates me when people say how much they love money because they should know that “the love of money is the root of all evil.” There was a guest on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. He asked if she loved money. While I know the show is a silly talk show, I got irritated that she responded that she loved money as I thought it would be somebody that knew the phrase. Instead, she kept saying how much she loved money. (I wanted to use the word “reiterating,” instead of “saying,” but then I remembered that I am writing for the general public.)
Money should be seen as a tool. It is always good to have it to be able to pay and we can like having it. However, the actual love of the money is not good. This is greed like the cartoon character Scrooge McDuck.
People are partly right when the say the origin of the phrase “the love of money is the root of all evil” comes from the Bible. The problem is the one that I pointed out at the beginning. The phrase is not “the love of money is the root of all evil.” It is “the love of money is the root of all evil.” So, the phrase “the love of money is the root of all evil,” has an origin in the Bible.
The phrase is found in 1 Timothy 6:10. Some translations say that the love of money is the root of “all kinds of evil.” The Douay-Rheims translation says that it is the “desire of money.”
This phrase doesn’t mean that liking having money to be able to pay is a bad thing. The evil happens when money is wanted, so bad things are done to get it. If money is loved so much, it is certain that people will do anything to get it.
This is a direct translation from the Greek. It says, ” ῥίζα γὰρ πάντων τῶν κακῶν ἐστιν ἡ φιλαργυρία .” If translated word for word this says, “root for of all the evil is the love of money.”
While this is not how we would say the phrase in English, it makes sense. Thus, we get “the love of money is the root of all evil.”
Sources:
1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.. (n.d.). Online Parallel Bible: Weaving God’s Word into the Web . Retrieved January 31, 2011, from http://bible.cc/1_timothy/6-10.htm
1 Timothy 6:10 Greek Texts and Analysis. (n.d.). Biblos.com: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages . Retrieved January 31, 2011, from http://biblos.com/1_timothy/6-10.htm
Martin, G. (n.d.). The love of money is the root of all evil. The meanings and origins of sayings and phrases . Retrieved January 31, 2011, from http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/238725.html
