Tool Beta
Is It Actually in the Bible?
Phrases people quote as Scripture. The real verse, or the honest answer that there is not one.
Money is the root of all evil
It's the love of money, not money itself.
1 Timothy 6:10, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul's actual line singles out a disposition, greed, not the object. "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil" (NET); the Greek philargyria means literally "fondness of silver." Money is morally neutral in the sentence; the craving is what he names as the problem.
The distinction is not incidental to the letter. Paul is writing to Timothy about church leadership and explicitly instructs elders and deacons toward hospitality and good management of their own households, not poverty. Elsewhere the Gospels commend wealthy figures outright: Zacchaeus keeps half his goods after his conversion (Luke 19:8-9), and Lydia, a dealer in expensive purple cloth, hosts the church in her home (Acts 16:14-15). The text targets the grip money has on a heart, not the presence of money in a life.
