Board index ‹ Specific Bible verses, texts, and passages ‹ 1 Timothy

[jimwalton]

Thanks for the comments, again. Your wisdom and discernment are showing.

"Root" is the common biological word from the plant kingdom. There's nothing in the term itself to give us any further hint about it. It's obviously metaphorical, and I would understand it to be speaking in terms of "source".

The more pertinent question at hand is the "of all evil." My interpretation of the text comes as much from Scripture as from grammar. While "root" has no article and could legitimately be translated as "a root" rather than "the root", to me sense tells me that the perils of lust, for instance, don't derive from the love of money. There are many "evils" of which the Bible speaks that do not find their source in the love of money. One only has to visit the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3.1-7 to find a source of evil that has nothing to do with money. 1 Jn. 2.16 speaks of the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does, not all of which are grounded in possessions or accumulations.

Jesus and James speak of the human heart as the root of evil (Mt. 12.35; James 1.14). If we're honest, we know that the greed and perversions of the human heart cause a person to seek money, which leads to all sorts of evil, but it's the heart that is the problem (Jer. 13.10; 17.9), not the cash. I would still claim that the idea of the verse is not that all evil stems from money, but that the love of money is able to lead to many many kinds of evil. Our pursuit of money is infinite, but it's not our only sinful pursuit.

[gmw803]

I look at my post, and I look at your post, and we disagree rather sharply on how the verse is translated, and we both use our divergent understanding of the Greek to exegete the verse convergently to the identical conclusion.

[jimwalton]

As long as we disagreeingly agree, then we agree that our disagreements agree with each other.