1 Timothy 6:10

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil: which some reaching after have been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

The thought of this verse is parallel with 1 Timothy 6:9; and again, it is not the possession of money, but the love of it and the pursuit of it, which are condemned. The old King James Version, of course, rendered this "root of all evil"; but the American Standard Version (1901) has hardly improved it. As White said of this rendition, "It is hardly satisfactory."[18] True, making money the root of "all evil" seems a little extravagant to some; but, again from White: "When one is dealing with a degrading vice of any kind, the interests of virtue are not served by qualified assertions."[19] The old rendition that "the love of money is the root of all evil" appears to be exactly what the Greek says; and, if going beyond the truth a little in the allowance that there are SOME "evils" not attributed to the love of money, the expression stands anyway as hyperbole, a metaphor used by all of the sacred writers.

Pierced themselves through with many sorrows ... This is the same thought of being drowned in destruction and perdition, mentioned in 1 Timothy 6:9.

[18] Newport J. D. White, op. cit., p. 144.

[19] Ibid.