1 Timothy 6:10

the love of money One word in the original, occurring only here and belonging to the later Greek; the adjective in Luke 16:14, -the Pharisees, who were covetous," R.V. -lovers of money," and so 2 Timothy 3:2. -It differs from the ordinary word for covetousness (e.g. Colossians 3:5) (which does not occur in these Epistles) in denoting rather avarice, a love of money already gained, than an active grasping after more." Trench's N. T. Synonyms, § 24.

the root of all evil It has been much questioned whether we are to translate this admitted predicate -a root" or -the root." On the general grammatical question, such passages as 1 Corinthians 11:3, -the head of the woman is (the) man," make -the root," quite correct; if with R.V. we render -a root," it lays a stresson there being other roots, which is beside the point: the stress surely is on the -all," interpreted however in that rhetoricalsense, if it may be so called, which is common in N. T. as elsewhere (cf. 1 Timothy 6:17), and is well given in R.V. We may translate the root of all kinds of evil. For this use of the plural we may compare -supplies of food," 1 Timothy 6:8.

which while some coveted after -Which (love-of-money) some reaching after," R.V. keeping to the root-notion of the participle. The verb (and its noun) occur four times in N. T. and in each place the Revisers give a different version, 1 Timothy 3:1 and Hebrews 11:16 in a good sense; here and Romans 1:27 in a bad sense. -Desire," a colourless word, would fit everywhere, but is weak. Bp Wordsworth ingeniously explains the seemingly incongruous desire for the love-of-money thus: -riches were a proof of divine approbation: love of wealth was a love of God's favour: thus they sanctified avarice." But the relative is only formally, logically, in agreement with the abstract. -love-of-money:" all readers of A.V. or R.V. would refer the -which" to the real antecedent in sense, -money," and would be virtually right.

have erred from the faith R.V. is justified in rendering have been led astray. The Greek aorist -merely represents the action of having occurred, as filling a point of past time" (Winer, iii., xl. 45, a). When it stands by itself, as here, with no qualifying word, this force is represented by the English perfect, as giving just in our idiom the past verbal idea merely, with no further stress or point, cf. Ellicott on 1 Thessalonians 2:16. The word occurs in N.T. again only in Mark 13:32, -that they may lead astray, if possible, the elect." -The faith" as in 1 Timothy 1:19, where see note.

pierced themselves through Lat. transfigo; only here in N.T.