1 Timothy 6:10

Ver. 10. For a root of all evils is the love of money or simply, root of all evils. Putting it in the latter way, the exact counterpart of the original, which also gives prominence to the term root, as the apostle undoubtedly meant, we might evade the question whether, if an article were employed, it should be the definite or the indefinite. It is certainly more in accordance with English idiom in such a passage to use an article; and if one is used, then I think, with Middleton, Huther, Conybeare, and Ellicott, against Alford, that the indefinite is the fittest a root of all evils is, etc., or the love of money is a root of all evils. No doubt the definite article might also be employed, as Alford contends, for the purpose simply of emphasizing root, designating avarice as such a vicious passion, that if it stood alone, all manner of evils might spring out of it. But, on the other hand, the expression so put is ambiguous; for it may also mean that it is the one thing which is so prolific of evil there is no other of which the same could be predicated: and that is not the case; for it might be said of ambition, and some other passions as well. The question is not, therefore, as Alford seems to consider, whether one might not here, as in other cases, use the definite article in English, where there is none in the Greek, in order to bring out the proper emphasis: one may well enough do so, as in the passage referred to by him (1 Corinthians 11:3), where, as there is but properly one thing of the kind to be thought of, it can occasion no ambiguity. But where the reverse is the case, as in the present instance, it is better to avoid it by employing the indefinite article, even though it should be with a partial sacrifice of the emphasis. The sentiment is, that there is no kind of evil to which the love of money may not lead men, when it once fairly takes hold of them. And the apostle further characterizes the affection by saying, which some, reaching after, have wandered away from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many pangs. There is a certain looseness in the structure of the passage, since avarice, or the love of money (φιλαργυρία), being itself an affection of the mind, a lust, one cannot strictly be said to reach or long after it. The passion is obviously identified by the apostle with its object money as a thing loved and sought after; and some, he says, reaching forth in their desires after this, made a twofold shipwreck: first, of their Christian principles, departing from the faith; and second, of their happiness, piercing themselves through (περιέπειραν, transfixed) with many pangs. What precisely these were we are left to infer; but the expression seems to point to inward rather than to outward troubles to sorrows of heart, the pungent rebukes of conscience, which came upon the individuals referred to when they saw, and had time to reflect on, the shameful course they had pursued.