What does φιλαργυρία (philargyría) mean in the Bible?
Philargyria means love of money, affection for wealth, or avarice. In 1 Timothy, Paul does not say money itself is the root of every evil; he says money-love is a root of all kinds of evils.
Greek · G5365
φιλαργυρία
Avarice
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φιλαργυρία G5365
Pronunciation philargyría
What does φιλαργυρία (philargyría) mean in the Bible?
Philargyria means love of money, affection for wealth, or avarice. In 1 Timothy, Paul does not say money itself is the root of every evil; he says money-love is a root of all kinds of evils.
Reader summary
Full entry for φιλαργυρία (G5365) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G5365?
The BSB source-word alignment has 1 aligned row for this entry. Common renderings include love of money (1).
Where does φιλαργυρία (philargyría) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at 1 Timothy 6:10. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Timothy (1).
What This Word Actually Means
Philargyria means love of money, affection for wealth, or avarice. In 1 Timothy, Paul does not say money itself is the root of every evil; he says money-love is a root of all kinds of evils. The desire to be rich exposes people to temptation, trapping desires, wandering from the faith, and many self-inflicted griefs. The noun names a ruling attachment rather than a bank balance, so poverty does not guarantee freedom from it and wealth does not by itself prove it.
Its opposite is not financial carelessness but godliness with contentment, generous readiness, honest work, provision for dependents, and hope placed in God rather than uncertain riches.
How the Bible Uses It
Philargyria names money-love as a generative root of many evils. Its context traces acquisitive desire from imagined gain through temptation and spiritual wandering, then redirects hope toward God and generous action.
- 1Tim.6.6
Of course, godliness with contentment is great gain.
First Timothy 6:6 establishes the positive contrast in immediate context: godliness with contentment is great gain, unlike devotion treated as a means of profit.
- 1Tim.6.9
Those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.
First Timothy 6:9 traces the desire to become rich into temptation, a snare, and many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin.
- 1Tim.6.10
For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.
First Timothy 6:10 contains the occurrence: money-love is a root of all kinds of evils, and by reaching for it some have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It love of money 1× 1 Timothy 6:10
Show sample aligned rows
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row 1 Timothy 6:10
Aligned rows 1
Books represented 1
1 Timothy 1
Source forms
φιλαργυρία 1x philargyria 1 Timothy 6:10
Parsing patterns
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular 1x 1 Timothy 6:10
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Do not quote the verse as though money itself were the root of every evil or the only source of wrongdoing.
- Do not infer money-love solely from wealth or deny it solely because a person is poor, modestly dressed, or publicly charitable.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not quote the verse as though money itself were the root of every evil or the only source of wrongdoing.
- Do not infer money-love solely from wealth or deny it solely because a person is poor, modestly dressed, or publicly charitable.
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Love of money as an inordinate passion, distinct from covetousness which seeks excessive gain.
Strong's G5365
Lexical occurrences 1 verse Greek text appearances 1 time Word forms 1 form 1 reference Verse guides 0 guides
Study link 1 Timothy 6:3-10 Source Gloss
avarice
Extended definition Source: STEPBible TBESG + Abbott-Smith
Love of money as an inordinate passion, distinct from covetousness which seeks excessive gain.
(φιλάργυρος), [in LXX: 4Ma.1:26 4Mac 2:15 א1 * ;] love of money, avarice: 1Ti.6:1.
Synonymsπλεονεξία, covetousness (see Tr., Syn., § xxiv)
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
1 Greek text appearance shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
1 Timothy 6:10 Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
φιλαργυρία· filarguria
love of money, avarice
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 1 case and number pattern. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Form patterns 1 Aligned forms 1 Case pattern Nominative (1) Number pattern Singular (1)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Singular · Feminine 1 Tim 6:10 1×
Where It Appears in Scripture
Where this word appears in Scripture: passage, original form, and sense in context.
New Testament Witnesses
Affection or devotion to wealth.
Word Origins
φιλαργυρία is built from this root:
Why This Word Matters
Greed becomes a root from which many forms of evil grow. 1 Timothy 6:3-10
For the Preacher and Teacher
Philargyria exposes a love that recruits money to promise security, significance, pleasure, and control. Paul carefully targets the desire to be rich and calls money-love a root of all kinds of evils, not the sole explanation of every sin. The root can grow in any economic condition: a rich person may hold resources generously, while a person with little may still organize life around acquisition.
The passage answers avarice with contentment, flight from harmful desire, pursuit of godliness, and commands for the rich to hope in God and be generous. Churches should examine fundraising, compensation, purchasing, donor influence, and personal habits without shaming poverty or romanticizing it. Financial discipleship asks what we love, trust, pursue, and willingly share.
Anchor passage
1Tim.6.10
Doctrinal connections
- Idolatry: money-love assigns created wealth promises that belong to God.
- Human desire: the wish to become rich can open a path into temptation and ruin.
- Apostasy: reaching for wealth has drawn some away from the faith.
- Contentment: godliness receives God's provision without making gain its measure.
- Hope: wealthy believers are commanded to set hope on God rather than uncertain riches.
- Generosity: freedom from avarice becomes readiness to share and richness in good works.
Philargyria combines philos, loving or affectionate toward, with argyrion, silver or money. The noun names money-love; it does not say that the material means of exchange possesses moral agency.
From Old to New Testament
Achan, Gehazi, corrupt judges, and exploitative merchants show desire for gain distorting covenant loyalty. Wisdom repeatedly contrasts trust in riches with fear of the Lord and generosity to the poor.
Sources
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain