Money-loving
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Philargyros means loving money or devoted to silver. Paul lists money-love among the corrupt traits of difficult times, alongside self-love, boasting, lack of natural affection, and a form of godliness without power.
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Full entry for φιλάργυρος (G5366) · Open the biblical lexicon
Philargyros means loving money or devoted to silver. Paul lists money-love among the corrupt traits of difficult times, alongside self-love, boasting, lack of natural affection, and a form of godliness without power.
The BSB source-word alignment has 2 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include lovers of money (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Luke 16:14. Its strongest book concentrations include 2 Timothy (1), Luke (1).
Philargyros means loving money or devoted to silver. Paul lists money-love among the corrupt traits of difficult times, alongside self-love, boasting, lack of natural affection, and a form of godliness without power. Luke identifies Pharisees as money-lovers who ridicule Jesus' teaching that no servant can serve God and wealth. Hebrews gives the positive opposite: conduct free from money-love, content with what one has because God promises never to leave or forsake His people.
The adjective addresses desire and allegiance, not merely possessing money. Poverty does not automatically remove greed, and wealth does not automatically prove it. The question is whether money functions as master, security, status, or tool under God.
Philargyros names a person whose affection and allegiance bend toward money. It appears in corrupt religious character, ridicule of Jesus' teaching, and the contrast of contentment rooted in God's presence.
For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
Second Timothy 3:2 says people will be lovers of self and lovers of money within a catalog of relationships distorted in difficult times. The vice can coexist with religious appearance.
The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all of this and were scoffing at Jesus.
Luke 16:14 says the Pharisees, being money-lovers, ridiculed Jesus after His teaching about faithful stewardship and the impossibility of serving both God and wealth.
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for God has said: “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.”
Hebrews 13:5 commands conduct free from money-love and contentment with present provision because God has promised never to leave or forsake His people. Divine presence answers anxious attachment.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Love of money as a root vice; exposes the heart's divided loyalty to God versus wealth.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
2 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
money-loving, avaricious
Read versemoney-loving, avaricious
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.
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.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 2 lexical occurrence verses.
φιλάργυρος is built from these roots:
Philargyros exposes affection before it exposes a bank balance. A person may possess little and still be ruled by money's promise, or possess much and steward it generously under God. Paul places money-love beside self-love and hollow religion, showing how greed can wear a pious face. Luke presents leaders who mock Jesus because His teaching threatens their allegiance.
Hebrews answers the craving not with romantic poverty but with contentment rooted in God's unbroken presence. Churches should examine budgets, fundraising, compensation, consumer desire, and the treatment of poor people without using wealth as a simplistic moral score. Freedom from money-love grows through trust, gratitude, honest work, generous sharing, and confidence that God will not abandon His people.
Luke.16.14
Philargyros combines philos, "loving," with argyros, "silver" or "money," and means fond of money or money-loving. It describes affection and orientation, not a specified asset threshold.
The Law warns against coveting and exploitation, wisdom exposes wealth's false security, and prophets condemn religious leaders who profit from injustice. God calls His people to generosity and trust.
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