Unavaricious
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Aphilargyros means free from the love of money, not avaricious, or without devotion to silver. An overseer must embody this freedom alongside gentleness and peaceableness, and Hebrews commands the whole church to keep its way of life free from money-love because God will never abandon His people.
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Full entry for ἀφιλάργυρος (G866) · Open the biblical lexicon
Aphilargyros means free from the love of money, not avaricious, or without devotion to silver. An overseer must embody this freedom alongside gentleness and peaceableness, and Hebrews commands the whole church to keep its way of life free from money-love because God will never abandon His people.
The BSB source-word alignment has 2 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include [and] free of the love of money (1), free from the love of money (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at 1 Timothy 3:3. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Timothy (1), Hebrews (1).
Aphilargyros means free from the love of money, not avaricious, or without devotion to silver. An overseer must embody this freedom alongside gentleness and peaceableness, and Hebrews commands the whole church to keep its way of life free from money-love because God will never abandon His people. The adjective does not require owning nothing, forbid saving, or make poverty proof of holiness.
It identifies a heart and life not governed by acquisition, financial fear, status, or the leverage wealth can provide. God's promised presence supplies the deepest counterweight: believers can practice honest work, responsible provision, generosity, transparent stewardship, and hospitality without treating money as savior, identity, or permission to exploit others.
Aphilargyros describes freedom from money-love. Leaders must display it, and all believers cultivate it by trusting God's abiding presence rather than wealth's promises of security and control.
Not dependent on wine, not violent but gentle, peaceable, and free of the love of money.
First Timothy 3:3 requires an overseer to be not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, and free from money-love. Financial desire is assessed within the leader's whole use of power.
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 tells believers to keep their conduct free from money-love and be content with what they have because God has promised never to leave or forsake them.
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 uses the related noun philargyria as supporting context, warning that money-love is a root of all kinds of evil and has drawn some away from the faith.
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. Freedom from money-love as a virtue; not merely avoiding greed but actively rejecting financial desire
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.
not loving money, not avaricious
Read versenot loving money, not 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 2 case and number patterns. 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.
ἀφιλάργυρος is built from these roots:
Aphilargyros names a freedom deeper than looking inexpensive. An overseer can display greed through salary, gifts, access, contracting, fundraising pressure, or decisions shaped to protect donors and personal security. Hebrews addresses the same rival trust among all believers and answers it with God's presence: the Lord who does not forsake His people is more reliable than accumulated wealth.
This does not eliminate budgets, saving, compensation, or provision for dependents. It reorders them beneath worship and neighbor love. Churches should assess financial character through patterns of honesty, generosity, conflicts of interest, and willingness to be accountable. They should also resist shaming the poor or idealizing deprivation. Freedom from money-love is positive trust that makes faithful stewardship possible.
Heb.13.5
Aphilargyros negates philargyros, loving silver or money. It describes a person not characterized by avarice, while the related noun philargyria names money-love itself.
The prophets condemn bribes and purchased justice, wisdom exposes trust in riches, and covenant generosity protects the poor. God's faithful presence repeatedly grounds courage without material guarantees.
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