US Trends

who said money is the root of all evil

The line “money is the root of all evil” is a popular misquote of a verse traditionally attributed to the apostle Paul in the Christian New Testament.

Who actually said it?

  • The idea comes from Paul’s first letter to Timothy in the Bible, written in the first century.
  • The original wording is closer to: “For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil,” not “money is the root of all evil.”

The original Bible verse

  • The source is 1 Timothy 6:10 in the New Testament.
  • Many modern explanations emphasize that the verse targets greed and attachment to wealth, not money itself as inherently evil.

Why it’s often misquoted

  • Over time, preachers, writers, and everyday speech shortened the verse to the catchier “money is the root of all evil.”
  • This simplified version spread in sermons, books, and media, so many people now think that exact wording is in the Bible when it is not.

TL;DR:
The phrase comes from the apostle Paul, but the accurate quote is “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil,” not “money is the root of all evil.”

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.