Read this if you…
- want to read the Pauline letter on how to actually organize a church
- curious about where "the love of money is the root of all evil" comes from
- like the qualifications-for-bishops list and the practical, managerial Paul
Skip this if you…
- don't want to read explicitly religious/Christian texts
The lineage through 1 Timothy
- The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. 1 Timothy shaped it. - One line from *1 Timothy* — 6:10, 'the love of money is the root of all evil' — becomes the running theme of Chaucer's most damning character - The Pardoner preaches it as his Latin tag, *Radix malorum est cupiditas*, citing it again and again through his Prologue and Tale - The bite is that he preaches Paul's warning against greed while embodying that greed completely — Scripture turned into a con man's sales pitch
Depicted in Art
Headpiece vignette: a tablet inscribed with 'For there is one God and one mediator' rests on a pile of scrolls and a palm branch — the epistle's central confession set as a still life.
Philip James de Loutherbourg, 1800
Paul stands on a stone platform in Ephesus, arm raised, as listeners burn their books of magic at his feet — the dramatic moment of his Ephesian mission.
Eustache Le Sueur, 1649
Woodcut portrait: Timothy in episcopal dress, identified in the line of early bishops of Ephesus in Schedel's universal history.
Hartmann Schedel, 1493
Recommended Editions
King James Version
Oxford University Press · 1611
The most influential and commonly quoted translation in English. The prose rhythm everyone else is responding to, even modern translations.
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Notable Quotes
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
- Charles Spurgeon, Victorian Baptist preacher, 1834–1892: "Now, this text contains the gospel in brief, and yet I may say that it contains the gospel in full."
- Martin Luther, Reformation theologian, 1483–1546: "A model to all bishops of what they are to teach and how they are to rule Christendom."
- John Chrysostom, Church Father, Archbishop of Constantinople, c. 347–407: "The Church is the pillar of the world."
- John Calvin, Reformation theologian, 1509–1564: "This Epistle appears to me to have been written more for the sake of others than for the sake of Timothy."
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