For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: Is money good or bad?
Here are the two answers which the skeptic believes shows a Bible contradiction (skeptics’ comments included):
Money is the answer to all of life’s problems.
“Men prepare a meal for enjoyment, and wine makes life merry, and money is the answer to everything.” (Ecclesiastes 10:19)
Money (or the love of it) is the source of all evil.
“For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” (1 Timothy 6:10)
(All Scriptural quotation comes from the New American Standard Bible)
Here’s a closer look at whether or not there is a contradiction:
- When dealing with skeptics’ claim of Bible contradictions it seems one can never be reminded enough of what exactly is a contradiction. A contradiction occurs when two or more claims conflict with one another so that they cannot simultaneously be true in the same sense and at the same time. To put it another way, a Bible contradiction exists when there are claims within the Bible that are mutually exclusive in the same sense and at the same time.
- One of the reason why there is not a Bible contradiction here is because the verse Ecclesiastes 10:19 used by the skeptic to demonstrate that the Bible teaches “Money is the answer to all of life’s problems” actually doesn’t teach money is the answer to all of life’s problems if we understand Ecclesiastes 10:19 according to its context.
- Remember the book of Ecclesiastes often gives various perspective that is contrary to God’s Word in which the author attempts to live out a false worldview before coming to the conclusion that it is vanity. Knowing this should right away caution readers when someone tries to grab a Bible verse from Ecclesiastes and have it contradict another part of Scripture.
- It is unlikely that the author intend Ecclesiastes 10:19 to mean that money is the answer to everything when we understand the conclusion the author arrived at in the end of the book. Note the end of the Ecclesiastes states: “The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. 14 For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14). Note how these two verses did not mention the money is the answer to everything. Instead living in loving fear of God is the foundation for one’s meaning in life.
- Further support for this view can be seen from the rest of the book and what it teaches about money and wealth.
- Consider the more immediate context within Ecclesiastes 10. Verse six states “folly is set in many exalted places while rich men sit in humble places.” If money is the answer to everything then those who are rich should be able to be in exalted places all the time; yet we see this is not necessarily the case. And we should not be surprised with that if money is not the answer to everything.
- Ecclesiastes 5:10 states “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income. This too is vanity.” If money does not satisfy and the love of money is vanity that means money cannot be the answer to everything.
- Both Ecclesiastes 4:8 and Ecclesiastes 6:2 further elaborate on the point of Ecclesiastes 5:10 that money does not necessarily satisfy.
- In fact money cannot be the answer to everything when money itself can even bring about self-inflicted hurt to the one possessing money and wealth. Ecclesiastes 5:13 states “There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches being hoarded by their owner to his hurt.” If having riches can bring about one’s own hurt therefore it stands to reason that it is not the answer to everything.
- Another reason why there is not a Bible contradiction here is because the verse 1 Timothy 6;10 used by the skeptic to demonstrate that the Bible teaches “Money (or the love of it) is the source of all evil” actually doesn’t teach that. We must understand 1 Timothy 6:10 properly according to its context.
- Remember 1 Timothy 6:10 is written in Greek; even when we see an English translation we must remember that ultimately what we want to know is what does the original Greek terms meant rather than merely studying what does the contemporary English words translating the Greek of 1 Timothy 6:10 meant.
- The Greek word translated as “all” is πάντων. I think it is best to understand πάντων not so much as “every/all (with no exceptions)” in its meaning but “all sorts of (various categories)” instead. A case can be made for the interpretation that the Greek word should refer to “all sorts” instead of “every/all (with no exceptions).”
- The Greek word for “all” not always meaning “everything with no exception” can be seen in 1 Corinthians 10:23. The verse states “All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify.” Clearly Paul doesn’t mean everything is lawful with no exception; if that was the case there would be no such thing as sin. Rather the Greek function of “all” often refer to every sort of class or categories.
- 1 Corinthians 13:7 also prove the point that “all” in Greek does not mean “every/all (with no exceptions)” as we discussed before in our post “Bible Contradiction? Should we believe in unseen things?“
If both Ecclesiastes 10:19 does not demonstrate the skeptics’ claim that the Bible teaches “Money is the answer to all of life’s problems” and 1 Timothy 6:10 does not establish “Money (or the love of it) is the source of all evil” we therefore can properly conclude that there is not a Bible contradiction in this instance.
Thanks for resolving this alleged contradiction. I appreciate the amount of work you put into these.
You are welcome! I don’t want to knee jerk respond to these alleged contradictions but I want to refute these in a manner informed by context and Greek and Hebrew when it is appropriate. Like our previous conversation about the papal three crowns the legwork going into the research for these posts means some nights I’m too tired to finish it and must be posted another day. Let us pray God would bless our work to advance the Gospel beyond what we can imagine
That is a good prayer request
Thanks for taking so much time to study and write these; they are really useful
You’re welcome! This is the 69th Bible contradiction refuted! The idea of doing more of these systematically was motivated by your comments a few years back if you remember 🙂
69…wow. That’s a very impressive body of work bro Jim. And yes, I do remember!
Excellent! Need to have this in my arsenal to defend the truth. ~ Blessings ~
I’m glad to hear that; may we be faithful to 1 Peter 3:15 amen?
Need this in my arsenal too
Thanks for sharing SlimJim 😉
Context is key! and understanding the original languages is also vital. Thank you for all of these “Bible contradiction?” posts. J.
Amen to “Context is key!” You’re welcome. I appreciate you reading this J. I hope you have a blessed day.
Yeah, Ecclesiastes is a different read than the other Books of The Bible. In some verses it seems even sarcastic in its presentation of certain points. That’s the way I’ve understood it anyway.
I think you are right. As a I read your comment I was thinking of how often I hear skeptic make fun of fundamentalists for ignorant reading of the Bible. But ironically their inability to note literary devices and genres within Scripture result in terribly ignorant reading of the Bible. What an interesting reversal isn’t it?
Yeah, especially for those who think of themselves as superior to us. 😉
[…] Is money good or bad? […]
Reblogged this on By the Mighty Mumford and commented:
WHEW—IT IS THE LOVE OF MONEY–OR FOR SOMEONE ELSE’S RICHES THAT IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL!
Thanks Jonathan for the reblog!
it’s a topic with high interest to me!
[…] 1 Timothy 6:10 is another example. See our discussion in our response to the alleged Bible contradiction “Is money good or bad?“ […]
[…] 1 Timothy 6:10 is another example. See our discussion in our response to the alleged Bible contradiction “Is money good or bad?“ […]
[…] Is money good or bad? […]
[…] 1 Timothy 6:10 is a third example. See our discussion in our response to the alleged Bible contradiction “Is money good or bad?“ […]
Well your research definitely paid off
Seems to me a lot of Christians are confuse about whether money is good or bad too so this will be helpful for believers to have a nuanced view of money
[…] 1 Timothy 6:10 is a third example. See our discussion in our response to the alleged Bible contradiction “Is money good or bad?“ […]
[…] 1 Timothy 6:10 is a third example. See our discussion in our response to the alleged Bible contradiction “Is money good or bad?“ […]
[…] 1 Timothy 6:10 is a third example. See our discussion in our response to the alleged Bible contradiction “Is money good or bad?“ […]
[…] 1 Timothy 6:10 is a third example. See our discussion in our response to the alleged Bible contradiction “Is money good or bad?“ […]
[…] Is money good or bad? […]
[…] “all” and its meaning in the Greek; see “Should we believe in unseen things?“, “Is money good or bad?“, “Does the gospel of Luke contain everything that Jesus did?“, “Did Jesus tell his […]
[…] Is money good or bad? […]
[…] Is money good or bad? […]