Root Is Loot

1 Timothy Chapter 6:6-11: But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. 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. But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.

One thing of great interest to me here is the distinction between the root of all sorts of evil from the American/New American Standard translations of the bible and the root of all evil from the King James translation. I have long thought that people have a great capacity for evil in their hearts, one that ranges from mundane to truly monstrous. Mere money, even to include the thought of how to jealously horde the money one already has at the expense of others in addition to the typical greed of getting more, just doesn't cover all this. Crimes of passion, hatred of those who are different, lashing out at others due to self-loathing, plain old sadism... these things all exist, and certainly don't require money as an inspiration or 'root'. If one were able to read Greek (I cannot) or truly devote time to studying the differences in translation (I have not), I would be curious to know further why the translations differ. By my reckoning, the correct one is obvious.