Interpreting Paul with Respect to the Doctrine of Inerrancy
The Christian doctrine of inerrancy holds that every proposition that the Bible affirms as true is true. Now, the New Testament affirms the following:
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” (1 Tim. 6:10)
(I will assume that Paul wrote this verse and that it is part of the canon. Scholars disagree over whether or not Paul wrote 1 Timothy. Nevertheless, the Christian tradition recognizes Paul as the author and holds that 1 Timothy is canonical.)
In what sense is Paul’s statement true?
“All” appears to be a universal quantifier. Yet there seem to be counterexamples. For instance, the evil of the first sins of Adam and Eve were not rooted in the love of money, for no money existed at that time. The same point goes for all moral evil that occurred prior to the existence of money. Moreover, the evils of adultery, gluttony, stupidity, sloth, arrogance, etc. typically are not rooted in avarice.
Perhaps Paul’s statement is a generic statement like “Birds fly.” This statement is true in general, although it’s not true that all birds fly. Some particular birds don’t fly, such as penguins and ostriches, though it is nevertheless true that, in general, birds fly. Similarly, Paul’s statement is true of many kinds of evil in the sense that the inappropriate love of lucre can generate them, though there are some specific evils which are not so generated. The problem is that this interpretation of the verse might not do justice to the use of “all.”
Maybe “all” refers to a limited domain of discourse. According to this interpretation, Paul is not addressing absolutely all kinds of evil, but only those that spring from avarice. But this interpretation would indicate that Paul meant “Avarice is a root of all kinds of evil that spring from avarice.” This claim doesn’t seem very informative.
Is Paul using hyperbole? Did he mean “The love of money is a root of many kinds of evil”? Did he use “all” for hyperbolic emphasis? In this case, what is true is “The love of money is a root of many kinds of evil.” The verse as it is commonly rendered is a poetic device not to be taken literally.
How should one construe Paul’s use of “all”? This is a serious question for Christians who accept the doctrine of inerrancy.