Love of money


In Christian tradition, the love of money is condemned as a sin primarily based on texts such as Ecclesiastes 5:10 and 1 Timothy 6:10. The Christian condemnation relates to avarice and greed rather than money itself. The Christian texts are full of parables and use easy to understand subjects, such as money, to convey the actual message, there are further parallels in Solon and Aristotle, and Massinissa—who ascribed love of money to Hannibal and the Carthaginians.. Avarice is one of the Seven deadly sins in the Christian classifications of vices.

Judaism

lists "love of money" as a secular love, while Israel Salanter considers love of money for its own sake a non-universal inner force. A tale about Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Heshel of Apt, rabbi in Iasi, recounts that he, who normally scorned money, had the habit of looking kindly on money before giving it to the poor at Purim, since only in valuing the gift could the gift express love of God. Berachot 54a teaches businessmen to "elevate their love of money to the same status as their love of God, which means that they should thereby love God enough to follow his commandment."

Christianity

Cultural history

defines love of money as a subcategory of avarice. Luther referred to the love of money in strong accusations against the Catholic Church in his initial work of the Ninety-five Theses or Disputation on the Power of Indulgences. He saw the selling of an indulgence by the church, ie paying money to the church to gain a reduction of penalty of sins in purgatory as being more commercial greed of the church than it was doing actual good for the Christian person. Later in some sermons he shone the spotlight on commercial money lenders which happened to be Jewish and one can argue have anti-semitic undertones. However, more to the point is thesis 43 of the Ninety Five thesis "A Christian who gives to the poor or lends to those in need is doing better in God’s eyes than one who buys ‘forgiveness’ "., as in a Jew who changed from being a money lender with greed to a money lender with charity would be doing better in God's eyes than simply purchasing a piece of paper that said they will spend less time in purgatory from Luther's point of view.