“For the love of money (silver) is the root of all evils; it is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced their hearts with many pangs.” - Paul the Apostle...
The Curmudgeon's Bible Collection
Maybe you've read the bible all your life, often seeing the words money, or riches or wealth?
Guess what?
When you see "money" in English bibles, the original word is almost always something else. Few words in scripture truly match this English term.
No wonder you're confused about what "money" is, much less able to recognize what makes money honest?
I'm known for complaining bitterly about corrupt and misleading bible translations that keep us confused and ignorant.
Shall we dig in and see what the bible really says about "money?"
We'll look at five monetary technologies:
Three enjoy distinct scriptural advantages. One—because it best models biblical principles—may soon sweep the world.
And we will, of course, once again give translating committees a piece of our mind.
Money is a technology, a tool with properties that facilitate the exchange of goods and services. Money should be fungible, durable, portable, divisible, widely accepted, uniform, scarce, and (perhaps most important) a secure store of value. Different money technologies can vary radically in quality. Good money technology enables us to preserve the value of our work indefinitely. Bad money technology quickly loses its value—sometimes over night.
Human government, AKA the state, claims to have an exclusive right to create "legal" money. At its founding, the United States required the use of commodity money:
"No State shall ... make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts ..."
- Article. I., Section 10, The Constitution of the United States
Later, an inferior money technology known as representative money came into use. (Where are the constitutionalists when you need them?) The state issued "gold certificates" and "silver certificates" to represent a certain amount of precious metal purportedly held in reserve by the US government.
Then, in 1971, the quality of "money" was dealt a death-blow. "Money" issued and controlled by the state since 1971 is an inferior technology known as fiat currency. It has value solely because it is sanctioned by the state, widely used, and by "law" must be accepted to settle debts. Fiat is a fraudulent money technology the state uses to rob you while you sleep.
How?
Only the state is allowed to issue fiat. If you or I were to print copies—no matter how perfect—we would be jailed for the crime of counterfeiting. While we must work for our money, the state creates it without restraint. The more dollars created, the less each dollar is worth.
Since the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913, the purchasing power of the dollar has declined by more than 95 percent. The state spends newly created dollars with its cronies, using them for everything from abortions to global warfare.
Fiat is the state's principal tool to enslave us; the more the state prints, the less the dollars we earn and save are worth. Ominously, we are on the threshold of an even worse fiat money technology; the CBDC or Central Bank Digital Currency, a form of fiat with built-in surveillance and control.
More than half the population of Earth was born after 1971, and has only ever known and used fiat money technology. The rest of us—like lobsters in a pot—have had more than half a century to forget anything better ever existed. This is why the word money is a misleading translation of any of the underlying Hebrew and Greek words.
Money technology words in the bible either explicitly denote commodity money—the best of the money technologies we've mentioned so far—or indirectly allude to it. (See Appendix A)
If you could read the bible in its original languages—or even in an honest translation—you might have escaped this almost universal ignorance about 'money.' Were translators honest, you would see the word "money" rarely if ever in scripture.
What would you see instead? Words for commodity money, like silver, or gold, or coins, or weight, or material. (See Appendix A).
The root word for wealth in the Old Testament is "heavy" (Hebrew 'kavad' כָּבַד). Modern English retains vestiges of the commodity money concept, speaking of someone as a "heavy," or of "weighty" matters. For example, Abraham was "heavy" (i.e. wealthy) because he had much silver, gold, and livestock.
Contemplating the original languages might help you realize that the paper we think of as "money" is an extremely poor substitute for valuable, heavy commodities like gold or silver.
Thank God, I have some good news.
Surprisingly to many, it's the digital money called bitcoin.
What makes bitcoin superior money technology?
Forget the negatives you may have heard from state-sponsored media. Forget the countless inferior imitators of bitcoin. Do your own research; study bitcoin!
Bitcoin is honest money. Though technically weightless, bitcoin is truly "a weighty matter" because it is secured by the largest computer network on the planet.
Bitcoin is the money technology most responsive to biblical admonitions that we use "honest weights and measures." Guaranteeing a money supply forever limited to 21 million units, bitcoin is a digital scarcity. Not even nation-states can inflate the supply of bitcoin, nor can bitcoin be confiscated when properly held in self-custody.
Put your savings in bitcoin if you want to preserve their value. As the 14+ year history of bitcoin has already proven, everything from now on will continue to cost less and less when measured in bitcoin because of bitcoin's guaranteed fixed supply.
At the very least, get off zero now and secure an inheritance for your children.
But now I have some even better news for you.
Jesus describes the ultimate money technology in several places in the bible, and (as mentioned above) it's not a commodity money. It is, rather, the lasting good works that God has prepared for us who trust and rest in Jesus our Lord. Unexpectedly, this wealth is not something we earn; it is a gift from God resulting in our gratitude-filled response to his kindness.
Among other things, Jesus calls this kind of wealth "the food which endures," and "unfailing treasure in heaven", and "money belts which do not wear out", and "true riches". This is the "coin of the realm" in the Kingdom of God.
In contrast, earthly money technologies can only offer "food which perishes" and "the uncertainty of riches."
I encourage you to begin relying on Jesus our God today, and to start storing up your "low time-preference" treasure in heaven itself. You can learn a lot about Jesus by reading this short book.
All our lives, we've been lied to about money; kept in the dark by dishonest translations of the bible, taught "economics for dummies" in dumbed-down government schools, and duped into using inferior fiat money that robs us while we sleep.
We've considered five money technologies; fiat, representative, commodity, bitcoin, and "true wealth." The original language of scripture reveals that commodity money is predominantly in view.
Because it is not subject to inflation—and for many other reasons beyond the scope of this article—bitcoin is the finest money technology thus far devised by man, matching biblical ideals better than any other.
I urge you to transfer your wealth into the best available money technology today.
The links in this list of original biblical language words may help you see that the true meaning of "money" has been hidden from your view.
H3513 (heavy, i.e., rich - e.g., Genesis 13:2)
H3701 and H3702 (silver)
H7192 (silver, piece or weight of)
H5674 (currency in trade - e.g., Genesis 23:16)
H3724 (cover, ransom - e.g., Exodus 21:30)
G694 (silver)
G1323 (silver, two drachma coin)
G4715 (silver, stater coin)
G5365 (silver, the love of)
G5475 (brass)
G2772 and G2773 (piece of a coin)
G5536 (matter, material)
G3546 (legal tender/lawful money, nomisma coin)
G3126 (mammon/wealth)
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