Hey, I was actually just thinking about you today. I was wondering where you happened off to. Glad to see you're still around. :)

The phrase "Money is the root of all evil" (and variants thereof) are common, but I don't think that any of them are right. That's similar to what you concluded. The actual phrase from the King James version of the Bible is "the love of money is the root of all evil." 1 Timothy 6:10

When the verse is correctly recalled, it gives much more clarity as to why the evil exists. When someone cares more about money than others, they are greedy and do things like embezzle, or steal, or defraud. The love of money can lead a person to do all sorts of evil things. The money itself isn't evil. It can be used for evil though.

I think your conclusion that money is a tool is appropriate. Your look into the origins of money is appropriate because the thinking behind how it got started can lead us to have a better view of money and how it should be used. Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe we all just keep loving the money and forgetting to do good and not evil. Or maybe we actually change. Time will tell.