MAMMONA. — Term (Mamowaz, Aramaic mândonâ, Neo-Syriac mândon, “money,” “gain”), which occurs 4 times in the New Testament in the mouth of Jesus: “You cannot serve God and M.” (Mt 6:24 = Lk 16:13). In these instances M. is a rhetorical personification of material wealth, not a Canaanite idol, as some exegetes believe.
In Lk 16:9 Jesus says: “Make friends for yourselves by means of the M. of unrighteousness.” Here the term M. is used as a common noun; the formula was already proverbial. A little further on (Lk 16:11) in the expression: “If you were not faithful in the unrighteous M…,” the term is a common noun joined to an adjective. It can be translated as “wealth” or “unrighteous gain.” The Targum renders the expression bešaʿraʾ of Hab 2:9 with mândon rešaʾ.