Enciclopedia Cattolica Vol. VII, 1951 Sacred Scripture Particular topics

Mammon

MAMMONA

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MAMMON. - Term (Μαμωνάς, Aramaic māmōnā', Neo-Hebrew māmōn, "money", "gain"), which occurs 4 times in the New Testament on the lips of Jesus: "You cannot serve God and M." (Mt. 6:24 = Lk. 16:13). In these cases M. is a rhetorical personification of material wealth, not a Canaanite idol, as certain exegetes believe.

In Lk. 16:9 Jesus says: "Make friends for yourselves with 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 in the unrighteous m. you were not faithful..." the term is a common noun, joined to an adjective. It can be translated as "wealth" or "unrighteous gain." The Targum renders the expression bēṣa'ra' of Hab. 2:9 with māmōn reśa'.

About this entry

By Pietro De Ambroggi

How we know recovered from an earlier OCR reading

Translated from the Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VII (1951), col. 1938.

More by Pietro De Ambroggi: Mangenot, Joseph-Eugène · Malchus (Mellyoc, Malchus, from Semitic Malk = "King") · Magnificat · Magi · Magdala

Cite this article

Chicago

De, Ambroggi Pietro. “Mammona.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VII, col. 1938. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1951. https://azioneromana.com/article/mammona.

MLA

De, Ambroggi Pietro. “Mammona.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VII, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1951, col. 1938. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/mammona.

BibTeX

@incollection{ec7_mammona,
  author    = {De, Ambroggi Pietro},
  title     = {Mammona},
  booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
  volume    = {VII},
  pages     = {1938},
  note      = {Cited by column},
  publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
  address   = {Città del Vaticano},
  year      = {1951},
  url       = {https://azioneromana.com/article/mammona}
}

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