Editing Mammon (section)

==Etymology==
The word ''Mammon'' comes into English from [[Late Latin|post-classical Latin]] ''mammona'' 'wealth', used most importantly in the [[Vulgate Bible]] (along with [[Tertullian|Tertullian's]] ''mammonas'' and pseudo-Jerome's ''mammon''). This was in turn borrowed from [[Greek language|Hellenistic Greek]] μαμωνᾶς, which appears in the [[New Testament]], borrowed from Aramaic מָמוֹנָא  ''māmōnā'', an emphatic form of the word ''māmōn'' 'wealth, profit',<ref name="oed">"Mammon, n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2016. Web. 3 September 2016.</ref> perhaps specifically from the [[Syriac language|Syriac]] dialect. The spelling μαμμωνᾷ refers to "a Syrian deity, god of riches; Hence riches, wealth"; μαμωνᾶς is transliterated from Aramaic [ממון] and also means "wealth".<ref name="Webster">''Webster's Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged'': Publishers International Press, New York, 1977.</ref> However, it is not clear what the earlier history of the Aramaic form was.<ref name="oed"/><ref name="Hastings">Hastings, James, ed.; New York, Scribners, 1908–1921, [https://archive.org/stream/encyclopaediaofr08hastuoft#page/374/mode/1up ''Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics''], Volume 8:374</ref> The word may have been present throughout the [[Canaanite languages]]: the word is unknown in Old Testament Hebrew, but has been found in the [[Qumran documents]];<ref name="Fitzmyer1997">{{cite book|author=Joseph A. Fitzmyer|title=Essays on the Semitic Background of the New Testament|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ElJQNk_r9AEC&pg=PA169|date=1 December 1997|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|isbn=978-0-8028-4845-1|pages=169–}}</ref> post-biblical Hebrew attests to ''māmōn''; and, according to [[Augustine of Hippo]], Punic included the word ''mammon'' 'profit'.<ref name="oed" /> It has been suggested that the Aramaic word ''māmōn'' was a [[loanword]] from [[Mishnaic Hebrew]] ממון (mamôn) meaning money,<ref>Michael Sokoloff, JHU Press, Jan 3, 2003, [https://books.google.com/books?id=WdNOtHEPlf4C&q=money%2C+monetary+penalty&pg=PA682 ''A Dictionary of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic of the Talmudic and Geonic Periods''], p.682</ref><ref>[http://en.glosbe.com/he/en/%D7%9E%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%9F Translation and definition "ממון", Dictionary Hebrew–English online] (Modern Hebrew)</ref><ref>Howard H. Covitz (March 30, 2000), [http://home.comcast.net/~hhcovitz/site/?/page/Shabbos_and_Proper_Nouns/&PHPSESSID=b0640460cc5eec30d3ae9588f1653d1b ''Shabbos and Proper Nouns'']: "When scriptural translators chose not to translate ממון (mammon), this common Babylonian-exile word for money, they effectively neutered the Galilean's admonition against idolizing riches, against wealth-worship, by thus-making scripture resonate with proscriptions against another transgression, against the worship of strange gods."</ref> wealth,<ref>{{cite book|last=Fernandez|first=Miguel Perez|title=An Introductory Grammar of Rabbinic Hebrew|year=1999|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-10904-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OPQXid589wIC&dq=mammon+money%7Cwealth+aramaic%7CHebrew&pg=PA5|page=5}}</ref> or possessions;<ref name="france">{{cite journal |first=R. T. |last=France |title=God and Mammon |journal=The Evangelical Quarterly |volume=51 |issue=January–March 1979 |page=9 |url=https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/eq/1979-1_003.pdf }}</ref> although it may also have meant "that in which one trusts".<ref name=Hastings/>

According to the [[Textus Receptus]] of the New Testament,<ref name="TR">[https://www.logosapostolic.org/bibles/textus_receptus/] (07 Jan 2025)</ref> the Greek word translated "Mammon" is spelt in the dative case as [οὐ δύνασθε θεῷ δουλεύειν καὶ] μαμμωνᾷ in the [[Sermon on the Mount]] at [[Matthew 6]]:24, while in the [[Parable of the Unjust Steward]] at [[Luke 16]], it appears respectively as [ἐκ τοῦ] μαμωνᾶ (genitive case) in verse 9, [ἐν τῷ ἀδίκῳ] μαμωνᾷ (dative case) in verse 11, and [οὐ δύνασθε θεῷ δουλεύειν καὶ] μαμωνᾷ (dative case) in verse 13. The 28th edition of the popular Critical Text of the New Testament<ref name="NA28">Nestle-Aland, Novum Testamentum Graece, 28., revised ed., edited by Barbara and Kurt Aland, Johannes Karavidopoulos, Carlo M. Martini and Bruce M. Metzger together with the Institut für Neutestamentliche Textforschung, Münster,  Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, 2012</ref> has the same readings as the TR, except in Matthew: μαμωνᾷ. The [[LSJ]]<ref name="LSJ">Liddell, Henry George, Robert Scott, and Henry Stuart Jones. A Greek-English Lexicon. 9th ed. with revised supplement. Oxford: Clarendon, 1996</ref> has a listing for only [nominative:] μαμωνᾶς, [genitive ending:] ᾶ, with entry "wealth. Ev.Luc 16.9, al. (Aramaic word)," without any entry for the -μμ- form. The [[Authorised Version]] uses "Mammon" for both Greek spellings; [[John Wycliffe]] uses ''richessis''.

The [[Revised Standard Version]] of the Bible says it is "a Semitic word for [[money]] or riches".<ref>''Bible – Revised Standard Version'' (RSV), footnotes p. 6 NT Matthew 6:24, Melton Book Company, 1971</ref> The International Children's Bible (ICB) uses the wording "You cannot serve God and money at the same time".<ref>''International Children's Bible'' p. 482 Matthew 6:24 (Word Publishing, 2003)</ref>

Christians began to use "mammon" as a term that was used to describe gluttony, excessive materialism, greed, and unjust worldly gain.

[[File:Ill dict infernal p0455 mammon.jpg|thumb|right|Mammon from [[Collin de Plancy]]'s ''[[Dictionnaire Infernal]]'']]
{{blockquote|Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.|[[Matthew 6:19–20|Matthew 6:19]]–[[Matthew 6:21|21]], [[Matthew 6:24|24]] ([[King James Version|KJV]])}}

Early mentions of Mammon allude to the [[Gospels]], e.g., ''[[Didascalia]]'', "''De solo Mammona cogitant, quorum Deus est sacculus''" (lit. ''They think only of Mammon, whose God is the purse''); and [[Augustine of Hippo|Saint Augustine]], "''Lucrum Punice Mammon dicitur''" (lit. "''Riches is called Mammon by the Phoenicians''"  (Sermon on the Mount, ii).