Mammon

Matthew 6:24

Matthew 6:24, in every translation this tool compares.

First, in plain English

An Aramaic word for money. Jesus personifies it as a rival master you cannot serve alongside God, which is a way of talking, not a demon. Nobody in the ancient world worshipped a god called Mammon.

What the text says

An Aramaic word, mamona, for wealth or property, probably from the root 'mn, "that in which one trusts." Jesus personifies it as a rival master, which is rhetoric and not demonology: "No servant can serve two masters… You cannot serve God and money" (Luke 16:13). The Greek plays on the root two verses earlier: "If you have not been faithful (pistoi) in the unrighteous mammon, who will entrust (pisteusei) to you the true riches?" (Luke 16:11). The demon of greed isn't purely a medieval invention, either. Some later Christian sources already personify Mamonas as a demon on the strength of Luke 16:13 setting him against God as a rival kyrios, well before Milton and the occult lists gave the figure a face and a rank (DDD s.v. "Mammon," 542).

The word

G3126 (μαμωνᾶς), 4 occ

Where it appears

Matthew 6:24
Luke 16:9,11,13

Sources

DDD s.v. "Mammon," 542, note-to-build: missing from entities.json