Mammon

Mammon  - in occult lore, a fallen angel now ruling in Hell as one of the arch-demons and prince of the tempters.  In De Plancy, Dictionnaire Infernal, Mammon is certified as Hell's ambassador to England.  he is equated with Lucifer, Satan, Beelzebub, and even with Nebuchadnezzar.  Mammon is the demon of avarice.  He "holds the throne of this world,' as St. Francesca observed in one of her 93 visions.  The medieval notion was that Mammon was a Syrian god.  Gregory of Nyssa took Mammon to be a name for Beelzebub.  Matthew 6:24 and Luke 16:13 speak of Mammon as a power hostile to God.  He is pictured in Barrett, The Magus, and mentioned in Paradise Lost I, 678-681:  "Mammon led them on/Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell/from heav'n, e'n in heav'n his looks and thoughts were always Downward bent." (a)

Mammon

HUGH POPE
Transcribed by Douglas J. Potter

Mamona; the spelling Mammona is contrary to the textual evidence and seems not to occur in printed Bibles till the edition of Elzevir. The derivation of the word is uncertain, perhaps from mmn as seen in mtmwn, though the Targums, which use the word frequently, never regard it as the equivalent of mtmwn, which the Greek always renders thesauroi, cf. Job, iii, 4; Prov., ii, 4. But cf. also Hebrew Ecclus., xlii, 9, bth l'b mtmnt sqr where the margin reads mtmwn, "to the father his daughter is as ill-gotten treasure." In the New Testament only Matt., vi, 24, and Luke, xvi, 9, 11, 13, the latter verse repeating Matt., vi, 24. In Luke, xvi, 9 and 11 Mammon is personified, hence the prevalent notion, emphasized by Milton, that Mammon was a deity. Nothing definite can be adduced from the Fathers in support of this; most of their expressions which seem to favour it may be easily explained by the personification in Luke; e.g. "Didascalia", "Do solo Mammona cogitant, quorum Deus est sacculus"; similarly St. Augustine, "Lucrum Punice Mammon dicitur" (Serm. on Mt., ii); St. Jerome in one place goes near to such an identification when (Dial. cum Lucif., 5) he quotes the words: "No man can serve two masters", and then adds, "What concord hath Christ with Belial?" But in his "Commentary on Matt," and in Ep. xxii, 31, he lends no countenance to it: "'Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.' Riches, that is; for in the heathen tongue of the Syrians riches are called Mammon." But Mammon was commonly regarded as a deity in the Middle Ages; thus Peter Lombard (II, dist. 6) says, "Riches are called by the name of a devil, namely Mammon, for Mammon is the name of a devil, by which name riches are called according to the Syrian tongue." Piers Plowman also regards Mammon as a deity.

The expression "Mammon of iniquity" has been diversely explained, it can hardly mean riches ill-gotten, for they should of course be restored. If we accept the derivation from 'mn we may render it "riches in which men trust", and it is remarkable that the Sept. of Ps. xxxvii, 3, renders 'mwgh by plouto, or "riches", as though hinting at such a derivation. The expression is common in the Targums, where mmwn is often followed by sqr corresponding to the adikias of Luke, thus see on Prov., xv, 27; but it is noteworthy that Ecclus., v, 8 (10, Vulg.) "goods unjustly gotten" chremasin adikois, reads in Hebrew nks-sqr and not mtmwn. For the various explanations given by the Fathers see St. Thomas, II-II, Q. xxxii, a. vii, ad 3um.  (v)

TRENCH, Notes on the Parables of our Lord (15th ed., London, 1886); DALMANN, Die Worte Jesu (tr., Edinburgh, 1902).

Mammon, a word of Aramaic origin, means "riches", but has an unclear etymology; scholars have suggested connections with a word meaning "entrusted", or with the Hebrew word "matmon", meaning "treasure".

The Greek word for "Mammon", mamonas, occurs in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew vi 24) and in the parable of the Unjust Steward (Luke xvi 9-13). The Authorised Version keeps the Syriac word. Wycliffe uses "richessis".

The New English Dictionary quotes Piers Plowman as containing the earliest personification of the name. Nicholaos de Lyra (commenting on the passage in Luke) says: "Mammon est nomen daemonis" (Mammon is the name of a demon). No trace, however, of any Syriac god of such a name exists, and the common identification of the name with a god of covetousness or avarice stems from Spenser (The Faerie Queene), Milton (Paradise Lost), and from the above-mentioned Piers Plowman.

In his Dictionnaire Infernal, De Plancy asserts that Mammon is Hell's ambassador to England, and Gregory of Nyssa asserted that Mammon was another name for Beelzebub. (1)

(a) "The Dictionary of Angels" by Gustav Davidson, © 1967

(v)  http://www.newadvent.org/ The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume II.  Copyright ©1907 by Robert Appleton Company.  Online Edition Copyright © 2003 by Kevin Knight.  Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York

(1) http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammon  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Original text from a 1911 encyclopedia