Mammon-money

yochanan bitan ButhFam at compuserve.com
Sun Jan 30 13:12:12 EST 2000


>> I think the appropriateness of personification is vital to a correct
interpretation.
>>What do you who are wiser and more knowledgeable than I think?
>>                                                 By God, Joseph Garnier
>>                                                                
>JW:
>... Mammon is not a personification in
>the sense that Wisdom is personfied as a woman in Proverbs.  

Jim is correct on this.

>JW:
>Mammon is
>actually nothing more than the aramaic word for "stuff" or "things". 
Uh--actually--
Mammon is a Hebrew word that means wealth/money. It is NOT a
personification, contra Garnier above, though Joseph is forgiven because it
might be read that way in the Gospel context if people didn't know Hebrew
or Aramaic.
Ou--did I say Hebrew? 
I meant Hebrew. And it is also Aramaic, where it means--"wealth/money". 
And frankly, I haven't a decisive clue as to its ultimate etymology. 
But it is a common word and means wealth/money. You would have enjoyed
visiting our Aramaic ulpan this month where ordinary mamon turned up in
more than one text. 

yisge shlamxon
Randall  Buth



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