Mammon

[1] It has been suggested that the Aramaic word māmōn was a loanword from Mishnaic Hebrew ממון (mamôn) meaning money,[5][6][7] wealth,[8] or possessions;[9] although it may also have meant "that in which one trusts".

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

Ye cannot serve God and mammon.Early mentions of Mammon allude to the Gospels, e.g., Didascalia, "De solo Mammona cogitant, quorum Deus est sacculus" (lit.

Albert Barnes in his Notes on the New Testament states that Mammon was a Syriac word for an idol worshipped as the god of riches, similar to Plutus among the Greeks, but he cited no authority for the statement.

[18][19] Later occultist writings such as Jacques Collin de Plancy's Dictionnaire Infernal describe Mammon as Hell's ambassador to England.

[20] For Thomas Carlyle in Past and Present (1843), the "Gospel of Mammonism" became simply a metaphoric personification for the materialist spirit of the 19th century.

Thomas Aquinas metaphorically described the sin of Avarice as "Mammon being carried up from Hell by a wolf, coming to inflame the human heart with Greed".

Under the influence of the Social Gospel movement, American populists, progressives and "muck-rakers" during the generation of 1880–1925 used "Mammon" with specific reference to the consolidated wealth and power of the banking and corporate institutions headquartered on Wall Street and their predatory activities nationwide.