“Mammon: 'You cannot serve both God and money'”
Matthew 6:24
Foreign wordSettledJesus
No one can serve two masters… You cannot serve both God and money. (Matthew 6:24 BSB)
* Greek keeps the Aramaic mamonas (Mammon): wealth as a rival master.
What it sounds like today
'Money,' a plain economic noun.
The cultural key
The underlying word is Aramaic mamona: wealth, property, possibly from a root meaning 'that in which one trusts.' Older translations kept it untranslated: 'Mammon.' Jesus personifies it as a rival master demanding service; 'serve' is the language of slavery to a lord, not of owning a tool.
Recovered meaning
Wealth is not neutral stuff in this saying; it is a would-be god. You can own money or be owned by it, and no one successfully takes orders from two lords.
Parallels: Luke 16:13