“Mammon” is an ancient word that means “wealth” or “riches,” and is used in the Bible in a negative way, denoting worldly wealth as opposed to spiritual wealth.
“Riches” in the Bible, according to Swedenborg, represent knowledge and understanding of spiritual things – good things to have. But such knowledge is not restricted to good people; it’s possible to know and understand a great deal about spiritual things and not use it, or to have it and use it toward selfish ends. That’s what is described by the use of “mammon.”
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 2588
[16] The fact that things of a rational and factual kind serve people who have the affirmative attitude of mind as a means for making them wise was represented and meant by the command to the children of Israel to seek from the Egyptians the loan of vessels of gold and vessels of silver, and clothing, Exod. 3:22; 11:2; 12:35, 36. Something similar is meant by what is said in various places in the Word about their possessing the goods, houses, vineyards, and olive-groves, and many other things, of the nations, and also by references to the very gold and silver itself seized from the nations becoming holy, as in Isaiah,
Jehovah will visit Tyre, and she will return to hiring herself out as a harlot, and will commit whoredom with all the kingdoms of the earth on the face of the ground. And its merchandise and its harlot’s hire will become holy to Jehovah; it will not be stored or hoarded, for its merchandise will be for them that dwell before Jehovah to eat to satisfaction and for ancient clothing. Isa. 23:17, 18.
‘The merchandise of Tyre’ stands for cognitions, 1201, which to those with the negative attitude of mind are like ‘a harlot’s hire’ but to those with the affirmative attitude are like that which is holy. Something similar is also meant by the Lord’s words,
Make friends for yourselves out of the mammon of unrighteousness, so that when you fail they may receive you into eternal habitations. If then you have not appeared faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will entrust to you the true? Luke 16:9, 11.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 9093
[2] This division is meant by the Lord’s words in Luke,
No one can serve two masters; either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will prefer the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Luke 16:13.
That is, it is not possible to serve the Lord through belief in Him and at the same time serve the world by loving it, thus to acknowledge truth and at the same time to do evil. Anyone who behaves in this way has his mind divided, as a result of which it is destroyed.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 9265
9265. ‘And you shall not accept a gift’ means detesting any kind of gain. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a gift’ as anything worldly that is loved, whether it is riches, positions, reputation, or something else that gratifies the natural man, for these worldly things generally are called gain and in the internal sense are what is meant by ‘a gift’ which blinds and perverts; and from the meaning of ‘not accepting’ as detesting, for unless such gain is detested it is still looked for and accepted. It is detested when what is heavenly and Divine is loved more than what is worldly and earthly; for to the extent that one is loved the other is hated, as accords with the Lord’s words in Luke,
No slave can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other … You cannot serve God and mammon. Luke 16:13.
Divine Providence (Dole) n. 250
[5] These words of the Lord lend their support: “The lord praised the unjust steward because he had acted prudently, for the children of this generation are more prudent than the children of light in their generation. So I tell you, make friends for yourself of the mammon of unrighteousness, so that when you lose it they may accept you into eternal tents” (Luke 16:8, 9).
The earthly sense of this is obvious. In its spiritual meaning, though, the mammon of unrighteousness means those insights into what is true and good that evil people have and that they use solely for gaining rank and wealth for themselves. It is these insights with which good people or children of light make friends, and which accept them into eternal tents.
Doctrine of Life (Dick) n. 28
28. All that has been said so far is taught in the Word in many places; but only the following passages will be adduced. The Word teaches that no one can be in good and at the same time in evil; or what is the same thing, that no one as to his soul can be in heaven and at the same time in hell. It teaches this in the following passages:
No man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one, and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God andmammon. Matt. vi 24.
True Christian Religion (Rose) n. 404
Love for the world and for wealth is like a dark crystal that suffocates light and breaks it only into colors that are dull and faded. It is like fog or cloudiness that blocks the rays of the sun. It is also like wine in its first stages – the liquid tastes sweet, but it upsets your stomach.
From heavens point of view, people like this look hunchbacked, walking with their head bent down looking at the ground. When they lift their head toward the sky, they strain their muscles and quickly go back to looking downward. The ancient people who were part of the church called people of this kind “Mammons.” The Greeks called them “Plutos.”
Apocalypse Explained (Tansley) n. 242
[20] In Zechariah:
“The wealth of all nations round about shall be gathered together, gold, and silver and apparel in great abundance” (xiv. 14).
By the wealth of all nations are meant knowledges, wherever they are, even with the evil; by gold, silver and apparel in great abundance are meant goods and truths, both spiritual and natural. The same was signified by the
gold, silver and raiment which the Israelites borrowed of the Egyptians, when they departed from them (Exod. iii. 22; xi. 2, 3; xii. 35, 36).
The reason why such a thing took place, and what it involves, may be seen in Arcana Coelestia (n. 6914, 6917), where it is shown that it was in order that it might be represented that from the evil are taken away the things which they have, and that they are given to the good, according to the Lord’s words in Matt. xxv. 28, 29; and in Luke xix. 24, 26; and that they should make to themselves friends of the unrighteous mammon, according to the Lord’s words in Luke xvi. 9. By the unrighteous mammon are meant the knowledges of truth and good with those who do not rightly possess them, these being those who do not apply them to the uses of life.