MAMMOX
MAX
107
less by far than a Christian's other interests (v.^"), alien (v.^-), and unreal (v.^^), even when it is not allowed to be a positive rival to God (v.^-*). Bj' its nature it belongs to the jjrcsent {i.e. this evil) generation, not to the real order of things which forms the sphere of the ehildrcn of light, i.e. Chris- tians. Yet even so it is a test ; it furnishes oppor- tunities for the exercise of certain virtues (cf. Morleys Voltaire, p. 107). Christians are trusted Mitli money, as the steward was. But what in his case was fraud, in their case is both honest and shrewd. Forethought is the ([uality commended b}- our Lord, as opposed to a seltisli and shortsighted jiolicy. Faithfulness in dealing Mith money means giving it away. And the two. faithfulness and forethought, are different sides of the same habit — pretty much as in the proverb, ' What I gave, I have (cf. Pr 11-""). The steward dispensed his goods ; no doubt, for selfish ends. Still he dis- pensed them, and .so proved his wisdom at lea.st.
On this interpretation ' the mammon of unright- eousness ' does not mean money or worldly advan- tages ^\Tongflllly gained, as though the point of the parable were that wealth, dishonestly come b}-, should be disbursed in charity (so Strauss, and O. Holtzmann in Stade's Geschiehte Israels, ii. 58-t- 585). The steward is not commended because he atoned by beneficence for ill-gotten gains, as if he represented a sinner who insured forgiveness and welcome in heaven by means of charity to his fellows on eartli, finding it impossible to restore, as Zaccha?us did, his fraudulent profits (so even Bruce, Parabolic Teaching of .lesiis, pp. 373-374). ' The mammon of unrighteousness' means money as essentially .secular and unchristian (cf. Weinel's Wirkungen des Geistes, 1899, p. 15), pertaining to the order of the Evil One. Jesus does not deal here with any question of reparation. The oViject of the parable is to point out how one may best use this tainted possession in view of the future, and the teaching is on the lines of the later Jewish Rabbis, who attached high religious significance to alms (cf. Lk 12i3-2i 18- etc.), though it must be borne in mind that some allowance has to be made for St. Luke's ' ascetic ' bias in estimating some of Christ's sayings on wealth in the Third Gospel, where logia, perhaps originally genuine, have been shari^ened (e.g. in 6'-^'-) into exaggerated emphasLs. In calling mammon 'unrighteous,' Jesus means that gi'eat wealth is seldom gained or employed without injustice. The stain of abu.se is upon it. The mark of the evil world is stamped on it. At best, then, it is a means, not an end, for the Chris- tian, and a means which demands care and con- science for its wise employment, lest life degenerate into the mercenary and nanowing spirit which devotes itself to what Bacon called ' a Sabbathless pursuit of fortune,' a culpable love of acquisition and material goods, and an insidious appetite for self-gratification which deadens the higher faculties of the soul and stunts the instinct of self-sacrifice.
Literature. — See the commentators on .^fattheic and Luke, the various Lives of Jesus, and the current works upon the Parables, in all of which the mammon passages are handled ; also Zahn's Einleitung, i. 11-12. On the parable of the Unjust Steward, cf. the critical discussions of Feine {Eiiw vorkanon. i'eherlieferung d. Lukas, p. SOf.), J. Weiss (in ilever's Liike^, 528-535), Schmiedel {Encyc. Bill. 1S63-1S64), and "incidentallv Rodenbusch {ZSTW, 1903, 243 f.). For Christ's attitude to wealth, consult H. Holtzmann, y cutest. Thcolo(fie, i. p. 44Sf. ; Titius, Jes'U Lehre vom Reiche Gottes, 72-79 ; Pfleiderer, i'rchris- tentkum'-, i.p. (>49f. ; Keim, Jesus of yazara, iv. p. SOf. (extreme); and Peabody, Jesits Christ and' the Social Question, p. 244 f. Further discussions on the significance of the parable mav be found in Expos. 4th ser. vii. 21 f.; Expos. Times, 1903-1905, passim; Latham's Pastor Pastorum, p. 386 f. ; Expos. 1903, 273-2S3 (Oesterley) ; and Chri^tliche Welt (xvii. 21S-227) ; besides F. W. Robertson's Sermons, iv. (Xo. 22) ; J. Martineau, En- deavours after the Chr. Life, p. 76; R. F. Horton, Command- ments of Jesits, p. 249. On mammon-worship, see Carljle, French RevoltUion (iii. bk. 3, ch. vii.) and Past and Present (bk. 4, ch. iv.) ; Ruskin, Mornings in Florence, § 50 ; also
Morley, Gladstone, iii. p. 548, for modern war as the most re- markable ' incentive to mammon-worship ' ; Coleridge in his Friend (Essay x\i. written during 1818) said that Lk 16^ would fonji a suitable motto for a collection of MachiaveUi's most weighty aphorisms, by some vigorous mind, in order to Illus- trate thereby the ' present triumph of lawless violence ' as due to the imprudent neglect of such worldly-wise maxims. — In Academy (1888), pp. 416-417, C. Bezold criticises unfavourably Mr. Pinches' derivation of the term from an Assyr. mimmu or iH<'i/(Hii/ = 'anythiiig,' 'everjthing,' 'property,' etc.
J. MOFFATT.