O'Donoghue MTh_Thesis-FinalCopy.pdf - South African Theological ...

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and is also a kind of love that cannot be kept in the heart only but expresses itself inaction (Spicq 1994:12).Thus the reason one cannot have two Masters is one will inevitable show greatervalue for and preference for one over the other. The slave is to work for the benefit ofher or his Master (Spicq 1994:382) Thus a split allegiance between will not suffice.Further, to love can be used interchangeably with to serve, thus Jesus is showingthat one would serve one over the other (Talbert 2006:123).Verse 24d brings the application (Talbert 2006: 121). This is where Jesus says, “Youcannot serve God and mammon (Mtt 6:24).” Thus, as mammon could be one’sMaster, mammon could be served at the expense of the Master who is God. God,who is the Lord of the universe and who is to be pleased and obeyed, can bedisplaced with mammon. Lioy (2004:167) notes this would be a violation of the firstcommandment.The question remains, what is mammon? France (1985:139) says that mammon isfrom the Aramaic word, mamona which refers to possessions. Keener (1993:63)attests that mammon is the Aramaic word for ‘possessions or money.’ In a similarvein Kapolyo (2006:1123) notes that mammon can be translated as money. Further,the NIV translates mammon as Money (Carson 1994:88). What is important for thisthesis is that money is included in the meaning of the word or at least implied.The root meaning of the word denotes something in which people put their trust(Bruce 1978:22; Haughey 1997:6). It seems that as people often put their confidencein wealth, Mammon eventually referred to “all material possessions (Carson1994:88).” Kapolyo (2006:1123) says that mammon is “the Carthaginian god ofwealth.” However France (1985:139) says that mammon is not a personal name.It is unclear who is correct. Whether or not mammon was the Carthaginian god ofwealth, clearly it is being presented as something which competes for the disciples’allegiance to God, and is thus a potential idol. As a general rule wealth seems toeasily displace Christ as of central importance (Bruce 1978:23). Bruce points toColossians 3:5 which equates covetousness with idolatry.49
The statement that one cannot serve both God and Mammon can be seen as anexample of a choice (Carson 1994:88). This stands in contrast to those who interpretthe verse by saying that people essentially only have two choices: God or Money.One could argue that money is but one form of rival god to the disciple’s allegianceto Christ. Haughey (1997:6) believes Jesus is essentially saying that there areseveral kinds of mammon that people put their trust in.Haughey (1997:6) argues that Jesus tells his disciples that placing their trust inseveral sources must come to an end and their trust must be solely on God. Perhapsthere are several forms of idols that compete for mastery over the Christian disciple.However, Haughey misses part of the point of the passage. Jesus is not talking hereabout several different idols, but rather that trusting in both God and wealth is notpossible.Worth paying attention to is the reason why money in particular as a rival god needsto be addressed. Saldarini (2003:1018) believes Jesus addresses the desire to feelsecure through the acquisition of material wealth. Saldarini points to the contrastbetween verses 25-34 and 19-24 to make this point. Verses 6:25-34 as will be seenin chapter five is the portion that addresses the disciple’s anxiety over dailynecessities.The fact that treasure on earth decays and can be stolen reinforces the point thatthey offer no permanent security (Kapolyo 2006:1123). In our context we can saythat money can deteriorate because of inflation. This idea, of a disciple beingtempted to serve wealth above God to alleviate anxiety will be explored further in thenext chapter.4.3 ConclusionIn following Talbert’s model of the formal division of the text, this chapter focused onexamining the rhetoric, genre, composition, textual variants, key words and phrasesof the text. The goal was to examine how these elements affect the understanding ofthe passage. The following was uncovered.50
Page 1 and 2:
A BIBLICAL-THEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF
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ACKOWLEDGEMENTSI am eternally grate
Page 5 and 6: TABLE OF CONTENTSCHAPTER 1: Introdu
Page 7 and 8: 6.2.5 Discipleship and Community…
Page 9 and 10: sinfulness and pushes people toward
Page 11 and 12: discourses in Matthew, is meant to
Page 13 and 14: Christian disciple and money was an
Page 15 and 16: NT text actually did occur and did
Page 17 and 18: to have used it as a source (France
Page 19 and 20: almost no evidence outside of the N
Page 21 and 22: addressed.Jesus says things in the
Page 23 and 24: The Jewish community was taxed very
Page 25 and 26: finding the origin and purpose of M
Page 27: instruction for the believing commu
Page 31 and 32: Matthew will have continued pertine
Page 33 and 34: Chapter 3Literary Analysis - Struct
Page 35 and 36: etween 6:19-24 and 7:1-11 that is c
Page 37 and 38: would not have ever found such a li
Page 39 and 40: and 7:7-11 are worth noting:a) Both
Page 41 and 42: appealing. He seems to at times ack
Page 43 and 44: three parts.While the literary appr
Page 45 and 46: Chapter 4Literary Analysis - Matthe
Page 47 and 48: common to a teacher like Jesus woul
Page 49 and 50: treasures would be, but agrees that
Page 51 and 52: Blomberg (1992:123) shows that the
Page 53 and 54: Talbert (2006:122) argues this by r
Page 55: for God’s kingdom, it is in a bad
Page 59 and 60: Chapter FiveLiterary Analysis - Mat
Page 61 and 62: Moses. Even more significant is tha
Page 63 and 64: ightly notes that humans are more v
Page 65 and 66: Secondly, Henry’s argument that o
Page 67 and 68: Perhaps the point is not to cast So
Page 69 and 70: The second reason related to this p
Page 71 and 72: the scriptures that even the great
Page 73 and 74: more than what one eats and wears.
Page 75 and 76: CHAPTER SIXTHEOLOGICAL MOTIFS OF MA
Page 77 and 78: 6:19-34 and that this chapter would
Page 79 and 80: It has now been established that Th
Page 81 and 82: Kingdom requires its citizens to ha
Page 83 and 84: “our Father,” i.e. the Father o
Page 85 and 86: It must be noted that the Father-So
Page 87 and 88: Matthew 25:31-36 presents Jesus as
Page 89 and 90: unanimous among scholars. These rea
Page 91 and 92: Unger and White (1985:171) note tha
Page 93 and 94: interdependent interpersonal relati
Page 95 and 96: examples of how a disciple may prov
Page 97 and 98: Chapter SevenConclusion7.1 Introduc
Page 99 and 100: the accumulation of wealth over and
Page 101 and 102: them. The historical analyses highl
Page 103 and 104: preparedness to give up monetary pu
Page 105 and 106: e for the benefit of the believing
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captivity to sin. The SOM itself wa
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APPENDIX ONETALBERTS FORMAL DIVISIO
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BIBLIOGRAPHYAchtemeier PJ, Green JB
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Clowney EP 1988. Church. In SB Ferg
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Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishi
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Peter Laing Publishing.Lloyd-Jones
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73-97.Smith KG 2008. Academic Writi
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