conkermaniac

Mt. 20:24 says:
"Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." (NIV)

I understand that this quote is supposed to be symbolic, but I decided to have some fun with it. I reasoned: It is impossible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, ergo it is impossible for a rich man to enter Heaven.

Now, one of my Christian peers, having apparently read commentary on the New Testament ( ), told me that in the original Greek, it was apparent that the "eye of a needle" referred to a gate in Jerusalem through which camels had difficulty passing. Is there any truth to this? Personally, I think it's a bit farfetched, but then again, I don't know Greek, and I've never been to Jerusalem myself...

lunachick

Yes, it's true.

The Old City of Jerusalem is a fortressed city. The walls are high and thick for protection, and as a trading city at the crossroads of 3 continents, the gates were only open during daylight. Should traders with camel caravans arrive after the gates were closed, there was a small side gate (known as the eye of the needle) that they could have opened to pass through once identifying themselves and after the guards on the ramparts had checked that they did not have any enemies right behind them.

The gate is so small that the camels would have to get on their knees to pass through; and if they were heavily laden with trading goods, their passage through the gates would be virtually impossible. They would have to be unloaded to get through, and at night the time taken to unload a camel and bring everything inside the city walls was very dangerous.

seanie

I'd been told that "camel" was a mistranslation of the word for "ship's rope", which would render it an equally improbable but altogether more prosaic metaphor.

lunachick

Ship's Rope?

seanie

Well "big bloody rope" then. Of the kind used on ships.

However this was told to me by my brother (a sailor) whose many stories, whilst fascinating, aren't always entirely accurate.

lunachick

LOL!

I got my info by living just up the road from the "eye of the needle" for a year.

But your brother could be right. I guess it's just as hard for ships laden with riches to even get to Jerusalem, let alone pass through any needle eyes.

Unless, he was talking about the ships of the desert? But they don't have very big ropes...

judge

No this is actually true.

This is another example of a mistranslation from Aramaic to greek.

The meaning as a rope can be confirmed in the work of 10th century aramaic lexiconographer Mar Bahlul who wrote an aramaic dictionary and gives the meaning a "a large rope used to bind ships".
This meaning is confirmed also in the writings of george lamsa..
In his books, George M. Lamsa lists the Aramaic word GMLA as a word
"with many meanings" and states that it can mean "Large rope; Camel; Beam"
(The New Testament according to the Eastern Text; George M. Lamsa; 1940 ;
p. xxiv). Elsewhere Lamsa writes;

The Aramaic word GAMLA is the same word for "camel" and
"a large rope". Matt. 19:24 should read, "It is easier
for a rope to go through a needle's eye, etc."

The hebrew word GMLH seems also derived form the aramaic..

GMLH Post Biblical Hebrew; gangway, gangboard. Palestinian Aramaic GMLA; of uncertain origin.]
- A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew
Language for Readers of English;
By Rabbi Ernest David Klein Ph.D.; 1987; p.103

The arabic word JAMEL also means to bear a burden.

On the greek loan word Khamelos.....
"Gk. kamelos (whence L. camelus), is a loan word from
Heb.-Phon. GML"
- A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew
Language for Readers of English;
By Rabbi Ernest David Klein Ph.D.; 1987; p.103

Now according to the MANUAL GREEK LEXICON OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 3rd Ed. by
G. Abbott-Smith; 1939; p. 229; there is an alternate spelling for Greek
KAMHLOS which is KAMILOS. A GREEK-ENGLISH LEXICON OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
AND OTHER EARLY CHRISTIAN LITERATURE; by Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich; 1957; p.
402; states that KAMILOS can mean "rope."

lunachick

Ok, if it can read either camel or rope, wouldn't camel make more sense?

Jerusalem is landlocked - the only things that were laden in those days were camels and asses.

I know a rope going through the eye of a needle has more poetic imagery because of it's likeness to threading a sewing needle - but the camel thing seems more grounded in reality to me.

seanie

I think "camel" through the eye of a needle is a lot more poetic than "rope", and it's certainly more abstract.

Prior to the invention of liquidisers at least.

seanie

Well reviewing where we've got so far it seems we have 4 possible interpretations, each with varying degrees of difficulty, dependent on two variables.

There's the camel/rope variable and the annoyingly small gate/ eye of a needle variable.

This gives us the following degrees of difficulty;

1. Large rope through an annoyingly small gate

Well frankly that's a rather underwhelming metaphor. Big deal.

2. Large rope through the eye of a needle

Now that's much more tricky. And a metaphor that's readily understandable. Rich people into heaven - very, very difficult.

3. Camel through an annoyingly small gate

Not as underwhelming as 1. but hardly startling. Which brings us to;

4. Camel through the eye of a needle

Now that's genuinely mindblowing. How do you even go about that? I mean even with a liquidiser and a pipette? I can see why the rich wouldn't be keen on that interpretation.