[OneHope]

24And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

I think that in Christianity there is a huge misconseption about what this 'eye' actually is.

When we think of the eye of a needle we think of this:

The eye of a sewing needle. It is actually impossible for a camel to go through an eye of a sewing needle, implying that it is impossible for a rich person to get to heaven.

However, the eye of the needle refered to something else back then: That is an old city gate. Notice the big passageway. This bigger passageway would be open during the day for people to freely pass in and out of the city. Now, notice the smaller gate to the left. At night this would be left open. It was small enough so that armed soldiers couldn't come in very fast and usually it was lined with bowman that would guard it. That was referred to as the eye of the needle.

So back in Biblical times it was possible for a camel to go through the eye of the needle, however, it needed to do a few things. First off, a camel of a rich person would probably be laden with goods. So first the person had to take all his good off the camel. In a sense, that person had to be prepared to give up his wealth. Secondly, the camel had to bow down to get through the eye. So what this Bible passage is trying to tell us is that if we are rich we have to be prepared to give it all up and humble ourselves if we want to enter the Kingdom of God.

Richness also has a lot to do with motives. For example, my grandparents are pretty rich and my grandpa has a hobby of playing the stock market. They do not really do this for personal gain as they don't really spend a lot of money. Instead, they gain wealth so that oneday they can pass it on to their kids and their families so that we might do something with it.

[Nate]

I've heard this explanation before, and while it makes for a helluva good devotional, I just don't know that it's really accurate to the text. I've never seen any evidence (textual or historical) to suggest that the common reading is incorrect. I mean, it's one thing to say "yeah, this gate was referred to as 'the eye of a needle'," but I've never seen one citation that gave some real proof to backup that claim.

In fact, the text seems to support the idea that the "eye of a needle" really is the eye of a sewing needle. That's about the only interpretation that makes the conversation that follows between Jesus and His disciples make sense. They ask him, "Who can be saved, then?" and He says, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." The disciples would have no reason to be as shocked as they were if Jesus had simply been talking about a gate. They might have asked, "So only those who lay down their riches can be saved?" if they thought Jesus was talking about a gate, but that's not what they asked. They asked if ANYONE could be saved, because they saw NO way for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Jesus admitted that there was, in fact, no way in man's power for a camel to do so (it was "impossible") and that it had to be accomplished only through God.

Lesson? Not that rich people need to lay down their riches and humble themselves to be saved, but that rich people (like all people) need God to save them and cannot be saved apart from Him.

In His love,
Nate

[OneHope]

Thats what my history teacher in high school said (referring to my original post) however after I posted that I looked on the internet for some stuff to back it up but I couldn't find any.

I did find an interesting site about how the Greek word for 'camel' is very similar to the word for 'thread' and there is a possibility that these two words got messed up.

[Insane Drummer]

"did find an interesting site about how the Greek word for 'camel' is very similar to the word for 'thread' and there is a possibility that these two words got messed up."

Or that Jesus choose the word that was similar to thread (which goes through needles often) and camel (which does not) to make a word play, it would not be the only time this type of word play is used in the bible.

[Nate]

Interpreting / translating it as "thread" wouldn't make any sense in context either.