Have you ever studied a portion of Scripture and come away completely confounded as to what the meaning of the passage was, or its intended lesson? I know that I have, and on more than one occasion, resorted to some Biblical research, as well as historical inquiry, and also on more than one occasion, have discovered that the best explanation for my confusion was that those that transcribed the text......simply got it wrong.......
I submit to you....
Matthew 19:24 (KJV)And 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.
Now, at first glance this passage appears to advise us that the accumulation of wealth would make it difficult for us to find ourselves redeemed........however.......if we study Christian history, we will find that a number of Saints (for Catholics), as well as several of early Christian martyrs were "wealthy" in the earthly sense, so questions arise.....Lets look even deeper......
Let's parse this passage a bit and look at
"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.....". This passage has been shouted from pulpits in Christian Churches for centuries, and on its face simply makes no sense whatsoever from a variety of perspectives.........
First historical perspective: In the first century AD, "needles", as common sewing implements were considerably different from those we use today. Archaeologists have found samples of them in many locations in excavations in the Holy Land, and they are made from a variety of materials such as wood, bone, or for wealthier people, copper and even silver.......however they have one common characteristic.......they do not have "eyes".......needles of that era were fashioned in a manner that the thread, sinew, or yarn wrapped around a groove in the "needle" as it was passed through the fabric in order to sew. Needles with "eyes", as defined as a hole in the device through which thread is passed were not invented until the eleventh century.
Now let's deal with the Camel.......
Most of the Old Testament was written in (ancient) Hebrew, with the exception of a few chapters in Ezra, and Daniel, which were written in Aramaic. The New Testament was written (initially) in Aramaic, with the exception of a portion of Hebrews, which was expressed in Coptic. Between the second and third centuries AD, the New Testament was translated into Koine Greek, by persons unknown, and the Aramaic Scriptures were forever lost, therefore, we must deal with the Greek texts.
The first (modern) translation was started by a man named John Wycliffe, and later finished by John Purvey, in 1388, under commission by King James, thus we have the KJV. For the King James Bible, a group of over fifty scholars worked not only on the original Hebrew and Greek version of these books, but also utilized all of the then extant translations that had been made. It was, in essence, translation "by committee", and therefore inevitable that mistakes would be made.
There are two very similar words in Koine Greek,
camilos, meaning "rope", and
camelos, meaning "Camel"........therefore, whoever was doing this portion of the translation misread the "i" in Greek for an "e"......and Churches have been stuck with this translation ever since.......
Now what is learned from this experience? By substituting "rope" for "Camel" in the quoted verse, it certainly makes more sense generically, but we are still stuck with the anomalies of the "needle", and the meaning of the rest of the passage........considering the fact that some very devout, albeit wealthy, early Christians are known to exist.
We are left with another interpretive mystery that Biblical scholars will likely puzzle over for the rest of our days, but the moral of the story (if there is one) is for we Christians to be ever cautious of verbatim expressions of God's word, and seek the overall context from whence they came.
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