The Eye Of A Needle

The Eye Of A Needle

Brett A. Todd

Most are familiar, even non-Bible readers, with the passage found in the Bible, Mark 10:25, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”  What, a camel through the eye of a needle?  It’s a stretch of one’s imagination, and kind of humorous when you think of it, isn’t it?  Is this what Jesus really said?

There are some scholars who question whether Jesus really said these words, nonetheless, there were those in ancient times who believe he did, and frankly, when you look at the rest of Jesus’ teaching, they do fit his teaching style.  It was normal for Jesus to embellish his sayings in order to influence his listeners.  

That being said, it is interesting to note that in some later Greek New Testament manuscripts, instead of using the word κάμηλον (Camel), they use the word κάμιλον (rope).  The only difference between these two words is one letter. Κάμηλον (Camel) used the letter “η” and κάμιλον (rope) used the letter “ι”.   Moreover, both words were pronounced the same (B. Metzger).  So, as one can see, it would have been easy to confuse one word for the other.

It does not end here, rather, the plot thickens.  Not only are these two Greek words above similar and pronounced the same, but in Aramaic, the language Jesus and his followers spoke, the words for camel and rope are identical.

You may say to yourself, well if the two words in Aramaic are identical then maybe they did get the two words mixed up and it really should have read, “It is easier for a rope to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”  A rope through an eye of a needle seems more suitable.  But if this is true, why do the great majority of Bible translations read “camel” instead of “rope”?

Simply, the word “rope'' is only used in a few later manuscripts, while all the early manuscripts read “camel”. For Bible scholars, in almost all circumstances, the earliest reading is the best and most reliable reading.  This is most certainly the situation here.  More than likely what happened, some later scribes who struggled with the idea that Jesus would use such exaggerated decided that the word “rope” made more sense, so they changed the word “camel” to “rope”. 

In our next study, we will discuss, we will talk about the Lord’s Prayer, But which Lord’s Prayer are we talking about?