Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 19:24
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.
24. easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle ] An expression familiar to Jews of our Lord’s time. The exaggeration is quite in the Eastern style. It is unnecessary to give other explanations, as that camel is a Greek word meaning “a rope,” or that “the eye of a needle” is a gate so called.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 24. A camel] Instead of , camel, six MSS. read , cable, a mere gloss inserted by some who did not know that the other was a proverb common enough among the people of the east.
There is an expression similar to this in the Koran. “The impious, who in his arrogance shall accuse our doctrine of falsity, shall find the gates of heaven shut: nor shall he enter there till a camel shall pass through the eye of a needle. It is thus that we shall recompense the wicked.” Al KORAN. Surat vii. ver. 37.
It was also a mode of expression common among the Jews, and signified a thing impossible. Hence this proverb: A camel in Media dances in a cabe; a measure which held about three pints. Again, No man sees a palm tree of gold, nor an elephant passing through the eye of a needle. Because these are impossible things. “Rabbi Shesheth answered Rabbi Amram, who had advanced an absurdity, Perhaps thou art one of the Pembidithians who can make an elephant pass through the eye of a needle; that is, says the Aruch, ‘who speak things impossible.'” See Lightfoot and Schoettgen on this place.
Go through] But instead of , about eighty MSS. with several versions and fathers, have , to enter in; but the difference is of little importance in an English translation, though of some consequence to the elegance of the Greek text.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And again I say unto you,…. After the apostles had discovered their astonishment at the above expression, about the difficulty of a rich man entering into the kingdom of heaven; when they expected that, in a short time, all the rich and great men of the nation would espouse the interest of the Messiah, and acknowledge him as a temporal king, and add to the grandeur of his state and kingdom; and after he had in a mild and gentle manner, calling them “children”, explained himself of such, that trusted in uncertain riches, served mammon, made these their gods, and placed their hope and happiness in them; in order to strengthen and confirm what he had before asserted, and to assure, in the strongest manner, the very great difficulty, and seeming impossibility, of rich men becoming followers of Christ here, or companions with him hereafter, he expresses himself in this proverbial way:
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: thus, when the Jews would express anything that was rare and unusual, difficult and impossible, they used a like saying with this. So speaking of showing persons the interpretation of their dreams g;
“Says Rabba, you know they do not show to a man a golden palm tree i.e. the interpretation of a dream about one, which, as the gloss says, is a thing he is not used to see, and of which he never thought,
, “nor an elephant going through the eye of a needle”.”
Again, to one that had delivered something as was thought very absurd, it is said h;
“perhaps thou art one of Pombeditha (a school of the Jews in Babylon) , “who make an elephant pass through the eye of a needle”.”
That is, who teach such things as are equally as monstrous and absurd, and difficult of belief. So the authors of an edition of the book of Zohar, to set forth the difficulty of the work they engaged in, express themselves in this manner i:
“In the name of our God, we have seen fit,
, “to bring an elephant through the eye of a needle”.”
And not only among the Jews, but in other eastern nations, this proverbial way of speaking was used, to signify difficulties or impossibilities. Mahomet has it in his Alcoran k;
“Verily, says he, they who shall charge our signs with falsehood, and shall proudly reject them, the gates of heaven shall not be opened to them, neither shall they enter into paradise, “until a camel pass through the eye of a needle”.”
All which show, that there is no need to suppose, that by a camel is meant, not the creature so called, but a cable rope, as some have thought; since these common proverbs manifestly make it appear, that a creature is intended, and which aggravates the difficulty: the reason why instead of an elephant, as used in most of the above sayings, Christ makes mention of a camel, may be, because that might be more known in Judea, than the other; and because the hump on its back would serve to make the thing still more impracticable.
g T. Bab. Beracot fol. 55. 2. h T. Bab Bava Metzia, fol. 38. 2. i Prefat. ad Zohar, Ed. Sultzbach. k Chap. 7. p. 120. Ed. Sale.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
It is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye ( ). Jesus, of course, means by this comparison, whether an eastern proverb or not, to express the impossible. The efforts to explain it away are jejune like a ship’s cable, or as a narrow gorge or gate of entrance for camels which recognized stooping, etc. All these are hopeless, for Jesus pointedly calls the thing “impossible” (verse 26). The Jews in the Babylonian Talmud did have a proverb that a man even in his dreams did not see an elephant pass through the eye of a needle (Vincent). The Koran speaks of the wicked finding the gates of heaven shut “till a camel shall pass through the eye of a needle.” But the Koran may have got this figure from the New Testament. The word for an ordinary needle is , but, Luke (Lu 18:25) employs , the medical term for the surgical needle not elsewhere in the N.T.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Camel – through a needle ‘s eye [ ] . See on Mr 10:25; Luk 18:25. Compare the Jewish proverb, that a man did not even in his dreams see an elephant pass through the eye of a needle. The reason why the camel was substituted for the elephant was because the proverb was from the Babylonian Talmud, and in Babylon the elephant was common, while in Palestine it was unknown. The Koran has the same figure : “The impious shall find the gates of heaven shut; nor shall he enter there till a camel shall pass through the eye of a needle.” Bochart, in his history of the animals of scripture, cites a Talmudic passage : “A needle ‘s eye is not too narrow for two friends, nor is the world wide enough for two enemies.” The allusion is not to be explained by reference to a narrow gate called a needle ‘s eye.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
(24) It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.Two explanations have been given of the apparent hyperbole of the words. (1.) It has been conjectured that the Evangelists wrote not (a camel), but (a cable). Not a single MS., however, gives that reading, and the latter word, which is not found in any classical Greek author, is supposed by the best scholars (e.g., Liddell and Scott) to have been invented for the sake of explaining this passage. (2.) The fact that in some modern Syrian cities the narrow gate for foot-passengers, at the side of the larger gate, by which wagons, camels, and other beasts of burden enter the city, is known as the needles eye, has been assumed to have come down from a remote antiquity, and our Lords words are explained as alluding to it. The factto which attention was first called in Lord Nugents Lands, Classical and Sacredis certainly interesting, and could the earlier use of the term in this sense be proved, would give a certain vividness to our Lords imagery. It is not, however, necessary. The Talmud gives the parallel phrase of an elephant passing through a needles eye. The Koran reproduces the very words of the Gospel. There is no reason to think that the comparison, even if it was not already proverbial, would present the slightest difficulty to the minds of the disciples. Like all such comparisons, it states a general fact, the hindrance which wealth presents to the higher growths of holiness, in the boldest possible form, in order to emphasise its force, and leaves out of sight the limits and modifications with which it has to be received, and which in this instance (according to the text on which the English version is based) were supplied immediately by our Lord Himself (Mar. 10:24).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
24. Camel eye of a needle That is, it is absolutely a human impossibility. The emendation made by changing camel to cable is unauthorized. The phrase is a proverbial expression for an absolutely impracticable thing.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And again I say to you, “It is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingly rule of God.” ’
Jesus then seeks to make the position even clearer by the use of a well known saying. “It is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingly rule of God.” By this He is saying that it is not only hard, but will require a miracle (which is what He then goes on to point out). There is absolutely no reason for not taking the camel and the needle’s eye literally. The camel was the largest animal known in Palestine, the needle’s eye the smallest hole. The whole point of the illustration lies in the impossibility of it, and the vivid and amusing picture it presents is typical of the teaching of Jesus. Jesus no doubt had in mind the teaching of the Scribes and Pharisees, who considered that rich men were rich because they were pleasing to God (compare Psa 112:3; Pro 10:22; Pro 22:4), and that through their riches they had even more opportunity to be pleasing to God (and mocked at any other suggestion – Luk 16:14). They taught that riches were a reward for righteousness. But Jesus sees this as so contradictory to reality that He pictures them as by this struggling to force a camel through the eye of a needle. In other words they are trying to bring together two things that are incompatible. So in His eyes their teaching was claiming to do the impossible, as the example of the rich young man demonstrated, it was seeking to make the rich godly. And the folly of this is revealed in the fact that it is ‘the deceitfulness of riches’ which is one of the main things that chokes the word (Mat 13:22). In this regard the Psalmists regularly spoke of those who put their trust in riches, and thereby did not need to rely on God (Psa 49:6; Psa 52:7; Psa 62:10; Psa 73:12; Pro 11:28; Pro 13:7). This was not to say that rich men could not be godly. It was simply to indicate that it was unusual.
‘The Kingly Rule of God.’ It is difficult to see in context how this expression can be seen as differing in significance from ‘the Kingly Rule of Heaven’ in Mat 19:23, for both are indicating a similar situation. It may simply therefore have been changed for the sake of variety. But we must consider the fact that Matthew’s purpose here might well be in order to emphasise the contrast between ‘man’ and ‘God’ in terms of the impossibility of entry. The camel cannot go through the eye of a needle, for the two exist in different spheres sizewise, how much less then can a RICH MAN enter into the sphere of GOD’s Kingly Rule. The idea is to be seen as almost ludicrous.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mat 19:24. It is easier for a camel, &c. Or, a cable. See Boch. tom. 1: p. 92. Vorst. Adag. p. 14. The rendering of the original word by cable, undoubtedly coalesces more perfectly with the other metaphor of the needle; but, as there is nothing in the proverbial expression, as it stands in the common versions, but what is very agreeable to the Eastern taste, and may be paralleled in other Jewish writings, there seems no great reason to depart from it. The Jews generally made use of the phrase, An elephant cannot pass through the eye of a needle; which our Saviour changes for a camel, an animal very common in Syria, and whose bunch on its neck is apt to hinder its passage through any low entrance. In our Saviour’s time, too, the word camel was proverbially used to express any vast object, that being the largest animal in Palestine. Thus we read, ch. Mat 23:24. Strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. We may just observe, that these strong expressions must be understood in their strictest sense, of the state of things at that time subsisting; yet in some degree are applicable to rich men in all ages: the reason is, riches have a woeful effect upon piety in two respects: first, in the acquisition; for, not to mention the many frauds and other sins which men too often commit to obtain riches,they occasion an endless variety of cares and anxieties, which draw the affections away from God. Secondly, They are generallyoffensive to piety in the possession; because if they be hoarded, they never fail to beget covetousness, which is the root of all evil; and if they be enjoyed, they become strong temptations to luxury and drunkenness, to lust, pride, and idleness. See Heylin, and Mintert on the word .
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mat 19:24 . “Difficultatem exaggerat,” Melanchthon. For , comp. Mat 18:19 . The point of the comparison is simply the fact of the impossibility. A similar way of proverbially expressing the utmost difficulty occurs in the Talmud with reference to an elephant [4] See Buxtorf, Lex. Talm . p. 1722, and Wetstein. To understand the expression in the text, not in the sense of a camel, but of a cable (Castalio, Calvin, Huet, Drusius, Ewald), and, in order to this, either supposing to be the correct reading (as in several cursive manuscripts), or ascribing this meaning to ( in Theophylact and Euthymius Zigabenus), is all the more inadmissible that never has any other meaning than that of a camel , while the form can only be found in Suidas and the Scholiast on Arist. Vesp. 1030, and is to be regarded as proceeding from a misunderstanding of the present passage. Further, the proverbial expression regarding the camel likewise occurs in Mat 23:24 , and the Rabbinical similitude of the elephant is quite analogous.
after . is universally interpreted: to enter in (to any place). On the question as to whether is to be recognised as classical, see Lobeck, ad Phryn . p. 90. To render this word by a narrow gate , a narrow mountain-pass (so Furer in Schenkel’s Lex . III. p. 476), or anything but a needle , is simply inadmissible.
The danger to salvation connected with the possession of riches does not lie in these considered in themselves , but in the difficulty experienced by sinful man in subordinating them to the will of God. So Clemens Alexandrinus: . Hermas, Pastor , i. 3. 6.
[4] The passage in the Koran, Sur . vii. 38: “Non ingredientur paradisum, donec transeat camelus foramen acus,” is to be traced to an acquaintance with our present saying; but for an analogous proverb concerning the camel which. “ saltat in cabo ,” see Jevamoth f. 45, 1.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
24 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.
Ver. 24. It is easier for a camel, &c. ] Or cable rope, as some render it, , funem nauticum. Either serves, for it is a proverbial speech, setting forth the difficulty of the thing. Difficile est, saith St Jerome, ut praesentibus bonis quis fruatur et futuris, ut hic ventrem istic mentem reficiat, ut de deliciis transeat, ut in coelo et in terra gloriosus appareat. Pope Adrian VI said that nothing befell him more unhappy in all his life than that he had been head of the Church and monarch of the Christian commonwealth. “When I first entered into orders,” saith another pope (Plus Quintus), “I had some good hopes of my salvation; when I became a cardinal, I doubted it; but since I came to be a pope I do even almost despair.” And well he might, as long as he sat in that chair of pestilence, being that man of sin, that son of perdition, 2Th 2:3 . Ad hunc statum venit Romana Ecclesia, said Petrus Aliacus, long since, ut non esset digna regi nisi per reprobos (Cornel. a Lapide, Com. in Num 11:11 ). The popes, like the devils, are then thought to do well when they cease to do hurt, saith Johan. Sarisburiensis. They have had so much grace left, we see (some of them, however), as to acknowledge that their good and their blood rose together, that honours changed their manners, and that they were the worse men for their great wealth; and that as Shimei, seeking his servants, lost himself, so they, by reaching after riches and honours, lost their souls. Let rich men often ruminate this terrible text, and take heed. Let them untwist their cables, that is, their heart, by humiliation, Jas 5:1 ; Jas 1:10 , till it be made like small threads, as it must be, before they can enter into the eye of a needle, that is, eternal life.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
24. ] No alteration to is necessary or admissible. That word, as signifying a rope , or cable , seems to have been invented to escape the fancied difficulty here; see Palm and Rost’s or Liddell and Scott’s Lex. sub voce, and for the scholia giving the interpretation, Tischendorf’s note here. Lightfoot brings instances from the Talmud of similar proverbial expressions regarding an elephant: we have a case in ch. Mat 23:24 , of a camel being put for any thing very large: and we must remember that the object here was to set forth the greatest human impossibility, and to magnify divine grace, which could accomplish even that .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 19:24 . : reiteration with greater emphasis. The strong language of Jesus here reveals a keen sense of disappointment at the loss of so promising a man to the ranks of disciplehood. He sees so clearly what he might be, were it not for that miserable money. , etc.: a comparison to express the idea of the impossible. The figure of a camel going through a needle-eye savours of Eastern exaggeration. It has been remarked that the variation in the parallel accounts in respect to the words for a needle and its eye shows that no corresponding proverb existed in the Greek tongue (Camb. G. T.). The figure is to be taken as it stands, and not to be “civilised” ( vide H. C.) by taking (or , Suidas) = a cable, or the wicket of an Oriental house. It may be more legitimate to try to explain how so grotesque a figure could become current even in Palestine. Furrer suggests a camel driver leaning against his camel and trying to put a coarse thread through the eye of a needle with which he sews his sacks, and, failing, saying with comical exaggeration: I might put the camel through the eye easier than this thread (Tscht., fr M. und R.). from , to pierce. , a word disapproved by Phryn., who gives as the correct term. But vide Lobeck’s note, p. 90. It is noticeable that Christ’s tone is much more severe in reference to wealth than to wedlock. Eunuchism for the kingdom is optional; possession of wealth on the other hand seems to be viewed as all but incompatible with citizenship in the kingdom.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
camel. With its burden. Not a cable, as some suggest.
go = pass,
through. Greek. dia. App-104. Mat 19:1.
the eye. Greek. trupema. Occurs only here.
the eye of a needle. A small door fixed in a gate and opened after dark. To pass through, the camel must be unloaded. Hence the difficulty of the rich man. He must be unloaded, and hence the proverb, common in the East. In Palestine the “camel”; in the Babylonian Talmud it is the elephant.
the kingdom of God. The third of five occurrences in Matthew. See note on Mat 6:33, and App-114.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
24.] No alteration to is necessary or admissible. That word, as signifying a rope, or cable, seems to have been invented to escape the fancied difficulty here; see Palm and Rosts or Liddell and Scotts Lex. sub voce, and for the scholia giving the interpretation, Tischendorfs note here. Lightfoot brings instances from the Talmud of similar proverbial expressions regarding an elephant: we have a case in ch. Mat 23:24, of a camel being put for any thing very large: and we must remember that the object here was to set forth the greatest human impossibility, and to magnify divine grace, which could accomplish even that.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 19:24. , a camel) i.e. the animal of that name; cf. ch. Mat 23:24. It is not a rope[875] that is compared to a thread, but the eye of a needle to a gate.
[875] Bengel alludes to a reading which is evidently corrupt, and an interpretation which is manifestly erroneous. Some ancient and modern commentators, says Bloomfield, would read , a cable, rope; or take in that sense. But for the former there is little or no manuscript authority, and for the latter, no support from the usus loquendi. For interesting illustrations of the subject, too long to insert, see Kitto, and Wordsworth, in loc.-(I. B.)
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
It: So in the Koran, “The impious, who in his arrogance shall accuse our doctrine of falsity, shall find the gates of heaven shut; nor shall he enter till a camel shall pass through the eye of a needle.” It was a common mode of expression among the Jews to declare anything that was rare or difficult. Mat 19:26, Mat 23:24, Jer 13:23, Mar 10:24, Mar 10:25, Luk 18:25, Joh 5:44
Reciprocal: Deu 6:11 – when thou Deu 17:17 – neither shall he Pro 2:19 – None Mat 7:21 – shall Mat 18:9 – to enter Joh 21:25 – that even Act 14:22 – enter Jam 5:1 – ye
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
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.
[A camel to go through the eye of a needle, etc.] a phrase used in the schools, intimating a thing very unusual and very difficult. There, where the discourse is concerning dreams and their interpretation, these words are added. They do not shew a man a palm tree of gold, nor an elephant going through the eye of a needle. The Gloss is, “A thing which he was not wont to see, nor concerning which he ever thought.”
In like manner R. Sheshith answered R. Amram, disputing with him and asserting something that was incongruous, in these words; “Perhaps thou art one of those of Pombeditha, who can make an elephant pass through the eye of a needle”: that is, as the Aruch interprets it, “who speak things that are impossible.”
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
Mat 19:24. Easier for a camel, etc. A strong declaration of impossibility (comp. Mat 19:26). This has been weakened in two ways: (1.) by the change of a single letter (in some manuscripts), of the original, altering camel into rope; (2.) by explaining the eye of a needle to mean the small gate for foot passengers at the entrance to cities. The first is incorrect, the second uncertain and unnecessary. The literal sense is not too strong, as both the context and abundant facts show. Our Lord had already spoken of a camel as a figure for something very large (chap. Mat 23:24); and in the Talmud the same saying occurs about an elephant The camel was more familiar to the hearers of the Saviour than the elephant, and on account of the hump on its back, it was especially adapted to symbolize earthly wealth as a heavy load and serious impediment to entrance through the narrow gate of the kingdom of heaven.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
These words were a proverbial speech among the Jews, to signify a thing of great difficulty, next to an impossibility; and they import thus much: “That it is not only a very great difficulty, but an impossibility, for such as abound in worldy wealth to be saved, without an extraordinary grace and assistance from God. It is hard for a rich man to become happy, even by God, because he thinks himself happy without God.”
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Verse 24
A strong mode of expressing extreme difficulty.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
19:24 And again I say unto you, It is {o} easier for a {p} camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
(o) Literally, “it is of less labour”.
(p) Theophylact notes, that by this word is meant a cable rope, but Caninius alleges out of the Talmuds that it is a proverb, and the word “Camel” signifies the beast itself.