Mark 10:23-30
23 And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!

24 And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!

25 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.

26 And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved?

27 And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.

28 Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee.

29 And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s,

30 But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.

I’m sure you’ve read, or heard of this passage before: 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.

Like much of scripture, this passage comes with a good deal of baggage of interpretation which have been laid onto it, and have gained broad acceptance. A few years back I saw a video ‘explaining’ this passage, whose thesis was that the New Testament was originally written in Aramaic, and that this passage was a proof text for that. ‘This idea doesn’t make any sense,’ they said, ‘in fact it’s obsurd. Jesus would never say something so nonsensical.’ The word ‘camel’ – so they said – in Greek is a homonym of the Aramaic word ‘rope.’ Now if Jesus said it is easier for a rope to go through the eye of a needle then he hasn’t mixed metaphors, or made an obsurd statement. Thus they argued, this was written in Aramaic, and translated into Greek; the Greek translator mistakenly translated the Aramaic word for ‘rope’ with a Greek word that sounds the same. Jesus never made such a silly statement, He was mistranslated from Aramaic.

This is an obscure misconception, and you may never have heard this one. The context alone proves it wrong, because Jesus did, indeed, use drastic comparisons and even hyperbole in His teaching, and it is apparent from the described reaction of those who heard Him that this is what He was doing (regardless of the language He was speaking, or the language it was chronicled in). But beyond that, this misconception doesn’t make sense in the technical sense either. Someone who spoke boh Greek and Aramaic well enough to translate any document would know not to use a hominym from a different language even if they didn’t know that particular word of vocabulary which they needed to translate. Not to mention, this same story appears in all three of the synoptic Gospels (Matt. 19:24, Mark 10:25, Luke 18:25), and it wasn’t until later in history that the bible was compiled into a single book, which means that each one would likely have been translated by different people, and ALL of them got the word wrong in each of these books.

While Christ and the Apostles MAY HAVE spoken mainly in Aramaic, historically, the New Testament is written in Greek.

Another one that you have probably heard about this passage is that ‘the eye of the needle’ was actually the name of a very small gate in Jerusalem’s city wall. This is by far the wider spread misconception, which is also proved wrong by the context. I don’t know whether it is true that the city had a gate which they refered to as ‘the neeedle’s eye,’ I don’t know of any historic document that references such, but even if there were it is evident from the context that this is NOT what Jesus is referring to.

What Jesus said – and what He meant – was that it is easier for a camel to pass through a needle (like a seamster uses) than for a rich man to get into heaven. It is impossible for a rich person to get to heaven, guys.

How do we know this? By looking at the context. Look at the narrative of how those who heard Him responded:

26 And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved?

Whatever Jesus said, they were quote: ‘astonished out of measure.’ That is pretty clear language meaning they were completely baffled as to the impossibility of attaining salvation. Peter actually puts a voice to the bewilderment of those who heard Christ:

28 Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee.

Now, generally we assume that Peter is boasting in this statement: “Look at us though, Lord, we have it all because we love you so much! We’re so much better han the rich, aren’t we?!”

Except that this is obviously not the case in the context, either. Peter is not boasting, he is expressing his bewilderment – and this is evident in that Christ comforts him with the response He gives Peter.

The outlook of the Jews, and the outlook of many Christians in our day is this: ‘Those whom God loves, He blesses.’ Like as Abraham was in covenant with God, and God blessed him with wealth and riches. They had ‘prosperity theology,’ it’s not new to us today (there is nothing new under the sun). They thought that if God loved someone that person would be blessed with riches, so they naturally assumed that the wealthy must be more righteous than they themselves were. So when Jesus used an extreme metaphor, saying in essense that it was impossible for a rich person to get to heaven, they all are crestfallen, as they said here (in the context): “Who then can be saved?”

Now, if by ‘the eye of a needle’ he meant a city gate which was just really small, well then you could guess that a baby camel maybe could crawl through it or something. But that wouldn’t leave them all completely bewildered or ‘astonished out of measure,’ that would be comprehensible. ‘Oh I get it, you can into heaven, it’s just really hard.’

But now Peter gives a voice to their astonishment:

28 Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee.

You see where Peter, and the rest were bewildered was in that they had given up everything to serve the Lord, but even the rich – who must be blessed by God – couldn’t get into heaven. What hope did anyone have?

But Jesus comforts Peter:

29 And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s,

30 But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.

The point Jesus is making is that it is impossible for anyone who follows the ways of the world to get to heaven. They never will. Anyone who loves anything more than they love God will not get to heaven. Not that those who follow Him couldn’t get to heaven. In fact the precursor to this story is a short story of a spiritual guru who has followed the law of Moses his whole life… but he knows that he has not attained the secret of salvation. He asks Jesus what it is: how he can be saved.

Jesus knew the man was rich; He knew that there was something the man was holding before God. Jesus told the man to sell everything he owned, and come follow Him, the he would have eternal life. The question was not about whether the rich man was rich because he had been blessed by God – that misses the point entirely – but whether he was willing to give up everything to follow Jesus.

Are you willing to give up everything to follow Jesus? I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for anyone who will not forsake all and follow Christ to enter the kingdom of God. Impossible.