“You guys know it’s impossible for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, right? Do you yokels not know how to decipher an analogy?”
P.S. If anyone ever throws the “It was the name of a gate in Jerusalem” at you, those kinds of gates are called wicket gates and were not invented until about 1000 years after the Gospels were written. The verse means what it plainly says: it’s impossible.
It seems more likely that it’s a mistranslation of “thick rope”, which is basically the same as the word for “camel” in Aramaic. It makes way more sense that way. Why would a camel go through the eye of a needle? That’s just absurd. A rope is the same kind of thing you would put through the eye of the needle, it’s just way too thick. And the fact that a single fiber from a rope could fit if you peeled away all the excess, makes it a much more apt metaphor.
I mean it still works since a camel (the animal) wouldn’t fit anyway. And can be interpreted as a possession.
Sure it still kinda works, it’s just not a very sensible metaphor that way.
Also the text says
When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
That’s not a metaphor. The camel thing was a colorful metaphor to demonstrate the point.
That’s luke 18:22
Most people who call themselves Christians do a piss poor job of it. Some of them then go “oh well I’ll be forgiven it’s okay”. That’s not really following the intent. That’s trying to take advantage of someone’s kindness.
This is why I stopped being Christian. I recognized that whatever good in me would be forever obscured if I used God as a shroud, and I was 100% prone to simply saying ‘sorry God, nbd yeah?’ .
It’s also the reason I just don’t trust Christians or Christian knockoffs (Mormons). You can’t.
Citation needed
Also, more amateur-ish, but trying to get a scoping overview over the arguments against the gate theory: https://classictheology.org/2021/10/12/through-the-eye-of-an-actual-needle-the-fake-gate-theory/
Thank you
Phlegmwads?
