You know how, growing up, there are all these little stories you hear about or read about that stick with you? One of those, for me, was the “eye of the needle” story, based upon this passage from the Bible:
“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.” — Matthew 19:24
The explanation, which I heard in Sunday School several times, went something like this: Jerusalem would shut their gates at nightfall, and the only door through which people could pass after dark was very small, referred to as “the eye of the needle”. If one wished to take a camel through it, one would first have to strip the camel of all baggage, and have it kneel and crawl through the person-sized hole. Thus, to “go through the eye of the needle” meant to metaphorically strip oneself of all worldly belongings and enter into God’s presence on your knees.
Poetic, no? Unfortunately, though very nifty from a “teaching a religious principle” perspective, it’s a complete fabrication. I received this little blurb from my acquaintance Ken Clark about this topic:
When we were in Jerusalem a few years ago we asked several different tour guides (Christian and Jewish–LDS and non-LDS) about the door in the gate named “Eye of a Needle;” and they were unanimous in declaring that the eye of the needle is not named after a door in the city wall. I hated to hear that because I used to use the “camel on the knees” interpretation all the time and thought it was cool. After I took a little Hebrew at a synagogue I learned that religious hyperbole (exaggeration) was common with the Semitic people. Rabbis used it because it made a point so plain that listeners couldn’t misinterpret his meaning. For instance, when Jesus said to first remove the beam from your own eye, before looking for the mote in your brother’s eye, it was intended to be a gross exaggeration; much like the camel through the eye of a needle.
I thought he was wrong, at first. So I looked it up, and sure enough, there’s a page on biblicalhebrew.org, among others, about this very topic. So now a useful little piece of sermon material — right up there with the “how to boil a frog” urban legend, and the fastest growing church legend — has now joined many peers in the “well-intentioned falsehood” pile in my brain.
Small things, tiny things really, seem to make so much of a difference in life. I mourn the little losses sometimes. I mean, it’s better to be informed than remain ignorant.
I think.
But still, sometimes I miss being ignorant. You can’t un-learn what you’ve learned just because you want to. You can’t believe something true which you know to be false, just because someone you respect told you it was true.
— Matthew P. Barnson – – – – Thought for the moment: God is the tangential point between zero and infinity. — Alfred Jarry
I’ve had that happen, too,
I’ve had that happen, too, mourning the loss of something so symbolic when I found out that the moment in history it was based on was a fabrication.
Like lemmings, for instance. My high school director would chew us out, calling us lemmings who couldn’t think for themselves on stage, and that we’d all happily walk into the orchestra pit if someone who looked like she knew what she was doing walked off the edge first. It remains a put-down that I still use today: “Lemming.”
What a shame that it all turned out to be just a Disney hoax. That Lemmings have, in fact, nothing in common with Heaven’s Gate at all.
But here’s the brighter way of looking at the issue: Why should a symbol or metaphor be any less powerful just because it’s not historical? The concept of forcing a camel on its knees through a small hole in the gate is a fantastic image, and will remain spiritually moving, regardless of whether or not it actually happened.
The power lies in the symbol, not the event, and something doesn’t have to be “real” in order to be True.
—————————– Follow up to your Thought for the Moment: “God is a paradox, not an inconsistency.” Deborah Fabule
—————————– “I can kill you with my brain…” Arthur Rowan
Eye of the needle..
I had never heard this story.. I had heard that it was a saying (otherwise what an aobscure thing to say.. but thats cool too) – like hey that’s “cool”, does not mean it is of a low temperature, or “we were just hangin out” has nothing to do with hanging..
The point is that its very very hard, nigh impossible.. Even if it were referring to a door.. it is dangerous (and bad interpretation) to then extrapolate that it means that what Jesus REALLY meant was that you need to strip yourself of worldly posessions.
Even if jesus thought this was true, even if he were to say it elsewhere, this particular verse doesn’t say that.. its just saying its very hard.
So whether or not the door thing was true wouldn’t changet the meaning for me. And if it turns out there is no such expression, all it means for me is that Jesus chose a pretty cool analogy that is weird, like me!
Eye of the needle
Photo of an “eye of the needle” door, guess they do exist! http://www.cloudbyday.org/greatpyramid.htm