Debunking the Myth of the "Eye of the Needle" Gate in Jerusalem - a Historical Exploration

raise your hand if you were told by a pastor or church leader that when Jesus said it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God that Jesus wasn't talking about an actual camel going through the eye of a tiny little needle because that's just impossible right but Jesus was referring to a well-known gate in Jerusalem Infamous for its small size called the eye of the Needle and to get a camel through this gate a traveler would have to remove all the baggage from the animal bring it down to its knees and carefully maneuver the animal through the narrow interests almost making it impossible to shimmy through so they say it wasn't impossible for the camel to get through it was just really really really really hard but even when I was a little kid that was something that bothered me it doesn't make any sense why in the world would anyone make a gate that was so small that you would have to remove all the stuff off a camel to get through it it's like me loading up my minivan yeah that's right a rocket Minivan and having a roof rack with all my kids stuff and then when I went to pull into a covered parking lot with a low roof I have to unload everything disassemble my roof rack get the car through then reassemble it on the other side and load everything back into the roof rack when I could have just driven over to another entrance with a higher entryway and spared myself the infuriation if you think about it in Jerusalem there were plenty of gates that people could go in by and not a single one of them were a gate like the eye of the needle and there's no verifiable proof that a gate called the eye of the needle was in existence during the time when Jesus lived I mean even with just a little bit of research assertions regarding the eye of the needle gates in Jerusalem are questionable at best sure there's a small little Orthodox Church alleging to possess the actual gate that Jesus mentioned but it's pretty much just a really small hole in a really old wall and checking out some travel blogs you can find some pics of folks going to various eye of the needle Gates there's no historical record of gates like that prior to the year 1000 concerning first century Jerusalem the complete lack of evidence for the existence of such a gate it's irrefutable also if the eye of a needle referred to a specific gate then it would be titled as such and that becomes a problem when examining these stories in Greek you know the language the gospels were actually written in because Matthew 19 Mark 10 and Luke 18 refer to the eye of the needle in different ways both Matthew and Mark refer to this needle as a Tailor's needle but use different language to talk about the needle's eye but Luke refers to it as a term for a doctor or a surgeon's needle instead of that of a tailor and that presents a problem because if they're referring to a specific gate one or two of them are very very wrong but if they are using different language to describe the type of needle familiar to them well that's not as big of a deal and then there's the problem of attestation the earliest legitimate unquestionable attestation of the eye of the needle referring to a specific gate comes from Thomas Aquinas who in the 13th century said that Anselm of Canterbury wrote about it in the 12th century but nobody can find Anselm's reference to it and we're still talking 12th century that's 1200 years after Jesus and considering Anselm lived in England which is pretty far away from Israel to chances are slim but there are some that say Ansel may have gotten the idea from a misreading of Jerome of the 4th Century Fort of Matthew 19 by this saying it is shown to be not difficult but impossible for if in the same way that a camel cannot pass through the eye of a needle so a rich man cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven then no rich man will be saved but if we read Isaiah how camels of Midian and if I come to Jerusalem with gifts and offerings and those that were previously bent and distorted by the deprivity of vices entered the Gates of Jerusalem we will see how even these camels to which the rich are compared when they have laid aside their heavy burdens of sin and the crookedness of their whole body they can enter through the narrow and straight road that leads to life see truth is for the last 2000 years people have been reading this verse trying to find a way around it we humans like money because we believe money and resources opens every door for us we have put our faith in our possessions and our money to move mountains for us and to make Pathways open up and that's what this is about because when you read in context just meant exactly what's written Jesus said this in response to a young man that came to Jesus wanting to know what good deed he had to do to gain eternal life did you get that what good deed must he do but do our works gain us entry into the kingdom of God no it's a free gift we receive when we believe but if you want to earn it out of your own power well in response to this good deed question Jesus replies well then keep the Commandments and the young man replies well which ones you know because there's like 613 of them Jesus even helps Mountain Narrows them down don't murder commit adultery steal or lie honor your father and your mother and love your neighbor as you love yourself that's not enough and the man knows that because he replies I have kept all of these what am I still missing is this replies wow that would be perfect can we be perfect interesting right but if you want to be perfect go sell your possessions and give them money to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and then come and follow me and the wealthy young man left a shot for he had many possessions and he wasn't willing to part with what he held must dear then Jesus says truly I tell you it will be hard for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven again I tell you 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 and the disciples freak out who then can be saved they say and Jesus looked at them and said with Mortals this is impossible but with God all things are possible what you rely on and hold on to outside of God and who God says you are will not help you enter the kingdom the problem of the rich is that in the physical world money and resources make doors open for them and it's okay in the physical world it does it's not a bad thing but the problem is the more wealth people tend to get the more they depend on that wealth and place their identity and that wealth and then the physical makes perfect sense the world has worked like that for thousands of years but the Kingdom of Heaven is much more than mere physical matter and it's Eternal not temporal and the true Kingdom cannot be bought no matter how much money you throw at it Jesus is intentionally using an absolutely absurd image to talk about that impossibility your stuff won't help you see the kingdom it won't open that door for you but God will God makes the mortally impossible and Jesus is saying that anything physical that we are willing to hold on to in faith other than God ain't gonna cut it it's not gonna make a way possible because trying to enter the kingdom of God through mortal means is pointless but With God all things are possible because it's not about what you've done it's about what God has done for his children and is still doing it's not about your possessions your wealth what you're doing and what you want to hold on to you got to let all this stuff go that's for Mortals it is impossible God all things God bless

Channel: Awake to Dream

Views: 1,585

Keywords: eye of the needle, gate, jesus, jerusalem, luke, mark, matthew

Id: M-KszQ6vP1Q

Length: 8min 26sec (506 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 22 2023