Chapter 181 of 404

A Needle’s Eye

When Jesus’ demand dissuades the prospective disciple from following, Jesus warns that a rich person can enter the kingdom no more easily than a camel can pass through a needle’s eye (Mk 10:25). The multiplicity of subsequent attempts to tone down Jesus’ radical language here¹³⁴ shows the discomfort with this saying among subsequent Christians (who often had means or valued supporters who did). Granted that Jesus’ saying may be intended as shocking hyperbole to seize attention on a particular occasion,¹³⁵ it is also characteristic of Jesus’ teaching style.

Jesus apparently employs a common figure of speech when he speaks of a camel passing through a needle’s eye. In Babylonia, where the largest land animals were elephants, Jewish teachers could depict what was impossible or close to impossible as “an elephant passing through a needle’s eye”;¹³⁶ in Palestine, where the largest land animal and beast of burden was a camel,¹³⁷ describing the impossible as a “camel passing through a needle’s eye” may have been a common expression as well.¹³⁸ The criterion of Palestinian environment supports the wording; the criterion of coherency with Jesus’ other radical sayings supports Jesus speaking in this way. Given the eschatological urgency (characteristic of the Jesus tradition) that adapts the more traditional saying, Vermes thinks the saying authentic.¹³⁹

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