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Eye Of A Needle

Searching about this particular subject, I came across a couple of very interesting sites that talks about the Scripture where Jesus says "And again I say unto you, 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." (Mt. 19:24)

Now, through the years we have heard in Church that the "eye of a needle" was in fact a small gate in Jerusalem and it was very difficult for a camel to pass, there are actually variations of this explanation: some say the camel had to unburdened before passing and other says only the camel could pass through on its knees. The truth is that there is no evidence whatsoever that such gate ever existed.

"As Hugh Nibley puts it in his own inimitable way, this gate idea was "invented by an obliging nineteenth-century minister for the comfort of his well-heeled congregation." This is one of those notions Nibley calls a "para-scripture": a tale that is widely but wrongly circulated among the Saints as scriptural."

https://www.bycommonconsent.com/2006/04/a-c...edle/#more-1815

So what is the "eye of the needle" then?

"A second possibility is that Jesus actually used the word "rope," the Greek form of which (kamilos) is similar to the word used for "camel" in Matthew 19:24 (kamelos) [Matt. 19:24]. The rope, after all, is just a larger version of string or thread, which one would expect to use with a needle.

A third possibility is that Jesus really meant to say "camel" and that his speech was deliberate hyperbole-exaggeration for the purpose of emphasis-common in that part of the world. Dummelow, for example, cites the Greek saying, "It is easier to hide five elephants under one's arm," and the Latin, "More easily would a locust bring forth an elephant." Alongside these, he notes the tradition in which one rabbi said to another, "Perhaps thou art one of those of Pombeditha, who can make an elephant pass through a needle's eye." The parallel with Jesus" statement is remarkable, suggesting a lingering use in Judaism of this particular kind of hyperbole. (J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible, New York: MacMillan, 1973, pp. 689-90.)

Evidence suggesting that hyperbole may have been intended when Jesus spoke of the camel and the needle's eye comes from the fact that his hearers understood the impossibility of the statement and "were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?" To this, Jesus replied, "With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible." (Matt. 19:25-26; italics added.)"

https://library.lds.org/nxt/gateway.dll/Mag...#036;3.0#LPTOC2

This Scripture seem to be one of those that several leaders had something different to say about but it's interesting to notice how we use it in Church thinking is correct but actually there is no evidence of it.

What are your thoughts?

Needle Of Eye

I guess that I don't pay much attention to this scripture, exactly because I have heard so many explanations for it. Many of those explanations certainly sound very self-serving for the rich people.

I do compare it with Jacob 2:17-19

Riches CAN be good. Abraham was very wealthy. But it is probably one of the easiest ways to become the most corrupt. I think that it takes eternal vigilance to avoid corruption if one is wealthy.

Eye Of A Needle Studies Doctrine Mormon

I think that the scripture say that it says. Its easier to put a camel throught the eye of a needle then for a rich man to get into heaven. most translations use this. even if it is a "rope" it still has the same meaning, in that it can't be done.
As Nibley puts it in approaching Zion, wealth is ok if along a everyone has it. I think his words in approaching Zion summ it up on this passage.