Archaeologists: There are too many camels in the Bible, out of time and out of place

[stopbush]

83. There are some interesting interpretations of that bon mot.

One is that the "eye of the needle" was an entry way into Jerusalem where camels had to bow their heads to get through. Another is that the Hebrew word for "camel" actually refers to a thick rope that was threaded through a large needle that was used to bind boats together.

"An alternative linguistic explanation is taken from George M Lamsa's Syriac-Aramaic Peshitta translation which has the word 'rope' in the main text but a footnote on Matthew 19:24 which states that the Aramaic word gamla means rope and camel, possibly because the ropes were made from camel hair. Evidence for this also comes from the 10th century Aramaic lexicographer Mar Bahlul who gives the meaning as a "a large rope used to bind ships". (cf. http://www.aramaicnt.org/HTML/LUKE/evidences/Camel.html)

In either interpretation, the message is that while getting a camel through the eye of a needle is difficult, it is not impossible.

See here: http://www.biblicalhebrew.com/nt/camelneedle.htm