And lo on Thu, 13 Dec 2007 01:57:16 -0000, nemesis  
<nam### [at] gmailcom> did spake, saying:


> The eye of a needle was how a narrow passageway was known at those  
> times.  The camel had to be unloaded of his goods and knee in order to  
> pass.  A rich man unloading of his goods and kneeling is a very unlikely  
> thought.

I think you'll find that's a retrospective explantion. Firstly if it was  
an actual place it would have one name yet Mark and Luke use a different  
term for 'needle'. Secondly if this gate was so well-known for that  
particular propensity the phrase would have stuck yet it occurs later in  
the Babylonian Talmud with elephant replacing camel, thirdly "eye of a  
needle" is used minus camel or elephant to describe a very small place  
later. Forthly you're pointing out that it is possible for the camel to  
pass whereas the rest of the text continues "The things which are  
impossible with men are possible with God", but it wasn't impossible for  
the camel to pass through the "eye of the needle" from your explanation.

Sometimes a needle is just a needle, and a camel just a camel.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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