...than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven.
Matthew (19:24). This is probably Jesus's trippiest
analogy in the
Bible. It was definitely said, as at least three
Biblical authors heard it. There are two explainations given by theologists for such a seemingly whacked statement.
First off, there was a city gate in the walls of Jerusalem known as "The Eye of the
Needle". Presumably, it was very difficult for a man riding a camel to squeeze through the narrow opening. There are two accounts of this, one being where the
camel had to go through on his
knees, or the camel had to go through
unburdened. Either way, it was
difficult.
The other explaination was that it was simply a very weird
translation error. The
Greek (the language of the original bible work) word for
camel is
kamelos. The (at the time new) Greek word for
cable was
kamilos. Kamilos was typically used to mean a sailor's
rope. The pronounciation at the time would have been nearly
identical, as around that time, that word was to be changed to the more
modern Greek pronounciation. The
translators may have shrugged it off as a
writing error, or it may have been misconstrued by the re-telling of the
stories.
Either way, it is hard to tell what
Jesus's original meaning was. Contemporary
religious scholars (including my not-so-scholarly self) consider it to be the
mistranslation, and that while it is not impossible (as the mistranslation seems) for the rich to get into
heaven, it is assumed that Jesus meant to say it is difficult, with much more perserverance needed, as it would be to get a
cable through the
eye of a needle.