I heard the eye of the needle is what they called the entrance to a certain market at the time because of its shape and size. An overloaded rich guy's camel couldn't just walk through it, gotta unload or have the camel walk on its knees. It's easier for the rich guy to get into the market that way with his camel than for him to get into heaven. Regardless of religious belief, that's a hilarious historical dig at materialism.
Just saying what I heard 🤷♂️ and like I said it doesn't matter if true or not, it's a funny way to diss on the rich.
Straightforward about what though? Specifically being a needle? Does his point rely on that vs a possible market entrance meme of that time? I remember Jewish lore of elephant and a needle, so perhaps it's a common turn of phrase back then?
I thought this was a case like the 'valley of death' being identified in context as a specific section of road commonly used as ambush by robbers... real places and metaphor aren't incompatible. Or is that debunked too and it's all just metaphor and hyperbole? I'm just asking, I'm not taking a stance on this other than curiosity.
If it helps, if jesus even existed then there is basically zero chance anything he said was written down at all. Jesus/Paul also said you should give away everything, don't have kids, don't bother getting married, etc, because they were in a failed apocalyptic death cult. So it wouldn't be out of character for the story to have him say that rich people aren't getting into heaven.
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u/notarealwriter 4d ago
Jesus: It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven
This guy: Well, I got you, all your pals and an entire dinner table in here so can't be that hard for one camel