And again I say to 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.
It.
Matthew 19:26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.
Matthew 23:24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
Jeremiah 13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
it is easier for a camel
The camel was the largest animal commonly seen in Palestine, making it a fitting metaphor for something large and cumbersome. This imagery would have been familiar to Jesus' audience, highlighting the impossibility of the task being described. The camel is often used in biblical literature to represent wealth and burden, as seen in Genesis 24:10 where camels carry the wealth of Abraham.
to pass through the eye of a needle
The "eye of a needle" is a metaphor for something exceedingly small and narrow. Some interpretations suggest this refers to a small gate in Jerusalem, but there is no strong historical evidence for such a gate. The phrase is likely a hyperbolic expression to illustrate the impossibility of the task. This hyperbole is consistent with other teachings of Jesus, such as straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel (Matthew 23:24).
than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
This statement challenges the common Jewish belief that wealth was a sign of God's favor. Jesus turns this notion on its head, suggesting that reliance on wealth can be a spiritual hindrance. The kingdom of God is a central theme in Jesus' teachings, representing God's sovereign rule and the fulfillment of His promises. The difficulty for the rich to enter the kingdom is echoed in other scriptures, such as 1 Timothy 6:9-10, which warns of the dangers of wealth leading to spiritual ruin. This teaching calls for a heart posture of humility and dependence on God rather than material riches.
Jesus has just watched the rich young ruler walk away sorrowful (Matthew 19:22). Turning to His disciples, He repeats Himself: “Again I tell you…”
• Repetition signals certainty, the way Pharaoh’s dream was “repeated to Pharaoh twice because the matter has been firmly decided by God” (Genesis 41:32).
• Jesus often doubles His statements for emphasis—“Truly, truly” (John 3:3).
Those standing nearby cannot miss that the Lord is underscoring an unchangeable, God-given truth.
By picking something “easier,” Jesus sets up a comparison that will end in the humanly impossible.
• He uses similar logic in Matthew 17:20, where moving a mountain is “easier” than unbelief making a task impossible.
• The disciples will instantly sense that whatever follows must be extraordinarily hard.
A camel is the largest land animal in Palestine—towering, stubborn, unforgettable.
• Mark 10:25 and Luke 18:25 record the same picture; all three Gospels keep the camel intact, signaling a literal image.
• The contrast between bulky camel and tiny needle grabs attention every time it is read.
The verb pictures movement from one side to the other, suggesting transit or entry.
• Israel “passed through the sea on dry ground” (Exodus 14:21-22); yet what was miraculous for them is declared impossible for the camel.
• The disciples are about to discover that entry into God’s realm demands a miracle of even greater proportion.
A sewing needle’s eye is minuscule; no gate, postern, or night door is in view—just a literal needle.
• Jesus elsewhere speaks of a “narrow gate” (Matthew 7:13-14) and “narrow door” (Luke 13:24), but here He shrinks the opening to a pinpoint.
• The image forces the mind to accept sheer impossibility; there is no loophole for human ingenuity.
Riches tempt the heart toward self-sufficiency and divided loyalty.
• “You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24).
• “Those who want to be rich fall into temptation and a snare” (1 Timothy 6:9-10).
• “He who trusts in his riches will fall” (Proverbs 11:28); James 5:1-3 warns that wealth corrodes.
The obstacle is not money itself but the grip it so easily gains on the soul.
Entrance is God’s sovereign gift, never earned, purchased, or negotiated.
• Jesus told Nicodemus, “No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5).
• After many tribulations “we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22), and that doorway swings on grace, not gold.
• Peter writes of “a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom” (2 Peter 1:11), offered only through Christ.
Jesus paints an unforgettable word-picture: the bulkiest creature in Palestine trying to squeeze through the tiniest opening imaginable. The scene shouts that human wealth or effort cannot unlock heaven. Salvation is a miracle of God’s grace, granted when hearts stop clutching possessions and start trusting Christ alone.
(24) It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.--Two explanations have been given of the apparent hyperbole of the words. (1.) It has been conjectured that the Evangelists wrote not ??????? (a camel), but ??????? (a cable). Not a single MS., however, gives that reading, and the latter word, which is not found in any classical Greek author, is supposed by the best scholars (e.g., Liddell and Scott) to have been invented for the sake of explaining this passage. (2.) The fact that in some modern Syrian cities the narrow gate for foot-passengers, at the side of the larger gate, by which wagons, camels, and other beasts of burden enter the city, is known as the "needle's eye," has been assumed to have come down from a remote antiquity, and our Lord's words are explained as alluding to it. The fact--to which attention was first called in Lord Nugent's Lands, Classical and Sacred--is certainly interesting, and could the earlier use of the term in this sense be proved, would give a certain vividness to our Lord's imagery. It is not, however, necessary. The Talmud gives the parallel phrase of an elephant passing through a needle's eye. The Koran reproduces the very words of the Gospel. There is no reason to think that the comparison, even if it was not already proverbial, would present the slightest difficulty to the minds of the disciples. Like all such comparisons, it states a general fact, the hindrance which wealth presents to the higher growths of holiness, in the boldest possible form, in order to emphasise its force, and leaves out of sight the limits and modifications with which it has to be received, and which in this instance (according to the text on which the English version is based) were supplied immediately by our Lord Himself (Mark 10:24).Verse 24. - Again I say unto you. The disciples, St. Mark notes, "were astonished at his words," so he proceeds to state the startling proposition more unreservedly and energetically. It is easier for a camel, etc. This is a proverbial expression for an impossibility. A similar proverb is found in many countries, only substituting another great animal instead of the camel, e.g., the elephant. From taking a too literal view of the passage, some commentators have invented a gate at Jerusalem, low and narrow, designed only for foot passengers, which was called "the needle's eye." Others have remedied the supposed absurdity by reading κάμιλος (if, indeed, there is such a word) "rope," for κάμηλος, as if we were to say cable instead of camel. But there is no difficulty in the expression. Such hyperboles and paradoxes are common in all languages (comp. Matthew 23:24). The impossibility, indeed (as ver. 26 shows), is relative, but the warning is none the less real and terrible. The Lord says that the possession of riches prevents the owner from following him, and endangers his eternal salvation; for that is what it comes to. In St. Mark (whether the words are genuine or not is uncertain) we find a limitation introduced: "How hard it is for them that trust in riches!" Now, this is the effect of riches; men learn to trust in them, to deem that their earthly state is secure, that change and chance will not affect them, that they are, so to speak, independent of Providence; they love the world which is so good to them and so pleasant in their eyes, and they have no earnest longing for a better home. Such is the natural consequence of the possession of wealth, and that which makes the impossibility of entrance into the kingdom.