What's up, my friends? I'm Matt. This is the 10 minute Bible Hour podcast. I keep talking

about the idea of this list of the phrases from the book of Matthew that are the most

famous beyond the boundaries of Christianity and beyond the boundaries of people who study

the Bible and are into this stuff. Because there's a bunch of language in the book of

Matthew that has leaked out into the larger world. And I think the passage we've been

looking at for the last few days here, Matthew 19 specifically, verse 24, has got to be

in the top 10, right? But you know the one I'm talking about, it's Jesus talking to his disciples

after the rich young ruler he was talking to decides not to sell all of his stuff and

give it to the poor and he walks away sad. And then Jesus says, I tell you the truth, it's

hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. This is a part I think is real famous

right here. Again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle

than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. We've discussed the contextual, obvious,

clear meaning of this passage at great length over the last few days. And yesterday, we

looked carefully at one of the alternative interpretations of this passage that what

Jesus meant to say or what he actually said here was a thick, heavy rope. And the word

looks a little bit like the word for camel. And so maybe that's what he actually meant.

But the bigger thing that you will hear people do with this passage with great frequency.

This is an idea that is permeated Christian writing and Christian teaching for generations.

And that is this interpretation that what Jesus meant here is that the eye of a needle

does not refer to an actual needle that you could hold in your hand that has a teeny tiny

little opening. But the rather it refers to a long, forgotten gate that we did not remember

for a thousand years, but that everybody in the original audience would have known about.

...