This week’s article was difficult to decide on. Not because I couldn’t think of something to write about. That list is long and often daunting. No, it was because I wondered whether the topic was too big a challenge to take on for my weekly article. Those of you who have followed the series know that I’ve been participating in a study of Matthew in the New Testament. My fascination with the Bible continues. Its vastness is never-ending and often confounds me. Part of what motivated me to read the Bible at first, and start to study it, was to search out its inconsistencies. For example, one apparent omission I’ve repeated a few times in the series is why are the pyramids not in the Bible? The conclusion I drew I hinted at in last week’s article. But what I have learned is that the Bible never contradicts itself. If I think I’ve found something that seems like a contradiction—which is the subject of this week’s article—than I haven’t gone deep enough and understood what is really being said. I can’t think of another text that is written in this manner, which therefore makes me think a force mightier than human, the hand of the Almighty, is involved. Not very scientific but then again love isn’t scientific either and I know it’s real.
To start, the New Testament is filled with parables spoken by Jesus. Some claim there are more than thirty parables in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, while other estimates are closer to fifty. Jesus talked and taught in parables, which are not only difficult to understand but often misunderstood and the theme of this article. An example might be in Matthew 19:24 where Jesus said, “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” Today, we see this physically and materially as an impossibility, as a camel simply cannot pass through the eye of a knitting needle, never mind a sewing needle. Many interpret the parable strictly as a rich person cannot get into heaven. Or more generously, that a rich person must turn away from their wealth, which gets in the way of their following God, before even getting a chance at heaven. In ancient times, however, “the eye of a needle” was a narrow gateway into Jerusalem. Consequently, the interpretation is seen as metaphorical for the effort required by a wealthy traveller having to unload his worldly goods from his camel in order to enter Zion, as synonymous with Israel and Jerusalem.
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