Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar and Nevim Arith Hayomim:
Malachi 3:7: “Return unto me and I will return unto you said the Lord of Host. But you said, wherein shall we return?”
Talmud, Rabbah 5:3 “”My children, open for me an opening of tenhuvah (repentance) the size of an eye of a needle and I will open a door through which may enter wagons and camels.”
Matthew 19:24-26: “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 the kingdom of God. And when the disciples heard this they were very astonished and said: Then who can be saved? And looking upon them Jesus said to them, With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
We have all heard about the Israeli tourist guides comments about a certain gate in Jerusalem which is called the eye of a needle and that a camel has to get down on it’s knees to crawl through. Will maybe such a gate exist today, but it did not in Jesus day. Such an application is bogus and takes away from a very significant message that Jesus was giving his disciples. A camel going through the eye of a needle is an old Hebrew expression straight out of the Mishnah and Talmud. It means just what it expresses, that it is impossible. However, that is not quite accurate either. The Talmud uses this expression to say that what is impossible in the natural is possible with God.
The Talmud is addressing Malachi 3:7 by pointing out the nature of repentance. It would appear that Jesus could very well have been referring to this Old Testament passage and the teaching of Oral Tradition. The real key to this passage is the Greek word “plousion” which means “rich” in Greek. But interesting enough the Septuagint uses the word plousion for “kavod” when “kavod” is used the context of riches. My Hebrew students should recognize that the word “kavod” means heavy and glory. If Jesus was speaking Hebrew He may very well have been saying that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for the heaviness or glory of man to enter the kingdom of God.
Rich men were about as rare then as they are today so why would the disciples question if anyone could be save if a rich man could not? “Ok a rich man can not be saved but I am part of the 99% that are not rich so there is hope for me.” The answer lies in the understanding that the disciples were Jewish, they were not Christians. The Jew always felt the weight of their sin, as they do today. Jesus, as any good rabbi of His day, could have been making a play on words here using the word “kabod” to mean the weight of sin.
You see this rich man who came to Jesus was wanting eternal life. Eternal life to this man, as to many Jews of that day, represented a state of peace and rest. It did not mean what it means to us in our Western Christian culture, ie., eternal life in heaven. If that were the case Jesus would have said believe on me. Instead, Jesus answers his question directly, keep the commandments. He was showing this man that his lack of peace was due to the weight of sin. The man’s wealth, however, was his glory (another use of the word “kavod”). He had to lay aside his “kavod” for the “kavod” of Jesus. His glory for the glory of God. The disciples picked up on this for, although they were not rich, they had their pride, they had their glory, they had their weight of sin. When Jesus said that it is easier for camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man, or a man burdened with sin to enter the kingdom of God, the disciples were left wondering, “Then who can be saved? We are all burdened with sin.”
But when Jesus used the Talmudic teaching of Malachi 3:7 with the camel through the eye of needle illustration, it made whole bunches of sense. Jesus was saying that it is impossible to remove the heavy burden of sin. It would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for one burdened with sin to enter the kingdom of God. But with God, all things are possible. For if you return to Him in teshuvah (repentance) the size of the eye of a needle, he will make an opening in that needle’s eye that a camel can pass through.
However, Malachi makes it clear that you must take the first step in repentance. There is a story in the Talmud about the rich man who had a falling out with his son such that the son left home. Before long the father sent a message to the son, “Please return home.” The son replied “That is too far to come.” The father sent another message, “Then come as far as you can, and I will meet you.”
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