Camels and Needles - Yet Again

Here we go again. "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." Yet another get-out clause debunked, this time by Francois Bovon, one of the great scholars on Luke's Gospel.

 

"In order to make the outrageous comparison with the camel more tolerable, the suggestion has been made, from ancient times on down to the present, of reading κάμiλος, "ship's rope" or "ship's cable", used to tie an anchor to a boat, instead of κάμηλος. camel (the two words were probably already pronounced the same way, due to the phenomenon known as itacism). In fact if this image is thus rendered more logical it still loses none of its radicalness. It is not any easier for a large rope than a camel to go through the eye of a needle...The maxim is clear; there is no entrance to the Kingdom of God for rich people. Their only "out" is to distribute to the poor."

(Francois Bovon, Commentary on Luke, vol.2, page 567-8)

 

In a fascinating section on how this text has been interpreted (which includes interaction with Bonhoeffer, Barth, Rahner and John Paul II) Ulrich Luz concludes: "the obedience of discipleship must fundamentally alter the way we deal with our own money, because money governs the world, and following Jesus is love's protest against this 'governance'" (Luz, Matthew, vol.2, page 522)

 

That, I think, takes us to the radical heart of the values of the Kingdom of God, the radical edge of Jesus' teaching, and the cost of discipleship in a world where money is god. "Following Jesus is love's protest against this 'governance'"