MATTHEW 19:24 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“And again I say unto 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.”
Again I tell you, 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. The camel-through-the-needle's-eye is the most striking image of impossibility in the Gospels: not merely difficult but humanly impossible. The needle's eye as a small gate in the Jerusalem wall is a later interpretation without ancient support; the image is deliberately the most extreme available comparison for impossibility.
Church Fathers on Matthew 19:24
The Lord took occasion from this rich man to hold discourse concerning the covetous; 'Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, &c.'
What He spoke was not condemning riches in themselves, but those who were enslaved by them; also encouraging His disciples that being poor they should not be ashamed by reason of their poverty.
To have riches is no sin; but moderation is to be observed in our havings. For how shall we communicate to the necessities of the saints, if we have not out of what we may communicate?
Read all 17 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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