Evidence Matters

For years, Christians have explained Jesus’ statement about a camel passing through the eye of a needle by pointing to a small gate in Jerusalem. According to the story, a camel could pass through this gate only after its load was removed and it knelt down. The lesson is usually that entering the kingdom of God is difficult, but possible with enough humility and effort.

The explanation is memorable, which made me curious about where it came from. I looked for the gate in descriptions of first-century Jerusalem. I looked for early Christian writers who mentioned it. I looked for evidence that the people hearing Jesus would have understood “the eye of a needle” as the name of a gate.

I could not find it. The earliest evidence for the Needle Gate explanation does not appear until roughly a thousand years after Jesus. A later tradition may be interesting, but it cannot tell us what Jesus’ original audience understood unless there is evidence connecting it to their world.

Fortunately, Jesus did not leave us guessing. After He said it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God, the disciples were astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus answered, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

The Needle Gate explanation changes the illustration from impossible to difficult. A burdened camel might squeeze through a narrow gate if it kneels, unloads, and works hard enough. But that is not Jesus’ explanation. He says salvation is impossible with man.

Wealth will not save us. Determination will not save us. Morality will not save us. Nothing about us can accomplish what only God can do. The point is not that salvation requires extraordinary effort. The point is that salvation requires God.

Tradition can help us understand history when tradition is supported by evidence. History can help illuminate Scripture when it actually belongs to the world of the text. Neither one is our authority, and neither should be used to soften what Jesus plainly explained.

The historical claim did not survive investigation, but the passage did not lose anything when the tradition was removed. Jesus’ words became clearer. What is impossible for man is possible with God.