199 Parallels

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This page forms part of the resources for 199 Kingdom and Riches in the Jesus Database project of FaithFutures Foundation

Crossan Inventory | 199 Literature | 199 Parallels | 199 Commentary | 199 Poetry | 001 Images


Acts of Peter and Andrew

The Christian apocryphal text takes up the saying about the eye of the needle and actually has Peter perform a miracle in which a camel passes back and forth through the eye of a needle in front of a pagan opponent:

SOURCE: Comparative Religion web site


Samuel Lachs Rabbinic Commentary, (331f) mentions the following partial parallels:

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, etc. This is an obvious folksaying to illustrate a nearly impossible task or something extraordinary. In the Talmud we find a similar expression, "an elephant passing through a needle's eye" [B. Ber. 55b, B. BM 38b], referring to an impossible dream or over-subtle dialectics.
See also Abrahams, Studies II, p. 208, where he cites a contrasting passage from a difficult text, PR 15(70a), "The Holy One said: Open for Me a door as big as a needle's eye and I will open for you a door through which you may enter tents and (?)." Cf. also Cant. R. 5.2. One suggestion is that it may be kirka'ot of Isa, 66.20, where the meaning is probably "dromedaries." "If this be so the parallel, or rather contrast is striking. The repentant sinner opens a needle's eye to God, and God opens a gate in which tents and camels might camp. The figure almost seems employed as a foil to the Gospel passage quoted." Others have explained that in Syriac/Aram., "camel" could be a misreading of "rope."


The following example of the saying is found in the Quran, and in this case the item that cannot pass through the eye of a needle is a rope rather than a camel:

To those who reject Our signs and treat them with arrogance, no opening will there be of the gates of heaven, nor will they enter the garden, until the rope can pass through the eye of the needle: Such is Our reward for those in sin. (Al-A'raf 7:40)