In this proverbial saying the evangelists vary in expression in reference to the needle and the needle-eye, though one might have looked for stereotyped phraseology in a proverb. The fact points to different Greek renderings of a saying originally given in a Semitic tongue. τρυμαλιᾶς, from τρύω, to rub through, so as to make a hole. According to Furrer, proverbs about the camel and the needle-eye, to express the impossible, are still current among the Arabs. e.g., “hypocrites go into paradise as easily as a camel through a needle-eye”; “He asks of people that they conduct a camel through a needle-eye” (Wanderungen, p. 339).

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Old Testament