📖 Biblical Definition
The camel is the large hump-backed desert ruminant — essential to commerce and patriarchal travel across the ancient Near East, the great cargo-bearer of the trade routes. In Scripture it appears as the wealth-marker of Abraham (Genesis 12:16; 24), Job (3,000 camels — Job 1:3), and Eastern kings; it traditionally bore the Magi’s caravan to Bethlehem (Matthew 2). Christ uses the camel in two of His sharpest hyperboles. "Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel" (Matthew 23:24) — Pharisaical scruple over trivia while swallowing scandal. And: "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" (Matthew 19:24).
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
CAM'EL, n.
expand to see more
A large quadruped used in Asia and Africa for carrying burdens, and for riders. The camel has on his back a hunch or protuberance, and is remarkable for his power of enduring thirst.
📖 Key Scripture
Genesis 24:10 — "The servant took ten camels of the camels of his master, and departed."
Matthew 19:24 — "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."
Matthew 23:24 — "Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel."
Job 1:3 — "His substance also was... three thousand camels."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
The rich-camel saying is the most-explained-away verse in modern preaching.
expand to see more
Christ's hyperbole about the rich man and the camel through the needle's eye is one of the most-explained-away texts in modern preaching. Some commentators insist Jesus meant a small gate in Jerusalem called “the eye of the needle” (no historical evidence supports this). The text means what it sounds like: salvation for the rich is impossible by human means — but with God all things are possible. The disciples' astonishment makes sense only if Christ was indeed naming a literal impossibility.
The other camel saying is just as cutting. The Pharisees strained their wine through cloths to filter out tiny insects (gnats) for ritual purity, while embracing massive injustices — swallowing camels. Modern religious people still major in the small and minor on the large. Examine your filter. The Lord is unimpressed with strained gnats next to swallowed camels.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Hebrew gamal (H1581); Greek kamelos (G2574).
expand to see more
H1581 — gamal — camel
G2574 — kamelos — camel
Usage
"The rich-camel saying is the most-explained-away verse in modern preaching; the disciples' shock proves the meaning."
"Examine your filter — if you are straining gnats while swallowing camels, repent of the proportion."
"With God all things are possible — even camels through needle's eyes."