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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture This type of response is irritating. On such minor matters there is seldom a "most common view among NT scholars today," and I know what the various interpretations are--I am adding my comments to them. Perhaps my being less than emphatic makes me sound like someone who is lost. Let me be emphatic then: Words being confused for others is a common linguistic occurrence--in English it is called a misanthrope... er, malaprope. We have people saying "take it for granite," when the original saying was, "take it for granted." We have people saying "for all intensive purposes," when the original saying was, "for all intents and purposes." In the case of the Needle's Eye statement, unlike "take it for granite" and "all intensive purposes" the statement makes sense as it is. A camel can't make it through a needle's eye and it a rich man can't get into heaven. (You're going to tell me yes he can? Okay, but you might as well deal with the text as it is because a rope can't go through a needle's eye either.) Either way in this case the Greek explanation doesn't work because Jesus was not speaking Greek. What hidden agenda is behind all of this is that during the 20th century (more so the 19th) no one seemed to deal with a text as it was received. Everyone wanted to reconstruct a text. One New Testament commentary on the beatitudes goes so far as to say, Jesus may have said something like this at one time, but he definitely did not say any of these. This is the medieval discussion list--whatever Jesus said, during the middle ages it was believed that he spoke all the beatitudes as they are recorded in the Latin Bibles. This requires commentary on the text as it is, regardless of its alleged prehistory! --V. K. Inman Quoting merum <[log in to unmask]>: > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture > > There is a summary of various explanations for this verse on this web page: > http://www.biblicalhebrew.com/nt/camelneedle.htm. > Lamsa's Aramaic explanation was the one most often heard in my graduate and > post graduate years, but that was a long time ago and I don't know what's > the most common view among NT scholars today. > > Stan Metheny > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "V. Kerry Inman" <[log in to unmask]> > To: <[log in to unmask]> > Sent: Sunday, March 26, 2006 9:44 AM > Subject: Re: [M-R] saints of the day 25. March > > > > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture > > > > Quoting Jim Bugslag <[log in to unmask]>: > > > > > > In a similar vein, I recently read that the Greek word for "camel" is > similar > > > to that for > > > "rope", and that Christ's famous -- and, as it stands, rather curious -- > > > parable about > > > a camel passing through the eye of a needle may have initially been > > > enunciated by > > > Christ himself, in somewhat more sensible terms, as a rope passing > through > > > the eye > > > of a needle. FWIW. > > > Cheers, > > > Jim Bugslag > > > > Response: Doesn't this only work if Jesus was speaking Greek. Isn't the > point of > > the saying the same either way--it's impossible. > > > > V. Kerry Inman > > > > > > > ********************************************************************** > > To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME > > to: [log in to unmask] > > To send a message to the list, address it to: > > [log in to unmask] > > To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion > > to: [log in to unmask] > > In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: > > [log in to unmask] > > For further information, visit our web site: > > http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html > > > > ********************************************************************** > To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME > to: [log in to unmask] > To send a message to the list, address it to: > [log in to unmask] > To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion > to: [log in to unmask] > In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: > [log in to unmask] > For further information, visit our web site: > http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html > ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html